The latest episode of the Providence College podcast features Ed Cooley. Host Matt Chittim and Cooley discuss the importance of having a supportive administration, how he and his staff target recruits and Cooley gives his opinion on hardest worker, best athlete, most improved, best defender, best shooter and who would win in a 1 on 1 game of walk-ons.
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Thoughts from the long drive home from Columbus…
Providence led this game for 36:05 of the 45:00 it would take to get an outcome in this Big East battle that required a timeout at one point to clean blood off the court at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in front of 8,250 fans. Providence led by double digits for a fair amount of that 36 minutes of lead time yet the game never felt in control. With Providence leading, 45-35, I asked on Twitter: “anyone else feel like this 10 point lead is really 1?”
That was around the 9:43 mark of the second half. The lead fluctuated between 10 and 6 for awhile after that until a 10 point lead at the 3:12 mark following 2 made free throws by Kris Dunn would evaporate down to 0 when the clock ran out of regulation time. 3 consecutive turnovers, each one more lackadaisical than the last, gave Xavier the ability to come all the way back to force the overtime session.
Continue reading Providence Survives Late Turnovers to Beat Xavier in OT, 69-66
The first 20 minutes at Hinkle Fieldhouse saw a Providence team that was playing the same way they had on the road all season. The story early was turnovers of which the Friars had 6 in the first 9 minutes. Just as they seemed to quiet that issue that other ugly problem that has plagued them on the road came to the forefront: giving up offensive rebounds. Butler led by 7 at the half and Cooley and the Friars were left searching for answers.
On an afternoon that Providence was without two key players in Kris Dunn and Jalen Lindsey Ed Cooley’s bunch had to battle against the Yale Bulldogs. Graduate student Ted Bancroft was the first man off the Friar bench today which is the role Lindsey had been playing. Dunn did not dress for this game while Lindsey was dressed and went through pregame warmups but did not see game action.
Bancroft continued the role he had been playing by knocking down a three pointer and getting the crowd into it early on. He also had a block at the rim on defense that led to a crowd frenzy. Bancroft finished the game with 9 points and 6 rebounds in a season high 27 minutes. The crowd of 8,045 seemed to have a bit of a Thanksgiving hangover as Cooley had to wave his arms asking for noise on more than one occasion.
LaDontae Henton knocked down a number of difficult shots on his way to 29 points. Henton has scored 20 or more points in all but 1 of Providence’s 6 games this season. Tyler Harris was the second leading scorer for Providence with 14 points and added 7 rebounds.
Every time Providence seemed like they were going to open the game up early in the second half Yale had an answer. Many of those answers were made shots with the shot clock running down which had to frustrate the Friar defense. The game sported 10 lead changes but Providence held the lead the entire second stanza.
The game never quite felt in danger until the last 30 seconds when a Yale three pointer cut the lead to 3 with 20 seconds remaining. Henton made 1 of 2 free throws to extend the lead to 4 and a stop and more free throws closed the door on Yale.
Javier Duren led Yale with 21 points as Providence was able to keep Yale’s leading scorer Justin Sears to just 5 points before he fouled out with less than a minute left in the game. Sears scored 31 points against the Friars last season in Yale’s 2 point loss at the Dunk. Kyron Cartwright carried the load at point guard this afternoon playing 39 minutes. He finished with 8 points, 7 assists, 6 rebounds and 4 turnovers.
Providence shot a lot of free throws this afternoon but didn’t shoot a great percentage, 63%, on 25/40. The 6-0 Friars will travel to Lexington, KY immediately following the game to take on #1 ranked Kentucky Sunday afternoon. Ed Cooley indicated Kris Dunn and Jalen Lindsey are both questionable for Sunday.
With this game being looked at by many as the final tune-up game for the Providence Friars before they head south on I-95 to take on Florida State and Notre Dame this weekend at Mohegan Sun it was important for Ed Cooley’s group to play a more complete game than they have in their first two games of the season. That seemed to have been accomplished Thursday night against Navy.
The Midshipmen struggled with Providence size and speed all night and LaDontae Henton got off to a fast start leading the Friars with 10 points in the first half on 4/6 shooting including 2/3 from deep.
Navy led 3-0 and then 3-2 early but that would be the only time the Midshipmen would hold leads in this game. Providence went on an 18 to 1 run to open up a 14 point lead at the 12:24 mark of the first half after that first Navy basket. Providence didn’t allow a lack of effort or freshmen mistakes to derail that lead which is something that occurred their last time out against Binghamton. Providence doubled up Navy at the half, 40-20 despite Henton only playing 12 minutes after picking up his 2nd foul at the 7:11 mark.
The freshmen had their best collective night scoring 29 points total with 18 of those coming from big man Ben Bentil. Bentil was active early on the glass and was often the beneficiary of one of Kris Dunn’s career high 14 assists. Ed Cooley told Vin Parise after the game “I thought [Kris Dunn] was spectacular tonight. I think he controlled the whole game: rebounding, passing, shooting the ball. Kris is trying to get in a rhythm. We have a long way to go but I’m glad we made some strides today.”
Dunn played superb on Thursday night and he characterized it as “one of the best games I’ve played in my career.” He went on to credit his teammates for knocking down shots and allowing him to establish a rhythm on offense. Besides just the eye test of Dunn’s play in this game his stat line was certainly impressive. 12 points on 4/7 from the field to go along with those 14 assists, 7 rebounds, 3 steals, 1 block and 2 turnovers.
Talk about stuffing the statsheet.
The one potential negative on the night was the foul trouble that Dunn had in both halves and Henton had in the first half but I don’t think much should be made of that especially since Dunn played a number of minutes without picking up his 5th foul. Navy had two players foul out on the night.
https://twitter.com/friartv/status/535641469273776128
One of the big storylines of the early season so far has been Ed Cooley’s substitutions. I thought he did a much better job of allowing guys to play longer together to develop an on-court chemistry and get into a rhythm. Jalen Lindsey was the first man off the Providence bench at the 16:51 mark and he replaced Kyron Cartwright which was a change from prior games where Lindsey would come in initially for Kris Dunn. The rotation and substitution patterns is something to keep an eye on this weekend against some tougher competition.
Navy was led with 10 points by James Hemphill. The Midshipmen shot 39% from the field on 19/49 shooting and were outrebounded by the Friars 36-24 with Providence grabbing 9 offensive rebounds that led to 10 second chance points. Navy also had 17 turnovers which led to 17 Providence points though the Friars only had 7 fast break points on the night.
Here’s a new stat for Providence fans to get used to: bench points. The Friars scored 36 points off their bench tonight against Navy’s 23. Providence scored 32 of their 88 points in the paint and assisted on 24 of their 31 made field goals.
The Friars will move on to their first high major tests this weekend as they finish up this 5 game in 8 day stretch to open the season. The Florida State game tips off at Mohegan Sun Arena Saturday at 2:30pm.
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It seems the 2014-15 roster is now complete with the addition of German guard Tyree Chambers* so I’ll take an in-depth look at the roster and how it’s shaping up both in the short term and the long term.
If you want to see the current scholarship situation for each season through 2018-2019 there is a dropdown menu at the top of the menu bar above. You can also click this link.
Technically the 2014-15 roster has one open scholarship remaining and maybe Ed Cooley will look to add a mid-year transfer for next season to balance the classes (more on that later) but I believe this will be the group that the Friars will go to battle with this upcoming season. Let’s look at the roster by position group:
Continue reading Providence Roster Review & Outlook
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