Thoughts from the Road: Friars Close Out Non-Conference in Convincing Fashion

This Thoughts from the Road: Couch Edition is brought to you from the very comfortable blue couch at my parent’s house. It was powered by a chicken parm from Rustica and aided by the company of my mom and Declan. With Big East play on the horizon, I am planning to have some more actual Thoughts from the Road that involve me driving to Providence and attending games in person. Stay tuned in 2016.

• I struggled with who should get the leading bullet point: Kris Dunn or Ben Bentil. One one hand, Dunn returning was the biggest story as the ball was being tossed up in the air for the opening tip. On the other hand, Bentil provided an impressive performance after he won that tip, including blowing past his career high for points in a game that he set earlier this season. To solve the dilemma — and because I think Dunn had a big impact on Bentil’s game — I’m going to just talk about both guys in this space. Dunn’s return was met with jubilation from all corners of Friartown. Any rumors or conspiracy theories about why Dunn had missed 12 days and 2.5 games could be put to bed now that he was back in uniform and in the starting lineup. Dunn didn’t give any appearance of rust. He stuffed the stat sheet in his normal fashion with 14 points, 11 assists and 6 rebounds. He shot 6/9 from the field, including 2/2 from beyond the arc. But, most importantly, he made things easier for all of his teammates. No player was assisted more by Dunn’s presence than Bentil. Bentil had arguably his best game in a Providence uniform, going off for a career-best 32 points and grabbing 12 rebounds. That was Bentil’s third double-double this season — eighth in his career — and the second straight game he amassed double digits in points and rebounds. The most impressive thing for me was how efficient Benitl was in totaling his 32 points. He was his typical very good self from the free throw line — 7/9 — but he shot a much higher percentage from the field than he normally does — 11/16. I posit that Dunn is a large reason for that. Bentil seemed to take less jump shots outside the rhythm of the offense and got open looks off Dunn dishes on more than one occasion. Bentil’s 68.8% field goal percentage was more than 20 percentage points higher than his season average. He also made 3-pointers at a much higher clip — 3/5 — than he has been this season — 28.6% entering the UMass game.

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• Bentil’s breakout has been nothing short of extraordinary. The sophomore from Ghana is currently leading ALL BIG EAST PLAYERS in scoring. Yup. Every single player in the Big East has scored less points than Ben Bentil through December 21st. Ed Cooley said after the game that he thought Rodney Bullock might lead this Providence team in scoring and fans likely expected Dunn to hold the title of leading scorer for the Friars. That Bentil has done what he’s done is even more impressive when you recall that he also kept the team afloat while Dunn was recovering from illness. He was as big a part of Providence’s success during the Wooden Legacy Tournament as Dunn. He still rushes some shots and takes more 3-pointers outside the offense for my liking, but it’s hard to argue with this body of work through 13 games: 18.7 points/game, 8.0 rebounds/game and 1.1 blocks/game. He has already scored more points through 13 games this season than he did in all 34 games he played last year as a freshman. A common thought among coaches and media types is that a player’s largest development jump comes between their freshman and sophomore years. Bentil is certainly proving that to be a solid theory.

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• Jalen Lindsey has been playing much better the last few games than he did at the start of the season. His role has expanded a bit with Ryan Fazekas on the shelf with mono and the most impressive improvement for me is Lindsey’s willingness to mix it up on the boards. His last 4 games have rebounding the totals of 9, 7, 13 and 8. That 13 rebound night also came with 13 points for his first career double-double. Lindsey’s rebounding high last season was 5 — accomplished in back-to-back games — and he only scored in double figures twice. He has matched or exceeded that 5 rebound threshold 6 times already this season and scored in double figures 6 times, including in 3 straight games. Lindsey is also making a nice jump in development and production through the non-conference schedule.
• Junior Lomomba has also exceeded my expectations so far this season. Many Friar fans were writing his swan song in a Friar uniform after this season — his academic senior year — but that may have been premature. Lomomba has proven to be a glue guy, plus. Plus, he has expanded his offensive game and seen his confidence grow with attacking the rim. Plus, he is clearly a leader on this team. More than once in Monday’s game it was Lomomba — not Bentil or Dunn — who was bringing the team together for a quick huddle before a free throw shot or out of a timeout. He also got the great honor of having an award named after him by yours truly earlier this season. The inaugural Albert “Junior” Lomomba Unsung Hero of the Game award was given to Drew Edwards after his effort against Bryant. I think it’s fitting that Lomomba gets that award for his 11 point, 6 assist effort against UMass.
• Rodney Bullock was quiet in the first half because he was only able to play 5 minutes after picking up his second foul with 14:50 remaining in the first half. All 8 of Bullock’s points were scored in his 18 second half minutes. He didn’t have a terribly efficient shooting game at 3/9, but he grabbing 3 offensive rebounds and 3 defensive boards. Bullock’s hot start has cooled a bit but he has proven he can help as another scoring option and his abilities will be called upon in Big East play when the league’s teams try to overtly shut down Dunn and/or Bentil.
• Drew Edwards has proven that he is a player that Cooley trusts to keep in the rotation for Big East play. Edwards got 14 minutes against UMass and did a pretty good job slowing down the Minutemen’s guards. He did make a mental mistake or two on the defensive end but those will start to become less frequent as he gains more experience.
• Kyron Cartwright got some extended first half minutes once Dunn picked up his second foul and was forced to the bench. He didn’t have a terribly effective shooting night — 0/2 — but dished out 5 assist against only 1 turnover. His early shot clock pull up 17-footers are less than desirable for this writer, but he speeds up tempo and keeps opposing defenses on their toes and his speed can lead to easy transition and secondary break buckets.

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• Cooley has talked about how much this team likes one another since before the season even started and it’s pretty evident if you spend any amount of time around them that they truly do. Chemistry and culture have been big things Cooley has stressed since arriving in Friartown nearly 5 years ago.

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• The Friars will surely use this break to go home and visit their families, as well as get completely healthy. Cooley classified Dunn as being 80-85%. With 9 days until the next game — and 21 by then since he left the BC game — Dunn should return at 100%. Bentil also had a touch of the illness and obviously turned his left ankle in that same BC game. Assuming Butler handles Southern Utah and IUPUI between now and New Year’s Eve, this Big East opener will be a matchup of top 10 teams. Not sure who saw that coming on November 13th.

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Mike Hopkins

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