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NCAA Basketball: UCLA’s rise, overrated Texas Tech, and more takeaways

By Brian Rauf

LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 27: Tyger Campbell #10, David Singleton #34, Jake Kyman #13 and Jaime Jaquez Jr. #4 of the UCLA Bruins while playing the Arizona State Sun Devilsof the UCLA Bruins NS at Pauley Pavilion on February 27, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by John McCoy/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 27: Tyger Campbell #10, David Singleton #34, Jake Kyman #13 and Jaime Jaquez Jr. #4 of the UCLA Bruins while playing the Arizona State Sun Devilsof the UCLA Bruins NS at Pauley Pavilion on February 27, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by John McCoy/Getty Images) /
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PHILADELPHIA, PA – FEBRUARY 29: Maliek White #4 of the Providence Friars (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
PHILADELPHIA, PA – FEBRUARY 29: Maliek White #4 of the Providence Friars (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images) /

6) Providence may win a game in the NCAA Tournament

If I were to tell you that a team that started the season 6-6 with losses to Northwestern, Penn, Long Beach State, and Charleston – without a win over KenPom top 130 team – was on the NCAA Tournament bubble going into March, you would think I was crazy.

If I were to tell you that a team has victories over Seton Hall, Creighton, Marquette (twice), and Villanova, and has eight Quadrant 1 wins overall, was on the NCAA Tournament bubble, you would think I was crazy for an entirely different reason.

Yet both of those cases encompass this Providence team. There were one of the nation’s biggest disappointments during the non-conference portion of the season only to be one of the biggest surprises over the last two months.

Defense has always been this group’s calling card and it has been during this surge as well. They’re undefeated when holding their opponents below 40 percent shooting, which is becoming a consistent thing for them.

The only question remaining with this group – and why they struggled in non-conference play – is their lack of offense. They’re a particularly poor shooting team, ranking 303rd nationally in effective field goal efficiency. However, Luwane Pipkins has emerged as a go-to caliber player over the Friars’ last four games, capped by his 27-point performance against Villanova. That has made their offense passable.

Providence is already a tough team to play against because of how tough and pestering their defense is. Throw in the fact that they’re better offensively, battle-tested against elite teams, and have built up a good deal of positive momentum, and the Friars possess everything higher seeds do not want to see from their opponents early in the Big Dance.

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