NCAA Basketball top 25 power rankings: Texas Tech rises, Baylor and Providence fall
By Joey Loose
11. Providence (21-3)
This season has certainly featured a surprising return to prominence for a Providence team that entered the week with a bevy of nice wins and only a pair of losses. They’ve taken care of business down the stretch on a regular basis and had run off a long stretch of wins against a very tough Big East. While the Friars are still in prime position to make noise in the postseason, this past week didn’t go according to plan.
All of Providence was buzzing for Tuesday’s big matchup, but they were instead treated to an 89-84 home loss to Villanova. The Friars lost for the first time in a game decided by less than 10 points, while the 3-point shooting just didn’t go their way. In the loss, Nate Watson had 20 points and Jared Bynum had 18 points; but the Wildcats still managed to secure the victory late.
Even with this loss, Providence is still in an enviable position, sitting atop the Big East with their 11-2 conference mark. Some of the analytics really don’t like the Friars, but they’ve still put themselves in good position with this run of success, with wins at Wisconsin and against Texas Tech still looking extremely valuable.
Next week, they travel to Butler before hosting Xavier and Creighton; while all three games aren’t super easy, three wins is definitely a possibility and a necessity if they want to secure the conference regular-season title.