The Friars opened Big East play with two wins in two tries last week as they defeated Butler on the road and came home to take care of St. John’s. Providence welcomes Marquette to the Dunkin’ Donuts Center for their 3rd league game in 6 days, before having a week before their next game against Creighton on January 12th. The line has opened and Providence was an 11 point favorite over Marquette. The line quickly dropped to 9 and that’s where it is at most books as of this posting. The Friars are 9-5 ATS this season. Marquette is 5-8 ATS this season.
The Big East Player of the Week honor is staying in Friartown as Kris Dunn was named POW a week after Ben Bentil was given the same weekly award. This is Dunn’s third time being named the Big East’s Player of the Week after the Providence junior was named the award winner in week’s 1 and 3 of the season. Dunn was also the league’s preseason Player of the Year. Dunn averaged 23 points/game, 8 rebounds/game, 7.5 assists/game and 2.5 steals/game in Providence’s 2-0 start in Big East play.
Both ESPN and CBS Sports came out with their inaugural 2016 Bracketology updates on Monday. Joe Lunardi and Jerry Palm are in agreement on the Friars in opponent and location of the First Round game. Each man’s bracket has the Friars facing off against High Point University in Brooklyn in the opening round of the 2016 NCAA Tournament. They do differ on the particular seed, however.
This Thoughts from the Road is brought to you by nachos and pizza from Trinity Brewhouse and is fueled by the hospitality of the Smerkers and their insanely comfortable couch.
Before I get into my thoughts from the actual game against St. John’s, I want to share a text I got from my buddy Charlie: “I think the bandwagon is finally full for this team.” Chaz is right on with that thought. Downtown Providence was absolutely hopping on Saturday. Murphy’s filled up by noon and the wait for a table at Trinity approached an hour. When this season started, Providence vs. St. John’s on a Saturday afternoon of New Year’s weekend being a sellout was not something I would have expected. That’s exactly what happened. Ed Cooley told people he was going to light Providence on fire. If you haven’t gotten onboard, as Cooley suggested, you’re late.
The Dunkin’ Donuts Center was packed for Providence’s Big East home opener against St. John’s. The crowd was a sellout and was pretty loud during the first half. The second half being dominated by whistles certainly stemmed some of the momentum, but overall the crowd was very good.
Kris Dunn showed why all the seats were filled. The Friar star was excellent, hitting step-back 3-pointers and setting teammates up for open looks all afternoon. Dunn finished with a game-high 26 points on 9/17 shooting and added 9 rebounds and 6 assists.
Kyron Cartwright was a big part of Providence building a 43-31 halftime lead. Cartwright was a blur with the ball and had a stretch where he propelled his team to easy buckets. He finished with 11 points on 4/6 shooting.
Ben Bentil was held at bay for large chunks of this game, but the improving big man got going with some buckets inside. He also was 8/9 from the free throw line in the game. Bentil was a rebound shy of a double-double. He had 20 points and 9 rebounds.
Providence figures to jump back into the top 10 in the AP poll after opening Big East play 2-0 with a road win against 9th ranked Butler to start league play off.
The Friars return to action on January 5th against Marquette at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center at 7:00pm EST. The game will be televised on Fox Sports 1.
pcbb1917.com - Providence College Basketball 