Game Notes & Preview: Providence 13-5 (3-2) at Creighton 9-9 (0-5) 1/17/15

Where: CenturyLink Center – Omaha, NE

When: 7:30 PM

How: Fox Sports 1 (Steve Physioc & Nick Bahe)/WEEI 103.7 FM and Friars.com (John Rooke and Joe Hassett)/FriarTV

Game Notes

• This will mark the 15th meeting all-time between Providence and Creighton. The series is led by the Friars, 9-5, with 1 Providence win coming on December 31st, 2014 in the Big East opener at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center. The series favors the Bluejays, 3-2, when played in Omaha. Providence went 2-1 against Creighton last year, splitting the home games and then winning at Madison Square Garden in the rubber match for the 2014 Big East Tournament Championship.
• Creighton welcomes Providence to Omaha following a pair of last second losses. On January 10th the Bluejays fell to Seton Hall at home on a Sterling Gibbs made 3-pointer. That trend continued on January 14th on the road at Marquette where Matt Carlino was the culprit this time with a late game 3-point shot. Creighton has started conference play 0-5. The Bluejays are led in scoring by senior guard Austin Chapman, who averages 11.8 points/game. Leading on the glass is senior center Will Artino, who averages 5.0 rebounds/game.
• Providence had been one of the hottest teams in the league to start Big East play and were coming off a road win at Butler and a home win against Georgetown before they ran into a desparate St. John’s team that was looking to avoid an 0-4 start to conference play. The Johnnies shot lights out from 3-point range to defeat the Friars, 83-70, at the Dunk on January 14th.
• LaDontae Henton is now in 9th place on the all-time points scored list at Providence College with 1,772 career points. Henton passed Friar legend Ernie DiGregorio during the team’s last game.
• The line opened as a pick ’em.

Kenpom InstaGamePrep™

Note: Stats include games through January 15th vs D-1 teams only

Game Preview

Providence hits the road to take on the Creighton Bluejays after a mini 2 game homestand where they beat Georgetown but fell to St. John’s which gave the Red Storm their first conference win after starting 0-3. The Friars are hoping to make that a trend with Creighton entering Saturday night’s contest winless in Big East play at 0-5. The Bluejays are coming off back to back heartbreaking losses on last second 3-pointers. The first defeat came quite literally at the hands of Sterling Gibbs as he scored 22 points, including the game winning 3-pointer with 2.1 seconds left in the game. The most recent loss was after Marquette’s Matt Carlino buried a go-ahead 3-pointer with 11.2 seconds left that would prove to be the game winner. Carlino finished with a game high 19 points.

Providence is coming off a flat performance at home that Ed Cooley explained as his fault. That’s admirable of Cooley to try to take the blame for his team’s lackluster effort against St. John’s but the truth is this team has faltered at times this season and given less than 100% effort on the defensive end in some games which is no one’s fault but the players, in my opinion. The home loss to Brown comes to mind. Cooley is hoping a road trip to Omaha allows his team to shake off the loss to St. John’s and look to sweep the season series with Creighton. The Bluejays are not as bad as their 9-9 and 0-5 records would have you believe. The CenturyLink Center will be packed for a Saturday tilt that is a rematch of the 2014 Big East Tournament Championship game.

There isn’t a whole lot of mystery between these teams as they last played 18 days ago. The Bluejays like to shoot the long ball and have 4 players in their regular rotation that have taken over 50% of their shot attempts from behind the 3-point line according to Hoop-Math.com. Isaiah Zierdan is 7th in the Big East in 3-point field goal percentage at 39.8%. He averages 6 attempts per game which is tied for the most in the conference. Creighton isn’t a big, physical team but they managed to overpower Providence in the paint in the first half of their earlier meeting with Geoff Groselle coming off the bench and scoring 14 points. Groselle is averaging 1.5 points/game this season.

LaDontae Henton scored a career-high 35 points in Providence’s win against Creighton on December 31st but he was also the only Friar to score in double figures. Kris Dunn has stepped up scoring the ball with much more consistency of late but the 3rd scoring option has been a hot topic. Tyler Harris had a key stretch at the end of regulation in the Georgetown game and he had a nice stretch during a run from down 17 points against St. John’s but Harris hasn’t been able to consistently be that 3rd scorer. I would imagine Greg McDermott will be focusing their defensive efforts to slow down Henton after his performance at the Dunk so the need for that 3rd scorer may become even more evident in this game.

The key on defense for Providence’s success will again be to defend the 3-point line which is something they struggled with mightily against St. John’s their last time out. The Red Storm made 8 3’s in the first half on their way to 10 total made 3’s on the night. On the offensive end the Friars just simply need to make shots. There have been good, open shots but they haven’t been falling lately. In their last two games Providence is shooting 35.8% from the field as a team.

The Friars were able to steal one of those games with their defense but the same defensive intensity didn’t materialize in the other game. If the Friars can limit Creighton’s 3-point shooting they should be in good shape, even on the road. I’m concerned that will not be the case against another team desperate to get their first Big East win of the season.

Prediction: Providence 63 Creighton 65

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Mike Hopkins

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