Providence Big East Schedule Review: Part I

This is Part 1 of a 3 part series giving my impressions of Providence’s Big East schedule in 6 game blocks. This first block looks at games 1-6 from 12/31/14 through 1/17/15. My evaluation of each 6 game block will take into account a few factors: road trips/travel, potential fan attendance/games over school breaks, opponent’s schedule around time of PC game and other factors.

Game 1: vs. Creighton

• Where: Dunkin’ Donuts Center – Providence, RI
• When: 12/31/14 7:30pm
• How: Fox Sports 1/WEEI 103.7 FM
• Last season’s final RPI: 10
• Last season’s final Kenpom rating: 24

This is a cool move by the Big East/Fox to have a primetime rematch of the Big East Tournament Championship game from last March. Some of the key players that made last year’s final game so exciting have graduated, namely Doug McDermott and Bryce Cotton. Having said that, this should be a solid conference opener for the Friars. Creighton is in rebuilding mode as they lost more than just Dougie McBuckets from last season’s team that finished 2nd in both the regular season (behind Villanova) and the Big East Tournament. The Friars will have 9 days between their last non conference game against Miami (FL) on December 22nd at the Barclays Center and this first Big East contest on December 31st. I’m sure there will be time spent with family for Christmas but there is also going to be plenty of time for Ed Cooley and his staff to scout and install a Creighton-specific gameplan. The Bluejays still have some talented players on the roster but they are going to be somewhat young and inexperienced overall and this is a game Providence should be favored in and I would expect them to win. The crowd will be interesting to see as it’s a bit of a late start on New Year’s Eve but I would expect the building to be loud either way because people will probably start the partying early that day.

Providence will get Creighton twice during this first 6 game block with game two coming at the always full CenturyLink Center in Omaha.

Game 2: at Marquette

• Where: BMO Harris Bradley Center – Milwaukee, WI
• When: 1/3/15 2:00pm
• How: Fox Sports Network/WEEI 103.7 FM
• Last season’s final RPI: 76
• Last season’s final Kenpom rating: 92

This might be a good chance for the Friars to put an end to the horror show that has been their play at the Bradley Center. Last season Providence had an absolutely horrendous first half on offense on their way to scoring a total of 50 points in their loss at the Bradley Center in January. They only scored 14 points in the first half of that game! They even had more turnovers (5) than field goals in that first half (4)! But I digress. The bottomline is Providence has never won a game in Milwaukee. Ever.

Marquette has a new coach and the Golden Eagles will look to replace Davante Gardner and Chris Otule who exhausted eligibility and Todd Mayo who left the program this spring to pursue a professional career. This will be the first Big East road trip of the season for Providence and I wouldn’t be surprised if they stayed on the road and went directly from Milwaukee to Indianapolis as their next game is at Hinkle Fieldhouse against Butler. This game is over a school break for Marquette which could mean the total attendance may be a bit down because of a lack of students but Marquette fans are one of the better fanbases in terms of turnout at the Bradley Center. The game is also taking place on a Saturday afternoon and last season the Marquette faithful turned out over 15,000 strong for a Saturday, January 3rd game against DePaul.

Game 3: at Butler

• Where: Hinkle Fieldhouse – Indianapolis, IN
• When: 1/6/15 9:00pm
• How: CBS Sports Network/WEEI 103.7 FM
• Last season’s final RPI: 150
• Last season’s final Kenpom rating: 104

Butler is coming off a rough first season in the Big East and I’m sure they will be happy to have a 2nd year in a new league after going from the Horizon league in 2011-12 to the Atlantic 10 in 2012-13 to the Big East in 2013-14. They will also be happy to have Roosevelt Jones back after he missed the entire 2013-14 season with a wrist injury. The struggle for Butler has been trying to keep up with all their conference movement and upgrading their roster to fit the talent of their new league. This would appear to be the final stop on the realignment train for Butler so they can now focus and use the Big East name to aid in their recruiting efforts. This game will be Butler’s Big East home opener after a difficult road start at Villanova on NYE and then a trip to NYC to take on St. John’s. It’s highly likely that the Bulldogs will come back to Hinkle looking for their first conference win.

