Providence started 0/4 from the field, but their zone kept Villanova on their heels early. Back to back baskets by Nate Watson from Maliek White feeds was capped off by a triple from White to put the Friars ahead, 7-2, a little more than 4 minutes in. The Providence run would be 9-0 before Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree scored to make it 9-4. That was the beginning of Villanova’s answer to Providence’s run with a 13-0 spurt of their own to take a 6-point lead, 15-9, with just under 11 minutes to go in the first half. Providence answered with 6 straight points to tie the game at 15 with 8:02 to go in the half. The first time the teams traded points without a scoring run came after Alpha Diallo and Eric Paschall traded 1/2 at the free throw line between 5:32 to go and 4:41 to go. The first time the teams traded field goals came after that with Diallo hitting a jumper at the 3:51 mark followed by Collin Gillespie nailing a 3-pointer to pull Villanova back in front, 25-23, with 3:26 to go in the half. Providence went on a scoring drought over the final 3:07 of the half and Villanova took advantage to finish on a 6-0 run and take a 7-point lead, 31-24, into the locker room.
After Jermaine Samuels opened with 1/2 at the free throw line Providence went on a 6-0 run to bring them within 2 a few minutes into the second half. Every time Villanova looked like they were going to get a more comfortable lead the Friars had an answer to keep the deficit within reach. Through a little more than 8 minutes of action there were only 21 points scored between the two teams, and the Villanova lead never got larger than 8 but never less than 2 at this point. Providence tied the game at 44 after Diallo converted a 3-point play with 9:18 to go. Villanova pulled back ahead and maintained a small lead over the next several minutes of back and forth basketball. Villanova would pull ahead by 11 after some turnovers by the Friars. Diallo picked up his 4th foul with 5:19 to go, but Cooley kept his junior in the game. The Friars attempted to get back into the game late, but it wasn’t enough to against the top seed Wildcats. Providence only got as close as 5 with 3:18 to go before Villanova got 5 points from Samuels to give them a 10 point cushion with 1:29 to go. The Wildcats sealed the game at the free throw line to advance to the semifinals on Friday night against the winner of (4) Xavier and (5) Creighton.
Providence was led by Watson with 15 points. Diallo and Jackson added 14 points a piece.
Villanova was led by Paschall with 20 points. Gillespie also added 19 points and Booth had 13.
Villanova owned offensive rebounds and turnovers in this game. The Wildcats grabbed 12 of their own misses and forced 16 Providence turnovers. Villanova only gave up 2 offensive rebounds on the other end, and they only turned it over 11 times. The Wildcats score 21 second chance points.
Providence now awaits their postseason fate with hope for an NIT bid in play.
How: FS1 (Gus Johnson, Bill Raftery & Lisa Byington)/Fox Sports GO app (where available)/WPRO 99.7 FM & 630AM, TuneIn and Friars.com (John Rooke and Joe Hassett)/FriarTV
We’ve made it all the way to the final weekend of the Big East season but the madness of March is just about to get started. All ten Big East teams are tipping off on Saturday between 12pm and 2:30pm ET and there is still some jockeying going on for the 3, 4, 5 and 6 seeds, not to mention the NCAA Tournament implications that are in play with many of Saturday’s games. Here’s the final Big East Tournament Seed Watch of the 2016-17 season.
Eight of the ten teams in the Big East play twice in the final week of the season with Villanova and Butler only playing on Saturday when all ten league teams will be in action to close out the regular season. Many of the Big East members will still be jockeying for final seeding position for the Big East Tournament that begins on March 8th at Madison Square Garden. I’ll be doing this “Seed Watch” post one more time later in the week and there will be more detail about tiebreakers and scenarios in that final post before Saturday’s games. For now, I’ll give you the Big East Tournament bracket as it would be today, what a win for certain teams this past weekend means for the seeding outlook and then I’ll use Kenpom.com to predict the final standings and show you what that would look like after tiebreakers.
Eight of the ten teams in the Big East have three games left with only Villanova and Butler playing just two league games over the next 9 days. The bottomline is that the regular season comes to a conclusion on March 4th with all ten teams in action and the likelihood is that many of the Big East members will still be jockeying for final seeding position for the Big East Tournament that begins on March 8th at Madison Square Garden. I’ll be doing this “Seed Watch” post regularly over the final days of the regular season and there will be more detail about tiebreakers and scenarios as the season gets closer to a conclusion. For now, I’ll give you the Big East Tournament bracket as it would be today and what a win for certain teams this weekend means for the seeding outlook.
This thoughts from the road is me cheating a little. I’m writing this from the press room in Madison Square Garden. The brownies are so good, can you blame me?
Ed Cooley took the high road after the game when he responded to a question asking for his thoughts on the foul call at the end of the game.
“The last play of the game was a 50-50 call. I think we have the best officials in the country. I think the Big East has always had the best officials in the country. It doesn’t come down to one play. I’m pretty sure everybody’s going to ask me about that. At the end of the day, we have the best officials in the country. It was a 50-50 call. It can go either way. It just didn’t go our way tonight.”
Ed Cooley has stated from day one in Providence that Friartown is a family. Well apparently there’s plenty of sharing that happens in the Friartown family as Kris Dunn was named the Big East’s Co-Defensive Player of the Year on Monday by the league’s coaches and on Wednesday the Big East announced that Dunn would share the Big East Player of the Year Award with Villanova’s Ryan Arcidiacono.
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