During this exciting 5 game win streak for Providence College, people are now starting to talk about Bryce Cotton more and he has gotten a lot of praise for his stat-line during this win streak, the longest such streak in 10 years at PC. That’s all well and good and I love Ice Cotton as much as the next PC fan (students not included), but one young man is constantly overlooked when having these kinds of discussions and even the wacky off-season message board discussions about potential lineups and minutes for the upcoming season and the like. That young man is none other than LaDontae Henton.

Buckets’ stat-line over this 5 game winning streak has been pretty damn impressive too:

Henton

Cotton

Coach Cooley alluded to the fact that he yelled at Henton a lot last week during practice and went on to mention that he was very happy to see him rebound the ball against Xavier. He also put up his first double double since the season opener against Boston College nearly 3 months ago. That’s kind of a shocking thing to see in print because Henton had 20 career double doubles coming into this season in 66 career games. As much as he has been his typical junkyard dog self this season, his game has morphed a bit too. He isn’t pulling down nearly as many rebounds this year (he’s still 5^th in the Big East in RPG) which I would think has something to do with playing more time at the 3 position with the additions of Tyler Harris and Carson Desrosiers. But in turn, his 3 point stroke has become a huge weapon for the Friars.

Even not looking at the above shooting percentage, the eye test will tell you that Buckets hits big shots. I recall a big 3 against St. John’s to quell a Red Storm run during PC’s sole road win during this recent 5 game stretch. He also seems to have a powerful left handed drive in him to get a crucial bucket late in a game.

Most impressively to me is that Henton’s defense has gotten a ton better this year. I’m not saying you’ll see him win defensive POY or anything but he has bought in more and seems to have a much better feel and understanding for positioning and rotations in his 3^rd year under Ed Cooley’s tutelage.

These last 3 weeks have been really run as a Friar fan and I really am happy to see Bryce Cotton garnering more national attention because, frankly, he deserves every bit of it. He should be the Big East POY this year – Doug McDermott or no Doug McDermott. But let’s not forget about Mr. Henton. Let’s not forget about the scrapping and clawing and junkyard dogging that he does for nearly 37 minutes each and every game. He’s a warrior and will have to be THE leader of this Friars squad in 2014-2015. For now though, let’s enjoy this winning streak and hope it continues on the road against Marquette and DePaul. I wouldn’t hate heading up to Providence for Alumni & Family Weekend on February 15^th with PC having a chance to win 11 straight games. But, for now, I’ll take Ed Cooley’s approach.

Let’s go 1-0 today.