NCAA Tournament Second Round Game Notes & Preview: #6 Providence 22-11 vs #11 Dayton 26-8 3/20/15

Where: Nationwide Arena – Columbus, OH

When: 10:30 PM

How: truTV (Ian Eagle & Doug Gottlieb with Evan Washburn on sideline)/WEEI 103.7 FM and Friars.com (John Rooke and Joe Hassett)/FriarTV

Game Notes

  • This will mark the 8th meeting all-time between Providence and Dayton. The series is currently led by Dayton, 5-2.
  • Dayton enters Friday’s game following a “First Four” victory on their home court against fellow 11 seed Boise State. The Flyers are led in scoring by senior Jordan Sibert, who averages 16.4 points/game. Dayton is led in rebounding by junior Dyshawn Pierre, who averages 8.1 rebounds/game.
  • Providence is making their 17th NCAA Tournament appearance and first back-to-back entry since 1990. This is the second straight year the Friars will be playing in a 6/11 game after losing to 6th seeded North Carolina last season in the Second Round. Providence is looking for their first NCAA Tournament victory since 1997 when they defeated UT-Chattanooga.
  • LaDontae Henton and Kris Dunn were unanimous selections to the First Team All-Big East. Dunn shared the Big East Defensive Player of the Year with Sir’Dominic Pointer and Big East Player of the Year with Ryan Arcidiacono. Henton finished the season leading the Big East in scoring at 20.1 points/game. He’s the 6th Friar to accomplish that and the 3rd Friar in the last 5 seasons to lead the Big East in scoring (Bryce Cotton – 2013, Marshon Brooks – 2011, Herbert Hill – 2007, Ryan Gomes – 2005). Dunn finished the season leading the Big East in assists and steals. He is the first player to ever accomplish that. Dunn is now the 3rd straight Friar to lead the Big East in assists (Bryce Cotton – 2014, Vincent Council – 2013 & 2012) and Dunn is the 6th Providence player ever to lead the Big East in assists. Dunn is also Providence’s first player in Big East history to win Player of the Year.
  • LaDontae Henton is in 3rd place on the all-time points scored list at Providence with 2,041 career points. Henton trails Jimmy Walker by 4 points for 2nd all-time. Henton grabbed his 1,000th rebound on March 1st and he’s now 5th all-time with 1,043 career rebounds. Henton trails Geoff McDermott by 12 boards for 4th. Carson Desrosiers is 7th on the all-time blocked shots list at Providence College with 161 blocks through 65 career games as a Friar. Desrosiers is 5 blocks behind Rich Hunger for 6th place in school history. Kris Dunn‘s 243 assists this season puts him in a tie for 2nd most assists in a seasonall-time at Providence. He’s tied with Vin Ernst’s 1962-63 season. Next on the list is Ernie DiGregorio, who had 267 assists in the 1972-73 season.
  • The line opened with Providence as a 2.5 point favorite. The line is now 3.5 and the total opened at 131.

Kenpom InstaGamePrepâ„¢

Note: Stats include games through March 18th vs D-1 teams only

PC vs Dayton NCAA Tourney 2015 Kenpom1

PC vs Dayton 2015 NCAA Tourney Kenpom2

Game Preview

Dayton advanced to this game after beating Boise State on their home court in the “First Four” game on Wednesday night. That leaves both Dayton and Providence with a small window to prepare for each other. The Friars at least got fly into Columbus on Wednesday and relax while the Flyers had the stress of a 1 point victory to advance. Dayton does have the advantage of having a semi-home game with Dayton and Columbus being about 70 miles apart.

Dayton is undersized with their tallest rotation player being 6’6. This leads to the Flyers shooting more jump shots and 3-pointers. They are similar to some Villanova teams in recent memory but they don’t shoot the ball quite as well as those Wildcat teams. The Flyers also don’t attempt to rebound their misses and have one of the worst Offensive Rebounding % in the country, according to Kenpom.com. One reason could be because of their lack of height but the stats show that it’s more likely that they don’t throw a lot of bodies at the rim and get back to prevent the opponent from getting out in transition. Dayton has only allowed 18.6% of their opponents shots to be in transition, which ranks 79th nationally per Hoop-Math.com.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the game starts a bit slow on offense with the Friars having to fight some butterflies with only 3 players on the current roster having played in the NCAA Tournament a season ago. I do think Providence matches up well against Dayton. It will be difficult to determine the potential semi-home game advantage that Dayton may have, but I feel confident Ed Cooley will have his team prepared. The Friars also showed they can play tight tournament games with a mostly anti-Friar crowd like they did against Villanova in the Big East Tournament Semifinals. The Friars advance fairly easily to Sunday’s Round of 32.

Prediction: Providence 68 Dayton 59

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