Busting Brackets
Fansided

Big East Basketball: Creighton, Villanova lead latest power rankings

By Salvador Lopez

NEWARK, NJ - FEBRUARY 01: The Big East logo on the floor before a college basketball game between the Xavier Musketeers and the Seton Hall Pirates at the Prudential Center on February 1, 2020 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)
NEWARK, NJ - FEBRUARY 01: The Big East logo on the floor before a college basketball game between the Xavier Musketeers and the Seton Hall Pirates at the Prudential Center on February 1, 2020 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
6 of 12
Next
Big East Basketball David Duke (Photo by Steven Ryan/Getty Images)
Big East Basketball David Duke (Photo by Steven Ryan/Getty Images) /

7. Providence Friars (3-2)

  • Wins: vs Fairfield (97-56), vs Davidson (63-62 Neutral), vs Fairleigh Dickinson (79-67)
  • Losses: vs Indiana (79-58 Neutral), vs Alabama (88-71)
  • Next Game: Wednesday 12/9 at 5 pm ET at TCU

Providence started the season off with an all-around team victory 97-56 over Fairfield. However, as the schedule started become more challenging, the Friars have struggled to impress as of late.

Coming off a rough Maui Invitational this week, which resulted in a sixth-place finish, Providence could have easily started the season 2-3 instead of 3-2.

In their first game of the Maui Invitational, held in Asheville, NC, Providence was a no-show, losing 79-58 against Indiana. Providence then took on Davidson and almost blew a 19-point lead, to barely win 63-62 over Davidson. In the Fifth Place Game for the Maui Invitational, the Friars got blown out once again 88-71 versus Alabama.

On Saturday, Providence had trouble with the winless Fairleigh Dickinson Knights, and went to halftime tied 31-31. In the second half, Providence outscored Fairleigh Dickinson by 12 points en route to a 79-67 victory.

The struggles for Providence so far this season have occurred mostly on the offensive side of the ball, and the Friars have had trouble with consistency and making shots with confidence.

The Friars shooting nightmares continued on Saturday, with the Friars going just 1-for-15 from three-point range. That included Providence’s starting five missing all 13 of their three-point attempts.

The good news from Saturday’s matchup against Fairleigh Dickinson is that junior guard, David Duke (18 ppg), was finally able to breakout scoring a season-high 28 points and eight rebounds. It was Duke’s first game this season in which he made over half of his shots, shooting 9-for-14 from the floor (64.3 percent). On Monday, Duke could not get into his shooting rhythm, shooting just 3-for-12 against Indiana.

Also, senior center, Nate Watson (18.8 ppg, 5.2 rpg), has put together an impressive start to the season. Watson has been pleasant surprise for Friar fans, as he has improved significantly during his first five games of this season.

Watson averaged 9 points per game and shot 56.5 percent at the free-throw line. This season, Watson has doubled his points average total, averaging 18.8 points per game, while shooting 81.2 percent at the free-throw line.

During their first five games of the season, Duke and Watson have been the only two players that have carried the scoring for Providence. The shooting has been a work in progress with junior guard, A.J. Reeves (7.8 ppg), missing all five of his shot attempts against Fairleigh Dickinson.

Reeves hasn’t been able to take the steps up to improve during his Providence career and is out to a slow 4-for-25 shooting from the perimeter to start this season.

The Friars’ slow start is also due to their transfers not having an early impact. Sophomore point guard, Jared Bynum (6 ppg), has also had trouble generating offense and is just 9-for-31 shooting (29 percent) during his first five games as a Friar.

Senior forward, Noah Horchler (4.8 ppg, 5.8 rpg), has been an impressive rebounder at times this season, tallying nine rebounds against Fairfield and Indiana. However, Horchler, hasn’t been receiving as much minutes as expected. He only has averaged 18.6 minutes per game so far this season, which is down significantly to the 31.2 minutes per game that he averaged in 2018-19 while at North Florida.

Junior forward, Ed Croswell (5.5 ppg, 2.8 rpg), has only been able to average 8.4 minutes per game so far this season. He started 25 games last season and averaged 10 points per game and 7.3 rebounds per game in 21.1 minutes per game last season at La Salle.

Providence was disappointing last season to start off non-conference play with non-conference losses to Northwestern, Pennsylvania, Long Beach State, and the College of Charleston. This Friars team may be similar to last season by getting off to a slow start and improving over time.

It is worrisome that Providence only won by 12 points to Fairleigh Dickinson. Last season, point guard Luwane Pipkins had a hard time finding his identity during the first part of last season, but then it clicked and he started taking over games which led Providence to end the season on a six-game winning streak.

We will find out over time this season if head coach Ed Cooley can build Bynum into the next great point guard for the program that will be able to improve this season and gain confidence offensively.

Providence will travel to TCU on Wednesday for its Big East-Big 12 Battle matchup. This game is certainty winnable and would improve the Friars NCAA Tournament resume. This matchup is certainly winnable for Providence.

The Friars cannot afford to dig themselves into an early-hole again this season if they took a loss to TCU, which is projected to be at the bottom of the Big 12 Conference along with Kansas State and Iowa State this season.

Home/Big East