Thoughts from the Road: Friars Still Winners Out West, Even After Loss to Michigan State

This Thoughts from the Road: Couch and Bed Edition is brought to you by leftover Thanksgiving food and lots of coffee thanks to the late tipoffs in California.

• Despite losing for the first time this season on Sunday night to Michigan State, the Friars were still big winners over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Before I even talk about the impact of getting a win over a top-15 team on a neutral court I want to mention the opportunities that Providence gained from a schedule perspective. Consider this slate of opponents: Evansville, Santa Clara, UC Irvine. That’s what Providence probably would have faced had they not gotten off to a good start by beating a solid Evansville team. Instead, the Friars got to play Arizona and Michigan State — two teams who are likely to be top 4 seeds in the NCAA Tournament — not to mention they beat one and hung tough with the other.

• Providence’s non-conference schedule in 2015-16 looked decent but not as tough as the 2014-15 version that was ranked in the top 15 in non-conference Strength of Schedule. That strong non-conference SOS enabled Providence to have a top 40 RPI last season, which helped their seeding for the NCAA Tournament. After adding two top 15 opponents to the schedule, Providence is poised to have another strong RPI number if they continue to play well and win 20+ games this season.
• Ben Bentil was Providence’s most consistent scoring threat during the Wooden Legacy Tournament and was named to the All-Tournament team after averaging 20.6 points/game. Bentil carried to scoring load — especially early in games — while Kris Dunn was getting a feel for how the other team was set to defend him. Teams will continue to shadow Dunn and throw 2 and 3 bodies at him when he has the ball so Bentil will continue to get scoring opportunities.
• The word may be out about Rodney Bullock. Bullock wasn’t as prolific scoring the basketball during the 3 games of the Wooden Legacy Tournament and it may be because team’s have started to move him up the scouting report after he averaged 18.8 points/game before the Friars flew out to California on Tuesday. Bullock scored in single-digits against Evansville, which was the first time in his career he has failed to get at least 13 points in a game. He followed that 7 point effort with 8 against Arizona and 9 against Michigan State. The good news is that Bentil can obviously score when needed. The bad news is Bullock won’t sneak up on anyone anymore this season.
• Kris Dunn’s performance in the last 4.5 minutes against Arizona was dominant. Dunn scored or assisted on Providence’s final 14 points, scoring the final 10 points of the game to seal the 4 point victory over the then 11th ranked Wildcats. Dunn, who also was named to the Wooden Legacy All-Tournament team, has played under control more this season than he did last season but he has also tried to do too much at times this year. There was some evidence of that against Michigan State. Dunn had a season-high 5 turnovers against the Spartans with 4 coming in the first half. He took too many jumpers early in that game and made a few forced passes that he has largely avoided this season. These are basically nitpicking at Dunn’s excellent start to the season but they should be mentioned. It certainly has helped Dunn that other players have stepped up — especially in the case of the Arizona game where his teammates kept the score close while he was saddled with foul trouble — and helped shoulder some of the scoring load but Dunn knows when it’s time to take over and close out games. That killer instinct will be critical during Big East games.
• Junior Lomomba has taken a nice step forward in the early going this season. Lomomba isn’t going to light up the scoring line of the stat sheet but he is clearly more comfortable and confident on the offensive end this season. Some of that is a credit to Dunn and his ability to find Lomomba for good looks and the fact that teams are shading players towards Dunn. Lomomba has to be able to at least keep defenders honest and if he can keep making open 3-pointers and occasionally taking the ball to the basket that will go a long way toward keeping extra defenders off Dunn. Lomomba has continued to progress as a lockdown defender and did an excellent job against Denzel Valentine for much of Sunday’s game. There seems to always be a stark contrast when Lomomba is on a player and when he is out of the game. That player seems to always have more breathing room sans Lomomba being that player’s shadow. With that ability and his size he should be able to lock down a good number of the best scorers in the Big East, or at least slow them down.
• Ryan Fazekas has it. He just has that it factor that all true shooters possess. He isn’t afraid to keep shooting and he isn’t afraid of taking a big shot. He has definitely had better shooting games than he did against Michigan State but the shot that really makes you say “yup, he’s a shooter” was with 6:34 to go in the game when Fazekas caught the ball on the wing and fired with a defender in his face to sink his only basket of the night. That extended Providence’s lead to 4 and was the Friars’ first field goal in nearly 2:30. It’s going to be fun watching Fazekas continue to progress. He definitely needs work on the defensive end but that will come with more experience and a little more strength added. Get ready to see the hashtag #Faz3kas a lot over the next few season.
• It was encouraging to see Providence hang with Michigan State — and even outrebound the Spartans in the first half — on the glass on Sunday night. The rebounding disparity against Arizona was atrocious and that will be an area of concern for Providence all season long with their less that huge frontcourt. If they can compete for rebounds against an experience and talented frontcourt like Michigan State’s they should be able to compete against any team they have left on their schedule.
• Providence is now more than halfway through their non-conference schedule and to only have 1 loss — and have that loss be against a top 5 team on a neutral court — is an excellent start. But there are still landmines left on the schedule, including tough road games at rival URI and at UMass. It will be critical for Providence to return home from California and keep their focus and grit pointed in the right direction: forward.

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Mike Hopkins

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