Providence Prepares for Dayton, Meets with the Media

Providence arrived in Columbus on Wednesday and were greeted by some Friar fans at the team hotel. After settling in the team watched the Dayton/Boise State game together in their film room at the hotel and “watch[ed] with an open mind” according to Carson Desrosiers. The team practiced Thursday morning with an eye on Dayton for the first time and LaDontae Henton, Kris Dunn, Tyler Harris, Carson Desrosiers and Ed Cooley met with the media Thursday afternoon around 5pm followed by another team practice.

Here are some of the highlights from that media session:

LaDontae Henton on playing against Dayton, a team he was originally committed to before ending up at Providence: “I’m a firm believer in everything happens for a reason. Coach [Brian] Gregory left Dayton [for Georgia Tech] and I opened [my recruitment] back up and Providence came calling me. I think it’s one of the best decisions I made in my life to come to Providence College, and everything is working out for the best.”

Henton on having a senior sense of urgency, learning from last year’s loss to North Carolina and reacting to the upsets of Iowa State and Baylor so far in the NCAA Tournament: “Last year was a great experience for us. I understand that you can’t take anybody lightly. Anybody can beat anybody on a given night. The younger guys just gotta be prepared mentally, and you just gotta experience it and have fun with it and make the most out of the opportunity.”

Kris Dunn on what he can take from the experience of watching last year’s NCAA Tournament game from the bench: “Last year was just a blessing for me to be on the sideline actually seeing my team achieve something. So special getting back to the tournament. Just watching them play and work hard out there was just motivating and inspiring for me this year, and I just took a lot from it and just hoping that we can go out and make a run this year.”

Dunn on how he will approach Friday’s game on this big stage: “We’re just going to try to approach it as another game. I mean the atmosphere is definitely going to be exciting. Dayton’s going to have a lot of fans and it’s a big stage but right now we’re just focused on how we’re going to win the game and I think all of us have a great mindset going in, that we’re just going to try to work as hard as we can.”

Henton on what he and Dunn have tried to do as leaders this season: “Just trying to lead by example and tell the young guys what it takes to win at a high level. Guys on this table [Henton, Dunn, Harris, Desrosiers are] experienced and they’ve been at this level before. So just the experience in being able to mentor the younger guys and tell them what it takes is big for us. And the young guys that are coming along [is] helping us out a lot.”

Henton and Dunn react to being called Batman and Robin and what that makes Harris and Desrosiers: HENTON “I don’t think we’re Batman and Robin. We’re just two players that want to win just like the guys next to us [Harris and Desrosiers]. We’re all leaders on the team and we mean everything to the team. Everybody on the team means something. It’s not really Batman and Robin.” DUNN “Like LaDontae said, there’s no Batman and Robin. Everybody has a role on the team, a specific role. Everybody helps out. And right now we’re playing good basketball and hopefully we can just keep it going.”

Henton on whether he has to guard against being too emotional or trying to do too much: “I’ve been here before. If it was my first time maybe it would be a little tougher. But I know I’ve been here before and I know what it takes so just having that experience under my belt will help me out a lot. I know the guys next to me [Dunn, Harris and Desrosiers] are also helping me out a lot. Everybody wants to play to win. We have to play with a sense of urgency but we’ve also got to play smart.”

Henton on whether there is a fear of the crowd being slanted towards Dayton: “It’s not really a fear. I mean we have played a lot of road games during the year. So if it is a lot of Dayton fans so be it. We have to play through adversity like we have all year.”

Harris on whether it’s fair that Dayton is playing in Columbus as an 11 seed: “I think it’s just what it is. You’ve still got to go out there and play the game and compete. So we’ve got to be aware that it is somewhat of a home game to them. But at the end of the day we’ve just got to go out there and play our game.”

Desrosiers on whether there are any advantages or disadvantages that Dayton has already played a game and may be in tournament mode already: “I think we’ve gone through [having a few days off between games] this season. I can think back to finals week in early December. The Big East gives us a break at some point in the middle of our Big East schedule as well. So we’ve come off breaks like this. We just played on Friday and we’ve prepared well. We’ve practiced pretty hard. So it’s not like we’ve been kind of out of it. We’ve been practicing really hard and I think our practices are harder than the game. So we’ll be ready.”

Desrosiers on if the loss and how they lost to Villanova in the Big East semifinals can prepare them for the potential for an abrupt end in tournament play: “Yeah, I think you want to come into the NCAA Tournament ideally without a loss, on a win streak, which is what we did last year. But we’re playing pretty good basketball right now regardless of the outcome of Friday’s game [against Villanova]. So we all know that. And we have the opportunity to start a winning streak, and that’s what we want to do.”

