Game Notes & Preview: Providence vs. Binghamton 11/17/14

Where: Dunkin’ Donuts Center – Providence, RI

When: 9:00PM

How: Fox Sports 1 (Eric Collins & Ron Thompson)/WEEI 103.7 FM and Friars.com (John Rooke and Joe Hassett)/WNBF News Radio 1290 (Binghamton)

Game Notes

• Providence and Binghamton have only played once with the Friars defeating the Bearcats 119-58 on February 22, 2001 in Providence.
• Binghamton was 7-23 last season including a 4-12 record in America East conference play. They fell in their season opener to future Providence opponent Notre Dame by the score of 82-39 on November 14th. The Bearcats return their leading scorer and rebounder from a season ago in junior guard Jordan Reed. Reed averaged 15.4 ppg a season ago and led the America East conference in rebounding at 8.9 rpg a season ago. Last season was the second straight season he led the league in rebounding.
• Providence is 34-3 against the America East Conference all time. The 3 losses came against Albany, Maine and New Hampshire. The wins have come against Albany (1), Binghamton (1), Maine (11), New Hampshire (14) and Vermont (7). The Friars will face America East preseason favorite Stony Brook later this season which will be the first ever matchup between the two schools. The last win against an America East team came on November 15, 2014 against Albany, 64-60.
• Kyron Cartwright became the 18th true freshman to start his first game as a Friar.
• LaDontae Henton recorded his 27th career double-double on Saturday against Albany.
• Providence takes a 36 game non-conference home winning streak into the action on Saturday. The Friars have won all of their non-conference home games in each of the last four seasons. The last home non-conference loss came on December 12, 2009 against Iona, 82-73. The longest non-conference home win streak in school history is 56 games which was from February 13, 1973 to December 27, 1974.
• Providence coach Ed Cooley’s first win of the 2014-15 season was the 150th win of his career as a head coach.
• The line opened at Providence -21.5 and the over/under opened at 137.

Game Preview

Coming off a season opening win against the Albany Great Danes on Saturday Providence will welcome a second straight opponent from the America East conference in the Bearcats of Binghamton. Binghamton was picked to finish 5th out of 9 teams in the preseason America East polls and returning leading scorer and rebounder Jordan Reed was picked for the preseason all-conference team. The 5th place pick preseason is two spots higher than a season ago and is the highest preseason pick since prior to the 2008-09 season that saw the Bearcats win the America East Conference Championship and make the NCAA Tournament, losing to Duke in the First Round, 86-62.

The Bearcats under head coach Tommy Dempsey are trying to recover from the scandal following that 2008-09 season which led to the resignation of head coach Kevin Broadus and athletic director Joel Thirer, the firing of two assistant coaches and 6 players being dismissed from the team. If you want details of the issues here is the Wikipedia page.

Providence only had two scorers in double figures against Albany in Tyler Harris (23) and LaDontae Henton (21). Binghamton didn’t manage to get any player to score double figures against Notre Dame on Friday with their leading scorer on the night being sophomore forward Nick Madray who scored 9 points in 16 minutes. While Lynn Worthy of the Press & Sun Bulletin believes that Madray can present a matchup problem for any team including Providence, I just don’t see it. Maybe Worthy forgot to check the Providence roster. The Friars happen to also possess a long, 6’9 player with perimeter skills in Tyler Harris.

Binghamton is a young and mostly inexperienced team with only 1 senior and 2 juniors on their roster. There are even a few South Kent (CT) players on their roster. Against Notre Dame they started a junior, a sophomore and three freshmen.

Another matchup to keep an eye on is junior guard Jordan Reed who likely will have Kris Dunn to deal with in this game. Reed is the team’s leading scorer (15.4 ppg) from a season ago and has led the America East in rebounding the last two seasons (8.9 rpg last year) at only 6’4. Ed Cooley and Binghamton coach Tommy Dempsey are familiar with each other and Cooley discussed that during a conference call last week:

“Coach Dempsey is an incredible basketball mind. I love what he’s done with his program and how he’s building that program…Tommy’s (Dempsey) going to spread the floor. I’m very, very comfortable with watching him coach. We’re very, very close friends so that’s going to be an absolute battle.”

While it might be a battle because the Bearcats have some size to compete with the Friars, Providence should be able to get into more of a rhythm and flow on offense than they did against Albany and if that happens I can see a big scoring run to open up a large lead. Binghamton had a scoring drought of more than 7 minutes against Notre Dame and if something like that happens against Providence I expect the Friars to take advantage like the Fighting Irish did and never look back.

Prediction: Providence 79 Binghamton 54

About Author

Mike Hopkins

See author's posts