Typically, when you play a team second in the Big East on the road in January it isn’t a must win. While maybe we won’t got as far as saying Wednesday night in Newark was a must win for the Friars, it was certainly one they needed to grab for their NCAAT chances. And grab it they did, winning on the road 67-63 over the Pirates despite trailing by double digits in the second half. The Friars got a balanced attack from Oduro, Carter, Gaines, and Pierre and truly dug in defensively in the second stanza to snag the road victory. PC now stands at 13-6 (4-4) on the year and suddenly look to be back in the conversation for the field of 68. Lets see how they got it done.
Turning Struggles Into Strengths– A constant theme for these Friar, who have struggled on the road, is carelessness with the basketball and missed free throws. PC was actually money from the line in this one going 16/17 from the stripe, which is fantastic considering they were 1/1 at halftime. Taking care of the basketball? Well, that took some time to develop. PC came out the gates with 2 turnovers, and we all thought here we go again. At the 14:14 mark of the second half PC committed their 14th turnover of the game, trailing by 7. They wouldn’t turn the ball over for the rest of the game. They needed every possession they had down the stretch, so this was absolutely critical. We knew going in PC might struggle on the boards against a team whose rebounding is their calling card. Struggle they did, getting clobbered on the glass for the majority of the game but locked in down the stretch to salvage a -7 margin on the glass, despite a +12 edge for the Pirates on the offensive glass.
Ticket’s Hot Start- We talked about it in the preview and on the podcast: Ticket Gaines didn’t get enough looks the first time around against the Pirates. He was certainly hunting for his shot early in this one. Gaines had 14 points in the first half and finished with 17 points on 6/8 from the floor and 5/7 from deep. While Ticket only scored 3 points in the second half, he played all 40 minutes in this one and made huge defensive plays down the stretch to help the Friars get the win. When Ticket is raining threes, the Friars are a much better offensive unit.
What Happened to Josh Oduro?– I asked myself the same question when Josh started the first game against Seton Hall 5/5 from the floor but finished 9/21. In this one he dealt with foul trouble and was getting eaten alive by Bediako on the glass. You could tell he was frustrated.
Instead of letting it continue to happen Josh played with this pissed off edge and was dominant in the second half. Oduro finished with 16 points and 8 rebounds but had 4 blocks in the second half alone, and the other players had to feed off his energy. His second half performance was capped off with an emphatic under the rim slam on Bediako’s head. Josh Oduro… Thank You
Richmond/Dawes/Wusu– It was a huge surprise to hear that Kadary Richmond would be out for this one with what his coach described as “general soreness”. While the Crier may not be the biggest Richmond guy, there is no arguing he has been playing at a first-team All-Big East level. Seton Hall struggled mightly on offense in this one and only scored 36 outside of a career night from Al-Amir Dawes. Dawes was absolutely dynamite in this one, scoring 26 points.
However, Coach English switching defensive assignments, putting Carter on Dawes, turned the Pirates offense into a pumpkin and never recovered. Crier gave Dylan Addae-Wusu a ton of praise going into this game and man did he make me look foolish. Addae-Wusu was pretty bad in this one shooting 0/13 from the floor, leading to a goose egg in the scoring column. I’m still a Wusu guy and he did rebound/defend well but Hall fans must’ve been pulling their hair out from his performance. As for Richmond, are the Friars lucky not to face him? Of course! However, in the words of Kim English, “no one cares” and for a Friar team that have caught a ton of bad breaks these last few weeks, I’m not apologizing.
Important for the Resume – Despite the Hopkins injury, Providence still has a hell of an NCAA resume. They have decisive wins against Wisconsin and Marquette. As we mentioned post Baha Mar, that Georgia win should age nicely. They now have a road win against Seton Hall, who is in the upper echelon of the Big East.
I am fearful Providence may get “FSU’d”, as the committee would say a lot of their resume wins were with Bryce Hopkins. This win puts that to rest. They need to stack one or two more of these type of wins to feel really good on Selection Sunday. I’m optimistic the bracketologists will point to this one in March.
What’s next for the Friars? Oh you all know what’s next, there’s nothing left to say here except come out to our live show Friday night at 7:30 at Black Sheep in Providence and LETS HAVE A SATURDAY!
I think English was reading our comments yesterday. He got T’ed up in the first half of the Hall game. Good for you Kim! Great win. Go Friars!