The USBWA has released their midseason watch lists for their three national awards and Kris Dunn finds himself firmly planted on the 20 player watch list for the Oscar Robertson Trophy, given to the National Player of the Year. Dunn is second in the Big East in scoring and leads the league in assists and steals. He also ranks 7th in assists and 2nd in steals nationally. The Oscar Robertson Trophy is voted on by the nearly 1,000 voters that comprise the USBWA and the awards will be presented on April 11, 2016 at the College Basketball Awards gala in Oklahoma City.
Week 11 of the college basketball polls have been released and Providence is heading in the wrong direction for the second straight week after a home loss. The Friars are now 3-2 in Big East play and they will host Butler on Tuesday night before traveling to Philadelphia to take on Villanova at the Wells Fargo Center. This is the first time Providence has been ranked in the AP Poll for 8 straight weeks since the 2003-04 season when the Friars spent the final 8 weeks ranked in the AP Top 25. The Friars moved from 12th to 16th in the AP Poll and from 12th to 17th in the USA Today Coaches’ Poll this week.
ESPN and CBS Sports have released updated brackets on Monday morning and we’ll continue to track the minutae of each bracketology update so you don’t have to.
Joe Lunardi’s ESPN bracket and Jerry Palm’s CBS Sports bracket have very different reactions to Providence’s 1-1 week last week that saw the Friars win at Creighton and lose at home to Seton Hall. Palm has consistently been higher on the Friars than Lunardi since the preseason brackets came out in November.
Providence has been starting more than just the last few games. It happened during the non-conference too. The Friars were able to overcome teams with their superior talent and ability, but Big East play is a different animal. The narrative after the home loss against Marquette on January 5th was: “They didn’t play well, but they played bad and still almost won!” That’s cute. It certainly isn’t the way Ed Cooley is thinking. The slow starts have been exacerbated lately by a lack of offensive firepower that has prevented Providence from making the big comeback that sealed wins earlier in the season. In their last 3 games, Providence is shooting a combined 32% from the field. That won’t cut it against Big East teams most nights. Here’s what I would do to attempt to fix Providence’s slow starts:
Jerry Palm has updated his bracket at CBSSports.com heading into the MLK Weekend’s action. The last Palm bracket I reported on was released on January 11th and featured five Big East teams in the field of 68. The total number of teams in Palm’s field is the same, but he has moved another Big East team up to the 1 seed line, making two teams from the league that have half of the 1 seeds in Palm’s bracket.
Those fans who have been grumbling about the long and slow lines to get into the Dunkin’ Donuts Center will be happy with this announcement. No, the new policy isn’t $1 beers before every home game — damn you, Creighton and your fun policies. This new policy will allow fans to get into their seats 90 minutes ahead of the scheduled tip time. The previous policy only allowed fans entry 60 minutes before the tip. It remains to be seen if this will have any impact on those who wait until the very last second to close their bar tabs at Trinity Brewhouse or Murphy’s, but it should at least alleviate some of the logjam of those who arrive early. Here is the email that Providence’s Athletic Department sent out earlier Thursday:
pcbb1917.com - Providence College Basketball 