This Thoughts from the Road is brought to you by Ed Cooley’s postgame disgust and is fueled by pre-game chicken parm at Anthony’s and postgame buffalo chicken pocket at East Side Pocket.

• This is a pretty simple game to sum up. Providence got killed on the glass, got beat too often for dribble penetration, gave up too many points in the paint and shot the ball horrifically for a third straight game. Pretty easy to figure out this loss. What isn’t so easy to figure out is: how does Ed Cooley fix it?

• I would be absolutely stunned if there isn’t a lineup change made for Tuesday’s Butler game. The way Cooley was talking in his postgame comments, it was clear he was disgusted with his team’s lack of toughness and another slow start.
• Ryan Fazekas certainly hasn’t been hot from beyond the arc, but he was active in rebounding, getting tips and even grabbing 4 offensive boards. I was surprised he didn’t play more in the second half.
• Cooley did eventually switch to a zone defense but he appeared to do so begrudgingly and only when Dunn got into foul trouble. Seton Hall is not a great shooting team and they were beating the Friars on the perimeter at will. That certainly seemed like a good time to switch to zone. I do think Cooley deserves some criticism for not going zone sooner, but the real criticism needs to be placed on his players because they were still allowing Seton Hall to get in the lane even against the zone. This now makes two straight opponents at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center that got to the rim whenever they wanted and were not met with any semblance of rim protection once they got to the rim. This is a fundamental problem that the Friars need to address.
• Seton Hall took 45% of their shots at the rim and converted at a clip of 59.3% on those shots. That’s an abysmal stat for Providence.
• Kris Dunn is at his best when his assist numbers are high. It means his teammates are making shots. Dunn only had 2 assists in this game and it wasn’t because he was hogging the ball. Ben Bentil did put up 21 points, but 12 of them came at the free throw line. His shooting numbers — 4/15 from the field, 0/5 from beyond the arc — from everywhere besides the foul line were not good. Rodney Bullock has to wake up. Bullock was great in Providence’s impressive road win at Butler, which seems like forever ago. In the rest of the Friars’ Big East games, Bullock has struggled mightily.
• If Dunn, Bentil and Bullock are going to combine for a 13/37 shooting line, Providence is going to struggle to win games.
• Quadree Smith looked to be pretty close to returning to action. He warmed up fully with the team before the game and didn’t show many signs of trouble gripping the ball. He still had his hand wrapped, but it seems like it may just be a matter of getting cleared by the medical staff at this point.
• Jalen Lindsey must have made 10 straight 3-pointers from the right wing of the visitor’s bench side of the floor during warm ups. He got that same attempt during the game and missed badly. Lindsey can’t keep putting up 0/5 stat lines from 3-point range. If he’s going to miss, he needs to shoot less. If he’s going to shoot less, he needs to play excellent defense and rebound the basketball. If he isn’t doing those things, he shouldn’t play as much. Pretty simple equation at this point. Providence is in desperate need of production on offense and defense. If you don’t accomplish one or both of those, your minutes should go elsewhere. Just sayin’.
• The referees, the one’s Cooley called “great” in his postgame remarks, were allowed veritable manslaughter at the rim. I’ll never understand the emphasis on calling a hand check 35 feet from the basket in the spirit of freedom of movement, but allow players inside the paint to slaughter each other. Getting mauled while attempting a shot from 3 feet seems like it should also fall under freedom of movement. This gripe applies to both teams yesterday.
• When I asked Ed Cooley, putting aside RPI and the rest of that stuff, how much does it hurt to lose at home, his response said it all: “Sucks. Plain and simple. There’s nothing else to say about that question. It’s awful.” He’s right. Now let’s see how his team responds on Tuesday night against Butler.

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