Game 4: vs. Georgetown

• Where: Dunkin’ Donuts Center – Providence, RI
• When: 1/10/15 12:00pm
• How: Fox Sports 1/WEEI 103.7 FM
• Last season’s final RPI: 69
• Last season’s final Kenpom rating: 65

Georgetown had an up and down year in year 1 of the newly configured Big East. They lost big man Josh Smith to an academic issue midseason and the versatile and hard-nosed Jabril Trawick missed time with a broken jaw. The Hoyas do return D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera who finished 6th in the conference in scoring last season and will be the returning leading scorer to the team with the graduation of Markel Starks. Georgetown will be coming to the Dunk after having played 2 common opponents of Providence in Creighton and Marquette so by the time this game is set for the noon tip-off we may have a decent idea of how this game will go. Georgetown is bringing in a lot of talent in their 2014 recruiting class but they may not be fully gelled and integrated by early January. This could be a good early win for the Friars at home if they can get this one. The noon start on a Saturday may mean the crowd will need to wake up and the students are on break so  getting out to a fast start would go a long way for the Friars.

Game 5: vs. St. John’s

• Where: Dunkin’ Donuts Center – Providence, RI
• When: 1/14/15 7:00pm
• How: Fox Sports 1/WEEI 103.7 FM
• Last season’s final RPI: 67
• Last season’s final Kenpom rating: 61

St. John’s is still very talented. They should be good. However, we saw firsthand last season that this talented group took a while to mesh. They didn’t really begin to start playing cohesive basketball until mid-to-late January so this may be a good time to get the Johnnies at the Dunk before having to travel to MSG to take them on at the end of January. St. John’s will be coming off a big game against Villanova on 1/6/15 at MSG when they roll into Providence 8 days later and if they manage an upset of the Wildcats they could fall prey to a letdown. Ed Cooley is hoping this game goes better than the one these two teams played at the Dunk last February when St. John’s got out running early and got out to a decent lead on their way to an 86-76 win. D’Angelo Harrison is back and will likely be in the running for Big East Player of the Year. The key player that I believe stirred the drink for the Red Storm last season was Rysheed Jordan. Jordan will hope to avoid a sophomore slump and improve his potential draft stock this season. A Wednesday night with the students on break could mean a slightly smaller crowd but I would expect the attendance to be near 10,000 for this one anyway.

Game 6: at Creighton

• Where: CenturyLink Center – Omaha, NE
• When: 1/17/15 7:30pm
• How: Fox Sports 1/WEEI 103.7 FM
• Last season’s final RPI: 10
• Last season’s final Kenpom rating: 24

After Creighton travels to Providence on NYE for the Big East opener they have a tough game in DC against Georgetown and then return home for games against DePaul and revamped Seton Hall. Creighton’s game prior to Providence’s arrival in Omaha for this contest is in Milwaukee against Marquette. The atmosphere will still be loud because Creighton always has a packed house but I would think it will be slightly less loud than the last time the Friars were in CenturyLink Center for Doug McDermott’s Senior Night. That game ended with a 15 point win for the Bluejays in a game that wasn’t quite that close. This trip to Omaha should be different for the Friars and Creighton may still be looking for their first conference win of the season at this point unless they score an upset or take care of DePaul.

Summary

The first 6 games of the Big East season aren’t overly difficult for Providence but they do have a couple of tough back to back matchups against traditional Big East foes Georgetown and St. John’s. Those two games are in the friendly confines of the Dunkin’ Donuts Center though. Other than that they take care of both games against a rebuilding Creighton team, have a trip to Hinkle Fieldhouse and hope to exercise their demons in Milwaukee. All in all the first 6 aren’t too bad. The next 6 looks a little bit more difficult. More on that in Part 2 of this series.

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Mike Hopkins

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