How: Fox Sports 1 (Gus Johnson, Bill Raftery and Erin Andrews) /WEEI 103.7 FM (John Rooke and Joe Hassett)
Game Notes
The Friars and the Blue Jays have obviously never met in the Big East Tournament since this is Creighton’s first year of Big East membership.
LaDontae Henton picked a great time for a season high of 26 points yesterday in the semifinal win over Seton Hall. In 4 career Big East Tournament games, Henton has averaged 16 ppg and 10 rpg.
Bryce Cotton’s 10 assists last night came up just 1 short of the PC record for assists in a Big East Tournament game.
The Friars are 1-3 all time in the Big East Tournament against 2 seeds.
Bryce Cotton joins Friar great Ryan Gomes as the only two Friars to ever be named to the First Team All-Big East more than once.
Providence will be looking for win number 23 tonight. They haven’t won 23 games since they went 24-12 in 1997.
How: Fox Sports 1 (Gus Johnson, Bill Raftery and Erin Andrews) /WEEI 103.7 FM (John Rooke and Joe Hassett)
Game Notes
The Friars and the Pirates have met 7 times all time in the Big East Tournament. Seton Hall has the 5-2 edge in the series and have won the last 4 times with the last Friar victory coming March 6, 1985. The only other time they met in Big East Semifinals, SHU was the 1 seed and beat 5 seed PC 69-60 and then went on to blow Syracuse out of the gym to win the 1993 Big East Tournament Championship.
Bryce Cotton only played 34 minutes in the Big East Tournament Quarterfinal game against St. John’s which was the fewest minutes he has played since a 70-49 victory over Vermont on November 18, 2013.
Providence’s 49 total rebounds in yesterday’s game against St. John’s is the most rebounds they’ve ever had in a Big East Tournament game.
The Friars are 0-2 all time in the Big East Tournament against 8 seeds but both times they were playing the 8 seed as a 9 seed in the first round of the tournament (1992 vs. BC and 2005 vs. West Virginia).
Bryce Cotton joins Friar great Ryan Gomes as the only two Friars to ever be named to the First Team All-Big East more than once.
Providence will be looking for win number 22 tonight. They haven’t won 22 games since they went 24-12 in 1997.
Josh Fortune’s 24 points in yesterday’s game marked a new career high for points scored in a game. In his last 7 games, Fortune is averaging 16.5 ppg, which is double his season average.
Seton Hall’s 2 wins in the Big East Tournament have made them eligible for the NIT should they not go on to win the Big East Tournament and get the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
How: Fox Sports 1 (Justin Kutcher and Tarik Turner) /WEEI 103.7 FM (John Rooke and Joe Hassett)
Game Notes
The Friars and Red Storm have met 5 times all time in the Big East Tournament. PC has a 3-2 edge in the series but the two teams haven’t met in the Big East Tournament since March 6, 1996. The only other time they met in the 4 vs. 5 game, 4 seed PC took down the 5th seeded Redmen, 80-51, on March 5, 1987. I think 1987 was a pretty good year for PC.
Bryce Cotton leads the nation in minutes per game with 40.1. He is averaging a mind boggling 41.9 mpg in Big East contests. Cotton played a total of 754 minutes in the 18 league games this season which gives him 2,385 career Big East minutes played. That number is good for 5th all time in Big East history and 2nd all time for the Friars in the Big East behind Vincent Council’s 2,498 Big East minutes played which is good for 2nd all time in Big East history. Despite the Friars double digit defeat in Omaha on Saturday, Cotton was able to rack up a few more PC all-time records. Saturday’s game was his 126th career game as a Providence Friar. That passes Dickey Simpkins and his 125 career games for most games played all time at PC. He is now the sole owner of the single season minutes played record, passing Billy Donovan and his 1,234 career minutes played in his senior season. Additionally Cotton now owns the record for minutes played in a career, passing Donnie McGrath and his 4,128 minutes played. On the season, Cotton is 9th in the nation in points per game at 21.7, 11th in the nation in total points scored at 674, 21st in the nation in assists per game at 5.9 and 8th in the nation in Free Throws made at 198. Cotton remains in 5th place all time on the PC scoring list with 1,886 career points in a Friar uniform. He surpassed the great Marvin Barnes for 5th all time by hitting a pair of free throws early against Marquette last week.
Bryce Cotton is 2nd in the Big East in scoring (21.7 ppg) and D’Angelo Harrison is 3rd (17.6 ppg).
Bryce Cotton is 1st in the Big East in assists (5.9 apg) and Rysheed Jordan is 12th (3.1 apg).
Kadeem Batts is 3rd (7.7 rpg) and LaDontae Henton is 5th (7.3 rpg) in the Big East in rebounds while Jakarr Sampson is 8th (6.1 rpg).