The Friars wrapped up their 2025 non-conference schedule on Tuesday night but it wasn’t in the emphatic fashion fans were probably hoping for. The Brown Bears (5-7) came to town and although it was essentially a wire-to-wire win for PC, the Bears gave the Friars more than they bargained for. Head Coach Mike Martin had his team ready to go in this one and despite the Friars extending their lead countless times the Bears kept punching back.
PC raced out to a 9-2 lead, Brown tied it. PC would extend their 5-point halftime lead to 13 at 55-42, Brown responded with a 16-7 run. PC responded to push it back to 9 but then the Bears scored the next 5 points. Ultimately the Friars would get the 86-79 victory over Brown ending their non-conference slate with a 7-4 record.
We break down the game below along with our main takeaways.
Turnover Issue Creeping Back Up
In their first game of the Rady Children’s Invitation the Friars turned the ball over 14 times against Wisconsin leading to 18 points off turnovers for the Badgers. PC then cleaned it up against Florida and Farleigh Dickinson turning it over 10 times apiece. PC turned it over 15 times against URI but no harm no foul when you win a game by 19 points.
Tuesday night against Brown PC would turn it over 14 more times. Brown didn’t cash in on those like the Badgers with only 11 points off turnovers and their own turnover issues were turned into 17 points for the Friars.
The Friars cannot afford to turn the ball over as they head into Big East play because the competition isnt URI or Brown. They will be crushed for it. They gotta clean it up before it’s too late, but I feel like we’ve been saying this about the English era for two plus years now. Ball security just isn’t a huge priority.
Jamier Jones Continues to Shine
In the Battle of the Ocean State both freshmen, Stefan Vaaks and Jamier Jones, were excellent. Against Brown Vaaks had a poor shooting night with 10 points on three-of-thirteen shooting but Jamier Jones was awesome yet again. The bouncy forward tied with Jaylin Sellers for a team high 16 points and he only did so in 19 minutes of action.
It seemed anytime the Friars needed a spark Kim English would insert Jones into the lineup, and he’d go to work. Jamier Jones would miss what was possibly his easiest look of the night towards the end of the game off a rebound and finished the night 7/8 from the floor.
In his last two games Jones is averaging 17 ppg on 14/15 from the floor.
Great Cole Hargrove Minutes
Cole Hargrove entered Tuesday’s contest only averaging 1.9 ppg and 3.8 rpg. His play has him much maligned by the fans and even had Kim English starting to go to freshman center Peteris Pinnis to give back up big minutes. Hargrove was an x-factor on Tuesday. Oswin seemed to commit a foul every 2 minutes, so Hargrove played 21 minutes and was productive. He had 9 points, 7 rebounds and 3 blocks.
Albeit it’s against a Brown frontcourt it was still a welcome sight for Hargrove, especially considering Duncan Powell is still trying to work his way back into the rotation after injury.
Brown Tests PC and Friars Overall Response was Good
There will be plenty of Friar fans that won’t want to read this, but I didn’t hate that Brown gave them a pretty good game. Sure, my wallet got a little lighter taking PC -18.5 and Friars did drop eight spots in KenPom to 70 as of this publication, but getting tested isn’t the worst thing in the world. Its finals week, they had a letdown crowd after URI, and it was possible it could have be a letdown game for the Friars.
PC had stretches of the game where they didn’t play great. Not to sound like the old guy at the helm, but credit to Brown. They played hard and made some big shots. Every time you’d think PC would run away from it, Brown responded. PC hasn’t had a ton of games in the non-conference where they were in pressure situations late, but they were able to take every Brown counter and close the game out.
Not the worst thing to happen when you got a 20-game conference season coming up where there will be plenty of close contests.
What’s Next
Now that the non-conference portion of the schedule has come to a close PC at 7-4 probably gets a grade of a C/C+ (BOC Commentary: Mike is a very generous grader).
Obviously, it would have been nice for them to have a win or two more, and the VA Tech game was one that got away, but they were able to take care of business in games in which they absolutely should have won.
PC is going to have to do work in the Big East slate to have a chance to earn a NCAA Tournament bid. They need to stack wins in league play to put themselves in the conversation.
PC will open Big East play on Saturday at Hinkle Fieldhouse against Butler then will have a home game against Seton Hall to wrap up 2025. If they can get those two games against two teams that have surprised so far in the season it would be an excellent start.
Go Friars!