Cooley on whether the way he will prepare his team mentally and emotionally this year will be different than last year after having been through the NCAA Tournament prep once before: “Great question. Last year, again, being the first time here, a little nervous. Not that I’m not nervous now because I think we’re getting ready to play a great team. It’s just a little different. You’re feeling — our veteran players in particular, Carson, LaDontae and Tyler — have a different aura about them that I like. When you play in this tournament here, it’s more about emotion, passion and energy. The Xs and Os, you gotta call a couple of good plays but it’s going to be about who brings it, who has great effort. Some 50/50 balls, can we get to those. It’s not so much Xs and Os as it is determination and grit.”

Cooley on whether he is frustrated by the fact that Dayton is playing about 75 miles from their home court: “Not frustrated at all. We’re actually excited about it. I think the NCAA does the best job of all the tournaments. And that’s just the way it shook out. If we’re worried about what Dayton’s doing, we’re not concentrating on what Providence is doing. Providence College is here to compete. We’re here to compete the best we can, and not so much worry about the crowd. If we do what we’re supposed to do and we play as a group, we share, we care, we love, we are going to find ourselves in a great situation. So I’m not worried about that at all.”

Cooley on whether not being 100% sure who to prepare for until late Wednesday night could actually be a positive because it allowed he and his staff to focus on their own team: “That was something that I’ve never gone through as an assistant coach or head coach, being in that, you know, you’re trying to prepare for two teams over three days. And so what it did allow us to do is to concentrate on us. And at the end of the day that’s what it’s really about. But when we found out — we watched the game last night as a team and we did some team scouting. It was a great game with Boise and Dayton. So our guys were familiar when we got to the practice court today. But that was a different experience and something that we’ll learn from. And now we know who we’re playing so we’re excited.”

Cooley on whether his team has post-Kentucky hangover with the losses at Boston College and to Brown: “I’ve got a young team. I think what a lot of people don’t understand is we only had three players on our roster that actually played in a game here in the NCAA Tournament last year. I don’t know if it was a hangover, yet we were still growing. I think we became a better team because of those games, and I just shared in the locker room with our team: Enjoy this moment. This is a great moment. Don’t take it for granted. Let’s have fun. Let’s do the best we can. But we didn’t have a Kentucky hangover. Hey, first of all, a lot of people are going to have hangovers when they play Kentucky. And we just — we played on the road up at Boston College, and I think a lot of teams that are in this tournament had bad games against opponents, but don’t take anything away from Boston College or Brown or Kentucky, I think they’re good teams.”

Cooley on how Henton became a Friar instead of a Flyer: “Well, I think one of the most undervalued things here at Providence College has been our staff. I think we have one of the best staffs in the country. I think our administrators, our support staff, our assistant coaches have done a great job. And one of our coaches had a relationship once he opened up his recruitment and allowed us — he was our first-ever recruit here. So I’m really — and he’s probably one of the all-time greatest players to ever come to Providence College. So I’m happy for LaDontae that he’s able to have back-to-back tournament appearances. Hopefully he has saved his best for last playing in the place that he was originally going to.”

Cooley on what challenges Dayton as a team and Jordan Sibert as a player present to Providence: “Terrific player. I think Coach Miller has done a great job here. They have some team toughness. I think less has been more, when you look at — they know exactly the way they want to play. They’re going to spread you out a little bit and drive it. Everybody talks about our length versus their undersized. It’s not about size or girth in these games, it’s about how big is your heart and how willing are you to give it up for your teammate to move forward. They’ve got a lot of things that are going to bother us, but I’m not going to share that with anybody in here. I’m pretty sure Archie is going to say the same thing. We have some things they have to address and they have things that we have to address. At the end of the day it’s going to come down to grit, passion and energy on who’s going to be moving forward.”

Cooley on Ben Bentil and his recent good play and whether he has become the 3rd option behind Henton and Dunn: “Ben has always been somebody who is anxious all the time. And when we decided to bring Tyler Harris off the bench we needed some experience off the bench because we didn’t have any at all. I still think Tyler is our third option if you want to call it an option. But our third scorer. And Ben is just emerging in front of our eyes every single day. And the more he slows down, the more efficient he’s becoming. He’s not thinking. He’s playing. He’s not trying to have special plays. He’s taking shots when he’s open because I think he’s a really, really good shooter. But it takes time to develop those young guys. When you talk about the early losses that we had, that was those young guys trying to identify roles and where do they fit in and how do they fit in. And I hope he has a big tournament left in him, because he’s getting better by the second. I’m glad he’s a baby. I’m really glad he’s a freshman because I think he’s going to do some great things in Friartown.”

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