Thoughts from the Road: Friars Win Season Opener with Dunn & Bullock

This is the inaugural 2015-16 edition of “Thoughts from the Road” and even though I’m getting this done a little later than I wanted I’m just glad to be talking about actual basketball games again.

• Kris Dunn is really good.

That’s it for this edition…………just kidding.

• Dunn started off slow in this one and it wasn’t necessarily that he was trying to get others involved. I think he played a pretty controlled game — he only had 2 turnovers — but did force a few drives and shots that weren’t there in the first half. His defense didn’t take any time to get going though. Dunn’s 7 steals in the first 20 minutes were a mix of his skill and the inexperienced Harvard backcourt and they were exciting to watch. A couple things that I thought were smart decisions by Ed Cooley: 1) moving Dunn off the ball when Bullock went out with foul trouble in the first half, 2) feeding Dunn in the post. Dunn scoring 32 points — a career high, in case you haven’t already heard — was impressive and necessary for a Friar victory against the Crimson. The most impressive thing is that he did it fairly effortlessly and scored in crunch time when his team needed the baskets the most. 23 of his 32 points were scored in the second half and he even had a roughly 4-minute “Dunn run” that essentially put the game on ice. Between the 12:52 mark and the 8:54 mark of the second half Dunn scored 11 straight Providence points that bulged the Friar lead from 2 to 11. The lead would dip to 9 only two more times in the game and the result didn’t really feel in doubt. Dunn’s stats are eye-popping but he somehow looked like he could play better on the offensive end.
• Rodney Bullock looked impressive again with the lights on for a game that actually counted — the first such game he’s played as a collegian. Despite getting into foul trouble in the first half that forced him to the bench for the final 5:38 — save the final offensive possession of the half that lasted 22 seconds — Bullock was able to pick up the scoring slack to help Dunn carry the bulk of the scoring load for the Friars. Freshman Ryan Fazekas was the only other Friar in double figures on the night and Bullock’s 20 points were the product of a versatile floor game and efficient shooting effort — 8/14 from the field and 3/4 from the line. Bullock also added 6 rebounds and 3 blocks in 31 minutes.
• Four of the five starters played north of 30 minutes for Cooley, with Ben Bentil’s 37 minutes leading the way for the Friars. Dunn and Fazekas were right behind him with 36 minutes each and Bullock played 31 minutes. The rest of the minutes were spread mostly between Junior Lomomba — the fifth starter on Saturday — and Kyron Cartwright. Lomomba played 21 minutes and Cartwright was out there for 20.
• Ben Bentil needs to shoot much better than 50% on shots at the rim. The interesting thing is that his make percentage on shots at the rim last season was only 51%. I think he sometimes tries to play to the contact at the rim when he should just be focusing on the shot alone. Bentil cannot continue to miss easy opportunities at the rim and he can’t be taking five 3-pointers in games, especially if he is going to go 0/5. I think Bentil will keep getting better as he gets more comfortable to playing the center position each and every night.
• Quadree Smith gave the Friars some good minutes off the bench and that will likely have to be the case on Wednesday against Illinois. The Illini have a big frontcourt with Charlotte transfer Mike Thorne leading the way with 21 points in their win over North Dakota State on Sunday.
• Ryan Fazekas was impressive in his first career start. Fazekas was filling in for Jalen Lindsey who didn’t dress for the game because he violated a team policy. Cooley indicated that Lindsey’s status for the Illinois game is still up in the air. Fazekas played 36 minutes and was not shy about firing from deep. He finished the game with 10 points and went 2/5 from beyond the arc but I was also very impressed with his effort on the defensive end. If Lindsey isn’t careful it could be Fazekas’ starting job for good if the freshman from Indiana keeps playing as well as he did against Harvard.
• Drew Edwards looked good in limited minutes and I could see him slowly taking over some of Lomomba’s minutes as the season goes along. Edwards is a sticky defender and shows a lot more of an offensive knack than the offensively-challenged Lomomba. It will be interesting to see how the freshman continue to grow and develop throughout the non-conference schedule. Edwards is a player I think will grow into an expanded role by the time Big East play rolls around on December 31st.

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Mike Hopkins

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