Game Notes & Preview: Providence vs. Stonehill (Exhibition) 11/8/14

Where: Dunkin’ Donuts Center – Providence, RI

When: 4:00PM

How: Audio Only on Friars.com (John Rooke and Joe Hassett)

Game Notes

• Providence is 66-39 all time in exhibition games including 17 straight wins at home. Their last exhibition game loss was in 2007 against Siviglia Wear Teramo while the team was in Italy.
• Stonehill was 8-18 last season including a 5-16 record within Northeast-10 conference play. They only lost 1 player from last year’s team (Mitch Amelio) and return their top 2 scorers from a season ago: Ryan Logan (11.6 ppg) and Carter Smith (11.0 ppg).
• Friar coach Ed Cooley is an alumnus of Stonehill from the class of 1994. He was a 3-time team captain for the Skyhawks. Cooley played in 107 career games while at Stonehill amassing 795 points and 594 rebounds good for averages of 7.4 points per game and 5.6 rebounds per game for his career. He also was an assistant coach at Stonehill for the 1995-96 season under then-coach Dave DeCiantis.
• The last time Cooley coached against his alma mater was in 2010 while he was the head coach at Fairfield. The Skyhawks beat Cooley’s Stags squad 61-60.
• The last time Providence played Stonehill was in 2009. The Friars took that one 91-55.
• Stonehill’s first official game of the season will be played on November 15th against Dominican College as part of the Assumption College Tip-Off Classic.
• Providence will host a champions night for their first official game of the season against Albany at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center on November 15th. Included in the festivities will be raising the 2014 Big East Tournament Championship banner to the rafters at the Dunk.

Game Preview

It’s finally here. Friar fans will finally get to see the 2014-15 team in live action. With Late Night Madness being restricted to students only (not that there was much of any actual basketball played), no Mal Brown game and the secret scrimmage against Harvard on November 1st not open to the media or public, this will be the first chance for Ed Cooley’s squad to compete against someone else in public.

There are a number of interesting storylines heading into Saturday’s game against the Division II Skyhawks of Stonehill College. The obvious one is Cooley coaching against his alma mater. But focusing more on the court the storylines that will have Friar fans getting out to the Dunk or listening to John Rooke and Joe Hassett online at Friars.com are:

• How will Kris Dunn look in his first competition since having a second shoulder surgery back in December 2013?
• What lineup combinations will Cooley use and who will play shooting guard following Josh Fortune’s departure?
• How will freshmen Ben Bentil, Kyron Cartwright, Paschal Chukwu and Jalen Lindsey look? (freshman Tyree Chambers won’t play due to a leg injury suffered last week prior to the Harvard scrimmage)

I’m not sure there will be in-depth answers to any of those questions considering the level of competition but it will still be good to see. It’s hard to know what to expect from Stonehill and the overall result/score isn’t critical. I think most fans would be happy to see a comfortable Friar win with no injuries.

Prediction: Providence 81 Stonehill 58

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Mike Hopkins

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