The Friars will travel down 95 South for their first true road game of the 2015-16 season on Saturday night against the Rhode Island Rams at the Ryan Center. Providence has opened as a road dog for this game despite being ranked in the top 25. The Friars are 4-3 ATS this season and the total has gone Under 4 times out of 7. Rhode Island is 2-3 ATS this season and the total has gone Under 3 times out of 5.
Opening Line
Providence +4
Opening O/U
TBA
Opening Moneyline
TBA
The line moved to Providence +3.5 within an hour of opening.
Two weeks ago Ed Cooley and his staff got the opportunity to take the short trip down 95 South to New Haven for the National Prep Showcase. That was a great opportunity — a short drive down the road — for Cooley and his coaches to watch, evaluate and be seen by high level recruits. Now in early December, Providence’s coaches have an even more local opportunity to watch, evaluate and be seen by high level recruits with the Zero Gravity Prep Classic taking place this weekend in Barrington, RI at St. Andrew’s — a 20 minute drive from Providence’s Smith Hill campus. Providence is still recruiting hard for 2016 — especially big men — but this will also give the staff a chance to get some face time with some members of the classes of 2017 and 2018. Cox Hub will also have live streams of 3 games Friday night.
This Thoughts from the Road: Couch Edition will be less of a game recap and more of a rambling about the week so far and the weekend upcoming for Providence.
On a day when Kris Dunn’s name appeared on two different National Player of the Year Watch Lists, the Friar star guard went bananas on the lowly Hartford Hawks to the tune of 16 points, 14 assists and 10 rebounds. Yup. That’s also known as a triple-double and it’s the second of Dunn’s career. He joins Marvin Barnes and Bob Misevicius as the only Friars in school history to have more than one triple-dub. Dunn looked effortless in accomplishing the feat and also managed to tie his career high in assists in the process. Dunn will surely stick around in the NPOY conversation all season long and he has Providence positioned well heading into the last 5 games of the non-conference schedule.
Kris Dunn got off to a fast start dishing the ball with 11 assists at the break. He notched a double-double after his first made basket of the second half and was on #TripleDoubleWatch for much of his time on the court in the second half. Dunn grabbed his 10th rebound with 6:29 remaining to notch his second career triple-double. Dunn’s other triple-double came on January 29, 2015 against DePaul. Dunn tied his career high with 14 assists in the game and had 16 points on 8/12 shooting. The only other Friars to have two career triple-doubles are Marvin Barnes and Bob Misevicius.
Ben Bentil was impressive on the offensive end of the floor again and finished with 21 points on 9/12 shooting. That marks the fourth straight game with 20+ points for Bentil. Bentil’s streak of 20-point performances is the most consecutive 20-point games since LaDontae Henton accomplished the feat 4 separate times last season. Bryce Cotton had a stretch of 7-straight 20-point games during the 2013-14 season.
Jalen Lindsey made back-to-back-to-back 3-pointers in a 1 minute span beginning at the 5:07 mark of the first half and would finish the game 4/6 from beyond the arc. Lindsey scored 15 points in the game and maybe this is something that will get him going on the offensive end. He also grabbed 8 rebounds.
Ryan Fazekas appeared to injure himself when he took a knee to the thigh at the end of the first half. He didn’t start the second half and was seen riding the exercise bike in the tunnel. He did eventually get some action in the second half but returned to the bike when subbed out. It’s probably nothing but something to keep an eye on with Providence playing their next game in a few days.
The rest of the freshmen got some run in this game and all had some freshmen moments with sloppy play and fouls but it was good for them to get on the floor against some non-teammate competition. Drew Edwards got minutes in the first half before the result was lopsided so he definitely appears to be the closest to cracking the rotation. Tyree Chambers also got some minutes, along with the two walk-on’s Casey Woodring and Tom Planek.
The Friars return to action Saturday against in-state rival Rhode Island at the Ryan Center in Kingston. That game tips at 7pm EST and is on ESPNU.
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