Big East Basketball Power Rankings: Butler, DePaul keep rising

Arguably the most disappointing team in the entire country right now, I gave legitimate thought to moving Providence down to the cellar of these rankings this week. I did, though, think better of it because I still believe that the Friars are a better team than the Red Storm. It is hard to imagine that an experienced squad full of talented players would struggle out of the gates and need time to develop, but that might be the case. Head coach Ed Cooley is definitely receiving some heat for the way that the Friars have performed so far this season and it will be interesting to see if he can turn the ship around.

With that said, though, NCAA Tournament hopes might already be gone. I know that might sound premature and dramatic, but let’s break down Providence’s resume a little bit. Through the first few weeks of the season, the Friars stand at just 4-4. That is not necessarily a disastrous record as it would be possible to recover if those losses were all to good teams and they had performed well in those defeats. Additionally, it would help to have a good win or two in that bunch.

Providence, though, has only secured one win over a KenPom top-200 team (Pepperdine – No. 119) and all four of their losses have come to teams outside of the top-75 (Nos. 98, 108, 278, and 149). To put this simply, Providence has played the second-easiest schedule in the Big East and is just 4-4. Yikes.

Additionally, it doesn’t feel as though there is an obvious change that can be made. There just doesn’t appear to be any offensive cohesion right now and the defense has also taken a bit of a hit recently. Providence entered this season ranked at No. 30 in KenPom and peaked at No. 19 on Nov. 13. Ever since then, though, they have plummeted down 39 spots in less than a month to No. 58.

Where do the Friars go from here and can they take the necessary steps to improve?