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.
This post will serve as the recap and Thoughts from the Road: Church Pew Edition. I attended a wedding during the game and was following the game tracker on my phone, during the mass — sorry I’m not sorry Bridget — and only got a chance to actually watch the game on New Year’s Day. Big thanks to FriarTVfor having the recap available at his site.
This Thoughts from the Road: Couch Edition is brought to you from the very comfortable blue couch at my parent’s house. It was powered by a chicken parm from Rustica and aided by the company of my mom and Declan. With Big East play on the horizon, I am planning to have some more actual Thoughts from the Road that involve me driving to Providence and attending games in person. Stay tuned in 2016.
Kris Dunn returned to the court against UMass and he didn’t leave any clues that he hadn’t played in a game since December 9th. Dunn stuffed the stat sheet with 14 points, 11 assists and 6 rebounds in 24 minutes of action. Dunn got to the rim with ease, made a pair of 3-pointers and had a few highlight reel plays.
Ben Bentil had a big game as I predicted. Bentil set a new career high with 32 points, while notching his 3rd double-double of the season with 11 rebounds. He also had 2 vicious blocks. Bentil was very efficient shooting from the field and free throw line. He went 11/16 from the field, including 3/5 from 3-point range. He was also 7/9 from the line. Bentil’s 32 matches Dunn’s 32 from the season opener for the season high by a single Friar.
Jalen Lindsey scored the first 6 points of the night on two 3-pointers and would sink another from downtown. He also had another strong rebounding game with 8 boards.
Junior Lomomba had a very nice game with 11 points and 6 assists and he did a pretty god job guarding UMass’ high-scoring guards.
Rodney Bullock struggled with foul trouble and only played 5 minutes in the first half and didn’t score. Bullock did some scoring in the second half but he wasn’t really needed tonight. He finished with 8 points and 6 rebounds.
The Friars finish out the non-conference at 12-1, which is a great start to the season. They have a win over #8 Arizona on their non-conference resume and their only loss is to #1 Michigan State. Not a bad start for Ed Cooley’s bunch.
The 12-1 and 10th ranked Friars return to action next Thursday on the road as they open the Big East schedule at historic Hinkle Fieldhouse to take on the 9th ranked Butler Bulldogs on New Year’s Eve. That game tips at 2:30pm EST and is on CBSSN.
Providence was without Kris Dunn for the second straight game even though the All-American practiced a bit during the exam break. Ed Cooley said he is hoping to get Dunn back for the UMass game, but the way this has gone it will likely be a game-time decision Monday night.
Ben Bentil got off to a good start and led the Friars in scoring. Bentil was fed early and often in the first half and was seeing his jump shots fall. He didn’t have as much success from outside in the second half and was poor from the free throw line but he did enough and was the team’s leader again with Dunn sidelined. Bentil was one of 3 Friars to have a double-double in this game.
Rodney Bullock was another double-double man for Cooley against Rider. Bullock didn’t have a flashy game and he didn’t make any overly spectacular plays, but the redshirt sophomore was solid and played hard on both ends. His man-to-man defense left something to be desired, but he scored 16 points, pulled down 11 rebounds, blocked 3 shots and played 38 minutes.
Jalen Lindsey had his first career double-double with 13 points and 13 rebounds on the night. Lindsey’s streaky shooting was on display in this game as he scored 9 of his 13 points on 3 straight made 3-pointers to open the second half before going very cold from beyond the arc.
Kyron Cartwright played a solid game in place of Dunn and made some nice plays going to the rim. Cartwright still overdribbles and takes too many quick shots for my liking, but with Dunn out he is who will be tasked with leading the offense as the point guard.
Drew Edwards followed up his breakout game last Saturday against Bryant with another solid game. Edwards got 17 minutes and didn’t light up the stat sheet this time, but the freshman made good defensive plays and moved the ball well on offense.
The free throw shooting was ugly for Providence. The Friars missed a few front ends of 1 and 1’s and finished the game 11/17 from the charity stripe.
There were some lulls during the game where Providence lacked defensive intensity and the game devolved into what Friar fans with painfully remember as “Keno-ball”. This could be one of the biggest areas that Cooley misses Dunn on the floor. The Friars can’t afford to have these lapses in Big East play.
The 11-1 and 14th ranked Friars return to action Monday night on the road against UMass to close out the non-conference schedule. That game tips at 7pm EST and is on CBSSN.
This Thoughts from the Road: Desk Edition is brought to you from my brand-spanking new home office, complete with my chair that arrived Wednesday just in time for me to be sweating from putting it together at the tip-off.
This game harkened some memories of the 2014-15 Friar season. By the end of the game, I was reminded of Providence’s first Big East road win last season at Hinkle Fieldhouse where Ed Cooley relied on the “all-grit team” lineup of Kris Dunn, Ted Bancroft, Junior Lomomba, LaDontae Henton and Paschal Chukwu. Cooley ran 4 of those 5 guys for the entire 20 minute second half, en route to an impressive Providence road win. That was the good part, the ending. The beginning of the second half reminded me of another of Providence’s Big East road contests from last season: Xavier. Right as the second half was getting underway, Cooley walked off the bench and into the locker room. He would be taken to a Cincinnati hosptial and spent the night there. What ensued was ugly basketball from the Friars while Andre LaFleur at the helm. Providence played sloppy, looked totally out of sync and got overrun by the Musketeers, who would win the game by 9 after the Friars took a 5 point lead into the break. That seemed to be exactly what was happening in the beginning of the second half of this game. Providence had twice as many turnovers as points 8 minutes into the half and they looked lost on offense. Boston College failed to take advantage, the Eagles themselves dealing with their own depletion thanks to a norovirus caught at Chipotle over the weekend. The young Friars managed to do enough on defense and feed Rodney Bullock enough to keep the Eagles at arm’s length before pulling back away in the last 5 minutes.
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