Game Notes & Preview: Providence (1-0) vs. Illinois (1-1) 11/18/15

Where: Dunkin’ Donuts Center – Providence, RI

When: 7:00PM

How: Fox Sports 1 (Tim Brando & Bill Raftery)/WEEI 103.7 FM and Friars.com (John Rooke and Joe Hassett)/FriarTV

Game Notes

• Providence is 2-0 all time against Illinois. The first game was played on December 28, 1965 and the second game was played December 9, 2003. Both games were Friar wins and both were played at Madison Square Garden.
• Providence is 14-17 all time against Big Ten teams with the last win against a Big Ten team being that December 2003 victory over these Illinois Fighting Illini.
• Illinois is 1-1 on the season after losing to North Florida in their opener on November 13th and then defeating North Dakota State in their second game on November 15th. The Fighting Illini are led in both scoring and rebounding by graduate transfer Mike Thorne. Through two games he is averaging 23 points/game and 11 rebounds/game.
• Kris Dunn was named Big East Player of the Week on Monday for his 32 point performance in Providence’s season-opening win against Harvard on November 14th. Dunn’s 32 points against the Crimson marked a career high. He also added 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 8 steals and had just 2 turnovers on 36 minutes. The 8 steals were also a career high for Dunn.
• This game is part of the inaugural Gavitt Tipoff Games. This will be an annual tournament played between 16 teams from the Big East and Big Ten conferences each season. The tournament is named after the late Dave Gavitt — founder of the Big East conference in 1979 — who is in the Providence College Hall of Fame for his efforts as both a coach and administrator at the school and he was also inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006.
• Opening Line: Providence -6.5 vs. Illinois 11/18/15

Game Preview

This will be a second straight game where they Friars are playing against a depleted backcourt. Illinois has been hit with a rash of injuries since point guard Tracy Abrams — attempting to return to the court after missing last season with a torn ACL — tore his achilles tendon in July. Shooting guard Kendrick Nunn tore a ligament in his thumb and had to have surgery in October and the prized recruit in John Groce’s 2015 class Jalen Coleman-Lands missed the team’s Italy trip this summer and most of the preseason practices with a stress fracture in his lower leg. Power forward Leron Black is slowly returning after having surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee. Black didn’t play at all in the season opener and only managed 15 minutes on Sunday against North Dakota State.

The story so far for Illinois has been the frontcourt play by Charlotte graduate transfer Mike Thorne, Jr. and the wing guard play of junior Malcolm Hill. Thorne, Jr. leads the team in scoring and rebounding through two contests while Hill is second in both categories. Thorne, Jr. will give the Friars problems as his size at 6’11 and 270 pounds combined with his experience as a 5th year senior promises to give Providence’s young and thin frontcourt fits. Hill figures to get attention from Junior Lomomba early but I wouldn’t rule out Kris Dunn rolling over there to lock down Hill.

Providence will have to do their best to control Thorne, Jr. down low without getting Ben Bentil into foul trouble. I wouldn’t be surprised if Ed Cooley throws Tom Planek in there to give some fouls as the biggest weakness in Thorne, Jr.’s game is his free throw shooting.  He is a career 52.2% shooter from the charity stripe and is just 8/17 so far this season (47.1%). The flipside on Providence being undersized down low is that they are faster and that could materialize in some transition scoring opportunities if Bentil can beat Thorne, Jr. down the floor on the break.

The Friars also figure to mix up their defenses and run a little more zone than they showed against Harvard on Saturday. I also think you’ll see more pressing as Cooley will look to get some easy baskets off turnovers while also trying to speed up Illinois in the half court to keep the ball away from Thorne, Jr. as much as possible. Kris Dunn will have to continue to play well and limit his turnovers and Rodney Bullock will need to keep being the secondary scoring threat and stay out of foul trouble.

I think the X-factor for Providence in this game will be Ryan Fazekas. Illinois has struggled to defend the 3-point line through 2 games — their opponents are shooting 46.7% on 60 attempts — and Fazekas has shown he is more than willing to launch from downtown when open. I also think you might see more of Ricky Council in this game if it appears that Providence is getting good looks from beyond the arc. The game should be tight throughout but I expect Providence to pull away in the last few minutes and seal the game at the free throw line to win by 6. Look for another crazy statline from Dunn with more assists than steals this time.

The probable starters according to the game notes are:

• Kris Dunn – Junior
• Junior Lomomba – Junior
• Ryan Fazekas – Freshman
• Rodney Bullock – Sophomore
• Ben Bentil – Sophomore

There has been no update on Jalen Lindsey’s status and it’s likely that it won’t be known whether or not he is dressing until he comes out of the tunnel on Wednesday night during pregame warmups. To listen to the preview podcast I did with Illinois’ SB Nation site The Champaign Room on Monday night, click here.

Prediction: Providence 82 Illinois 76

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Mike Hopkins

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