Despite the loss against Oklahoma in the Friars’ opener in the Battle 4 Atlantis, sentiments from the fanbase about the team were mostly positive. After seeing Oklahoma subsequently take down Arizona, you talked yourself into a nice bounce back against Davidson. How wrong we were.
The fan sentiments have all changed after the Friars had another slow start and never found a true response in a 69-58 defeat to the Davidson Wildcats. The Friars really struggled offensively for a good portion of the game and by the time they (somewhat) figured it out it was far too late.
Defensively the Friars were bludgeoned by backdoor cuts all night. For Davidson the buckets came easy. It looked like they were running a simulated practice. For the Friars, everything looked like a struggle all night, which is not a recipe for success and a rather jarring performance out of the Friars.
All the warning signs and issues we’ve talked about at The Crier came to a head last night.
Offensively Inept- The Friar offense hasn’t consistently looked good throughout the season and for the vast majority of last year, but tonight was a new low. PC could only muster up 18 first half points and finished the game shooting 34% from the floor despite shooting 38% from three. Davidson has legitimate size, but it was surprising to see the Friars so deterred by them. Providence missed so many looks at the rim, and it seemed to impact their confidence. The one positive for the Friars with the basketball was they took care of the ball with only six giveaways.
Frontcourt Struggles– While Davidson is built through their frontcourt you would probably expect Providence’s bigs to have their way with them given their athletic advantages and physical abilities; however, the Friar bigs really struggled. Christ Essandoko and freshman Oswin Erhunmwunse were a combined 2/11 from the floor with only 6 points. Oswin did show flashes on the defensive end with 11 rebounds and 2 blocks, but fouled too much and has zero touch around the basket. If he’s not dunking, he can’t seem to score. His lack of touch around the rim is jarring.
It’s not going to get easier with their next opponent Indiana, who not only are built through their front court, but may have bigger size and physicality than the Friars.
Offensive System = Re-Boot? – I think it is time to question whether the system English and staff are running actually work. The premise of an offense predicated around 4 shooters and a rim running big is great in theory, but not many college teams have that on their roster. It’s an NBA system, and Providence isn’t an NBA team.
I used to want to pull my hair out last year when Floyd Jr. would beat his man off the dribble and then pivot 3-4 times before kicking it out. I (incorrectly, I may add) put the blame on him, speaking to his hesitancies. It became very clear last night to me seeing two other Friars do the same exact thing that the players are taught to dribble drive and try to find an open man on the perimeter for a three. Great idea in theory. Sure.
The issue is that if nobody is open, the ball handler is stuck. What makes it WORSE is nobody is moving without the basketball. No back door cuts, cuts to the rim to get an easy lay-up, etc. It’s all ball watching and hoping that man can beat his guy.
This brand of offense is inherently selfish, and I think it needs to be scrapped. Davidson had 10% of the athletes that Providence does, but took them to the woodshed with precise passing, sharp cuts, and selfless basketball. Providence plays like it’s 5 guys who just met each other for the first time.
The offense was an issue last year, and it was chalked up to English not having his guys. He has his guys now, and the results are worse. That is very concerning as a Friar fan. Time for the staff to tweak the offense.
Summary
I believe the Friars have the roster that can figure it out and play much better than they did Thanksgiving night, but unfortunately they have no time to fix things. They take on Indiana at 11am Friday in the 7th place game and seem likely to leave Atlantis 0-3.
This is the holiday tournament disaster scenario that BOC and I discussed on the podcast, and Providence will now have to have a miraculous run in conference play to try to eek out a tournament bid.
All is not well in Friartown.
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