NCAA Basketball: Ranking the Sweet 16 teams in 2022 NCAA Tournament
By Joey Loose
10. Providence (#4 seed)
Throughout the regular season, Providence put on quite the show, picking up a number of impressive wins and finding a way to churn out close win after close win. The Friars became Big East regular-season champions but were never rated highly by any of the analytics, with luck and good fortune seemingly playing a big role in their inflated win count. Clearly, this isn’t entirely the case for this impressive team.
One could argue that the Friars have been pretty lucky in the Big Dance, facing a pair of double-digit seeds in the Tournament. In the first round, they played a strong defensive game against a potent offensive team, getting a 66-57 win over 13-seed South Dakota State. Two days later, there was far less drama, as the Friars ran away from 12-seed Richmond in a 79-51 victory, led by Noah Horchler’s 16 points in the win. This talented roster also includes Jared Bynum, a streaky shooter, Nate Watson, a talented big, and Al Durham, who has been impressive all over the court.
The Friars had two big opportunities during the regular season against Villanova and failed to get the job done. A Sweet Sixteen matchup against Kansas is their third chance at a major win, and they’ll certainly need that same defensive intensity that they’ve displayed so far in the Tournament.
Providence is a fantastic squad that has shown flashes of brilliance but still doesn’t even sit in the top 30 of the KenPom rankings. They can prove all of the analytics and doubters wrong with another strong team performance, and they’ll certainly need an even better effort than in their first two Tourney games.