The struggles at Mohegan Sun continue for Kim English. Now 0-2 there under English, Providence came up short against a daunting Virginia Tech squad. Led by an international freshman star from Greece who poured in 33/6/5, it was an end of regulation shot by Vaaks (a burgeoning college international stud in his own right, for what it’s worth) that rimmed in and out. At the onset of overtime, the Hokies pounced on the Friars with a few quick buckets and built enough of a lead to withstand a Friar comeback in overtime.
It was a tough loss for a team that had the home crowd advantage, had a 6 point lead at half, and looked to be clicking on all cylinders at certain durations of the game. A lot of the issues that plagued Providence last year reared their ugly head yesterday: carelessness with the basketball at 14 turnovers, a lack of system offense with only 10 assists on 34 made buckets, and getting out schemed by the opposition in the 2nd half and overtime.
Now 1-1, Providence’s margin for error in the non-conference is incredibly slim. I came away from this game more impressed with Virginia Tech than I did coming in, admittedly, and this loss will probably not be a bad one come March. With all that said, these are the ones Providence absolutely needs to have if it wants to comfortably be playing in March. There aren’t many quality non-con games on the schedule remaining outside of Wisconsin and potentially Florida, so it would have been nice to steal this one from a team that’ll likely be a Top 75 KenPom squad the entirety of the season. Opportunity missed.
Below, we revisit the keys to the game and recap how Virginia Tech was able to pull this one out in extra time.
Who is the more physical team?
I had absolutely no issues with how Providence matched up physically. They played this Hokie team even on the glass, and I didn’t walk away from this one thinking Virginia Tech brought the fight to Providence. It was a standstill in my opinion, and that is what we were looking for.
Defense – Optional?
The defense left a lot to be desired in this one. This is officially a “trend” after the Harvard scrimmage, Holy Cross 2nd half, and entirety of this game.
Virginia Tech went 51% from the floor and 43% from 3. It’s surprising the game was as close as it was given those numbers, but that’s a testament to the good offensive output the Friars put forth.
The talk of the game is Greek Freak 2.0 in Avdalas and rightly so. He made clutch shot after clutch shot and was the catalyst for this Hokie squad. Providence threw waves of bodies at him, but it didn’t matter. The Friars had no answer for him.
I’m hopeful we look back on this game as a coming out party for Avdalas rather than him just being hot and exposing a poor defensive team. That’s still a wait and see, but right now Providence has more questions than answers on the defensive end. That’s disappointing.
Oswin Being Assertive
Oswin was everything you could have asked for in this one. I’d love to see him continue to incrementally improve his offensive repertoire, but everything else he is doing on both ends is exceptional. He finished with 11 points, 11 boards, and 4 blocks. It is nice to know Providence can rely on Oswin at the 5 without concern.
I’d like to see more from his frontcourt mate Duncan Powell. He only had 6 points and 2 boards. He’s going through a shooting slump to start the season, but he needs to find other ways to impact the game. If not, English should think of ways to move him out of the line-up for Jamier Jones or go small with Vaaks in the line-up. It is fair to say Shagman hasn’t quite lived up to expectations yet, but let’s hope that’s just an outlier 2 games in.
Freshmen Encore
Avdalas overshadowed another outstanding performance from our Estonian freshman stud. Vaaks scored 17 points and was the third leading scorer behind Edwards and Sellers. What caught my eye was that English turned to Vaaks with the game on the line. He clearly has a lot of trust in the freshman, and I think Vaaks will legitimately compete for Big East Freshman of the Year. Him doing what he did against the Hokies after his performance against Holy Cross should make Providence fans very excited.
Jamier Jones came back down to earth with only 4 points on 13 minutes, but that was somewhat expected. He had a thunderous breakaway dunk off a steal, but was otherwise kept in check. He’s going to expose lesser teams with his athleticism, but will need to round out his offensive game against higher end squads like Virginia Tech if he wants to consistently be impactful. This is all part of the growing process with Jamier.
Edwards Back on Track?
The guy can simply score with the best of them. He had 28 points and was a nuisance for the Hokies all game.
He and Sellers led the way for the Friars and are going to be an extremely potent 1-2 backcourt tandem all season. While the loss hurt, Sellers and Edwards showing out is another positive development.
Summary
This team has a ton of offensive firepower, but will lose shootouts more often than not if they don’t tighten the screws on defense. PC has the Fran McCaffrey led Penn squad at home and then travel to Colorado on Friday. 2-0 is imperative this week.