Game Notes & Preview: (20) Providence (18-6, 6-5) at Marquette (15-9, 4-7) 2/10/16

Where: Bradley Center – Milwaukee, WI

When: 7:00pm EST

How: CBSSN (Andrew Catalon & Steve Lappas)/WEEI 103.7 FM and Friars.com (John Rooke and Joe Hassett)/FriarTV

Game Notes

• Providence and Marquette will meet for the 22nd time on Wednesday with the Golden Eagles leading the series, 15-6. Providence is 0-9 in games played in Milwaukee. Marquette defeated Providence back on January 5th when the Friars were ranked 8th in the AP Poll — their highest ranking of the season.
• Marquette is 15-9 (4-7) on the season. The Golden Eagles are led by Steve Wojciechowski, who is in his 2nd season at the helm of the Marquette program. The Golden Eagles have been swept by Seton Hall and Xavier, lost at home to DePaul and on the road at Georgetown and Villanova. They swept St. John’s, beat Butler at home and the Friars on the road. The Golden Eagles are led in scoring by freshman Henry Ellenson, who averages 16.3 points/game. Ellenson is also the leading rebounder, averaging 9.8 rebounds/game.
• The Friars dropped to 20th in the AP Poll this week and 17th in the USA Today Coaches’ Poll after losing at DePaul and at home against Villanova. This is the first time Providence has been ranked in the AP Poll for 11 straight weeks since the 1977-78 season.
• Kris Dunn is closing in on some career milestones. Dunn went over the 1,000 point mark last Saturday against Georgetown on a spectacular finish at the rim. His 1,045 career points ranks t-42nd all-time at Providence. Dunn also has 494 assists (6th all-time), 439 rebounds and 196 steals (6th all-time). Should Dunn get to the 1,000 points, 500 assists and 200 steals club, he would become the only player in school history to have accomplished all of those feats. 500 rebounds is also within his grasp. Dunn would have to average 8.1 rebounds/game over the final 8 games to do it in the regular season.
• Opening Line: (20) Providence -1 at Marquette 2/10/16

Game Preview

Marquette has been an up and down team — something to be expected with a stable of young and inexperienced players. The Golden Eagles rank 344th out of 351 Division 1 teams in terms of experience, according to Kenpom.com. The only two other high major programs with less experience are Ohio State (346) and Washington (348). Henry Ellenson has had a very good rookie campaign for Steve Wojciechowski’s team, but the Golden Eagles find themselves clawing to get back into the NCAA Tournament discussion at 15-9 and 4-7 in league play.

Last time these teams met, Providence shot sub 38% for the first time this season. That would be the beginning of a 3-game stretch where Providence would make less than 38% of their field goals, going 1-1 in those two other games and 1-2 overall. Marquette, on the other hand, shot 51%. Most of that success shot-making was on the back of too easy penetration leading to mostly uncontested shots at or near the rim. The Golden Eagles took 48.8% of their shots in the game at the rim, according to Hoop-Math.com. They converted at a rate of 66.7% on those 21 shots at the rim. Providence actually took more total shots at the rim in that game (24), but the Friars only converted on 58.3% of those attempts. Shots at the rim accounted for 39.3% of their shots.

The probable starters according to the game notes and prior box scores are:

Providence

• Kyron Cartwright – #24 – Sophomore
• Kris Dunn – #3 – Junior
• Junior Lomomba – #32 – Junior
• Rodney Bullock – #5 – Sophomore
• Ben Bentil – #0 – Sophomore

Marquette

• Duane Wilson  – #1 – Sophomore
• Haanif Cheatham- #25 – Freshman
• Jajuan Johnson- #23 – Junior
• Henry Ellenson – #13 – Freshman
• Luke Fischer – #40 – Junior

The keys to a Providence victory are:

1. Stop dribble penetration
2. Force turnovers and score off them
3. Rebound

Dribble penetration was a huge problem in the game at the Dunk. Haanif Cheatham got into the lane whenever he wanted and Duane Wilson’s game-winning basket came on a drive to the lane where he finished a shot that had a pretty high level of difficulty, although not as high as if Providence had a legitimate shot blocker at the rim. Keeping Marquette from getting into the middle of the defense will be important.

Marquette has struggled with turnovers. They had 19 last time these teams met, leading to 24 Providence points off those turnovers. The Golden Eagles ranks 316th nationally in Turnover percentage at 21.0%. Providence also happens to be proficient at turning over their opponents, to the tune of 21.8%, good for 22nd nationally. Getting easy buckets in transition off Marquette turnovers will be helpful since Providence has been struggling so mightily to score in the halfcourt. It also will go a long way towards keeping the crowd out of the game.

You’ll notice that the final key isn’t “clean the defensive glass”. I purposefully just wrote “rebound” because the Friars have a chance to make some hay on the offensive glass against Marquette. Last time out, Providence ripped down 13 offensive boards against the Golden Eagles. This Marquette team has struggled at giving up offensive rebounds, especially in conference play where they rank 9th out of 10, giving up 32.3% of possible rebounds to the offense in league games.

The health of Ben Bentil’s ankle will be a big factor because he clearly wasn’t 100% on Saturday against Villanova. He did play 34 minutes and score 20 points, but he was compromised on the defensive end and only managed 2 rebounds. Bentil didn’t practice on Monday or Tuesday in order to continue to give his ankle time to heal and get rid of some of the soreness. If he can be back closer to 100%, it would go a long way towards Providence breaking through at their house of horrors that is the Bradley Center.

Prediction: Providence 73 Marquette 70

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Mike Hopkins

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