Thoughts from the Road: Providence Comes Back at Seton Hall, Henton Scores 2,000

This version of thoughts from the road should probably be titled “Thoughts from the Train” as I took 2 trains – both shoving off from different Pennsylvania Stations – to get from the Prudential Center to my home.

• LaDontae Henton. Friar legend. Henton reached the 2,000 career point plateau in Wednesday night’s game by nailing a 3-pointer at the 12:52 mark of the second half. He now officially joins Ryan Gomes as the only two players in the history of Providence College to score 2,000 points and grab 1,000 rebounds in their careers.
  Henton finished with 21 points on the night, right on his average for the season. Fun fact about Henton’s current 20.5 points/game number: if the season ended today that season average would rank as the 15th best points/game number in Providence College history right between Billy Donovan’s 20.65 points/game his senior season and Jimmy Walker’s 20.46 points/game in his first season on the varsity at PC. For those keeping score at home, Henton is 17 points behind Eric Murdock for 3rd all-time in points scored in a career. He trails Jimmy Walker by 41 points for 2nd and Ryan Gomes by 134 points for 1st. Saturday’s Senior Day celebrations will be a very special day in Friartown. As special as Bryce Cotton was in a Friar uniform Henton is perhaps more special. Ed Cooley was hired on March 22, 2011. On April 30, 2011 Henton signed on as Cooley’s first recruit at PC. When you think about where this program has gone since March 2011 to March 2015 its impossible to oversell Henton’s impact on the turnaround of the program.
• Kris Dunn had a pretty rough first 20 minutes in this game. Dunn was 0/5 from the field in the first half and only dished out 1 assist in 17 minutes. He looked like a totally different player in the second half. Dunn either scored or assisted on Providence’s first 18 points of the second half. The first basket he wasn’t involved with was a putback by Paschal Chukwu when the big man grabbed an offensive rebound. The shooter of the missed shot: Dunn. Dunn ultimately scored or assisted on 34 of PC’s 50 points in the second half. Of the 16 he wasn’t involved in 10 came on free throws. He finished the game with 17 points, 8 assists, 7 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 turnovers. Dunn’s issue at this point, beyond the high turnover numbers – he currently has 119 turnovers this season which is tied for 4th most in a season at PC – is his lack of consistency. It’s hard to remember that he has only played in 58 career games with 25 of those coming his freshman season when he wasn’t playing point guard. Consistency is what will vault him to the national attention next season should he return.
• Ben Bentil had a monster game. Bentil plays with an edge. He’ll likely get called for a few taunting technical fouls during his career at PC because one of his favorite pastimes is staring at an opponent after an and-1 or a dunk. That kind of attitude and edge seems to fit Ed Cooley’s personality. I’m not saying Cooley is a fan of or an advocate for taunting but I get the sense that he loves Bentil’s willingness to mix it up. He’s certainly not soft. His 21 points marks a new career high and the 10 boards makes this his 3rd career double-double. If Bentil plays like he did last night for the rest of the season it makes whatever the Friars can get from Tyler Harris gravy and that’s a place they haven’t been much this season.
• Carson Desrosiers stat line wasn’t overly impressive. In 19 minutes he had just 2 points, 2 rebounds and a block. Getting him back was important though. Ed Cooley discussed Desrosiers importance beyond the box score briefly Sunday after the Marquette game. Cooley indicated that the Friars have to run a totally different offense when the 5th year senior isn’t on the floor. That’s kind of a big deal. For a team that isn’t an offensive juggernaut to begin with having to run different sets probably isn’t helpful for a full 40 minutes. It was also nice to see Ted Bancroft get some action, even if it was for less than a minute. It means the rumors of his final season as a Friar possibly being over due to a torn meniscus were incorrect.
• Saturday’s game is important because one result could mean the Friars finish 2nd in the league standings and get the #2 seed for the Big East Tournament, while a loss and a combination of other scenarios could mean a drop all the way to 5th and the #5 seed. But the importance is all about seeding. That’s something that hasn’t been experienced in Friartown in quite some time. Even last year’s team needed to win the Big East Tournament to just get a piece of that blue carpet. This year the Friars already have their piece of the blue carpet and are looking to defend their title and move up seed lines. It’s amazing what Ed Cooley, his staff and these players have accomplished in 4 years. A reminder that Cooley has never had a season as a head coach where his team’s win total was less than the prior season at that school. The Friars won 23 games a year ago.

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Mike Hopkins

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