The Providence Friars (1-1) are looking to bounce back from their performance in the Veterans Classic last Friday and get back to winning ways. The Friars will return to the Dunk to host the Holy Cross C@#!$%^* (1-1) on Tuesday night. Why did I censor Holy Cross team name? It is because that’s exactly what the school tried to do the last time we faced them. Holy Cross has gone by the Crusaders since 1920 but this past winter the school looked into changing the name due to the fact the medieval Crusades being deemed “offensive”. I’m sorry but when did it become offensive to have an intimidating mascot? Minutemen used guerilla warfare to mow down British soldiers, Spartans killed a boatload of Persians and Vikings were complete savages. Listen bro I don’t mind a little PC but when you say the term Crusader is a microaggression, I think that’s where you take it a little too far bro. As someone who grew up in central Massachusetts and has several friends that are HC alumni, it led me to suggest some rebranding. Holy Cross is known in my neck of the woods as the College on the Hill, I suggested they change their team name to the Holy Cross Hilltoppers. They could just take the Western Kentucky mascot, turn him purple and call him Grimace.
Ultimately the Crusaders didn’t take my brilliant suggestion and ended up keeping their name but did remove the medieval warrior from their logo (which you may want to give Bleacher Report a heads up on because they still use the old Sader logo). While I could spend all day writing about college athletic mascots lets get to a few of the Crier’s thoughts for the game.
Holy Cross Kept It Close With Michigan (for a half)
Saturday night while I was watching BC attempting to be relevant in college football, I couldn’t help but notice the halftime score scrolling by on the bottom line between Holy Cross and #19 Michigan. The score was Holy Cross 24 and Michigan 18. I know the Big Ten is known for it’s bland, boring brand of basketball but holy shit 18 points?! The Saders were able to hold the Wolverines to a puke in my mouth 20% shooting from the floor in the first half, including 18% from three. Michigan would end up winning the game by 19 and used Holy Cross’ 16 turnovers to fuel their offense. Look for the Friars to use their athletic guards to turn the Saders over and lead to some fastbreak buckets. I would like for Cooley to employ some fullcourt pressure early in the game to create turnovers. The Friars used pressure late in the Wichita St game and I thought it was pretty effective.
Some Perimeter Defense Would Be Nice
In the first two games, this season the Friars have given up 24 three-pointers to their opposition and if this team wants to go anywhere this can’t continue to be a trend. Last season the Friars held their opponents to 32.2% from distance, which was good for coincidently 32nd in the country. While it’s a small sample size this year the Friars have allowed their opponents to shoot a scorching 48% from deep, which is the 10th worst in all of America. The previous season the Friars were able to use their length at the wings to discourage their opponents around the perimeter. What really pisses me off is that this year’s team is longer than last year’s! I know a lot of it has to do with integrating the young guys and Wichita did make some contested ones but for the most part the rotations have been terrible, guys are left wide open and it’s really unacceptable.
As most Crier readers could tell I was really upset with the performance from the team in the Veterans Classic last Friday. I did take myself to Twitter where I allowed myself to get triggered and trolled by voicing my frustrations from the end of the game. I acted like a real Kevin Durant out there. At the end of the day though it is just one game and no one’s season is done on November 13th. The Crier will be in the house, as I am now a season ticket holder/minority owner in the Dunk and look forward to the Friars kicking Sader ass Tuesday night.
Prediction
Friars 81 Holy Cross 62
-The Crier