Game Notes & Preview: (11) Providence (18-4, 6-3) at DePaul (7-14, 1-8) 2/2/16

Where: Allstate Arena – Chicago, IL

When: 9:00pm EST

How: FS1 (Justin Kutcher & Stephen Bardo)/WEEI 103.7 FM and Friars.com (John Rooke and Joe Hassett)/FriarTV

Game Notes

• Providence and DePaul will meet for the 35th time on Tuesday with the Friars leading the series, 26-8. Providence is 10-5 in games played at DePaul, including 4-0 in their last 4 trips to Chicago.
• DePaul is 7-14 (1-8) on the season. The Blue Demons are led by Dave Leitao, who is in his 1st season at the helm of the DePaul program. This is his second go-around with DePaul. Leitao coached the Blue Demons for 3 season from 2002-2005. The Blue Demons lone win came on the road at Marquette on January 20th. They been swept by Butler, Georgetown and Xavier and have also lost to Creighton and Seton Hall. The Blue Demons are led in scoring by senior Myke Henry, who averages 14.0 points/game. Junior Tommy Hamilton is the leading rebounder, averaging 6.3 rebounds/game.
• The Friars fell back out of the top 10 in both polls this week after a 1-1 week with the loss being at home against Xavier and the win being on the road at Georgetown. This is the first time Providence has been ranked in the AP Poll for 10 straight weeks since the 1977-78 season.
• Kris Dunn is closing in on some career milestones. Dunn went over the 1,000 point mark on Saturday against Georgetown on a spectacular finish at the rim. His 1,020 career points ranks 46th all-time at Providence. Dunn also has 483 assists, 432 rebounds and 190 steals. Should Dunn get to the 1,000 points, 500 assists and 200 steals club, he would become the only player in school history to have accomplished all of those feats. 500 rebounds is also within his grasp. Dunn would have to average 7.5 rebounds/game over the final 9 games to do it in the regular season.
• Opening Line: (10) Providence -6 at DePaul 2/2/16

Game Preview

DePaul is having another rough season in the Big East in Dave Leitao’s first season back on the Blue Demon sideline. The current group led by junior guard Billy Garrett, Jr. was supposed to be making strides towards the middle of the Big East pack by now. However, the Blue Demons are only saved from being the worst team in the league by St. John’s and their total rebuild job underway in Chris Mullin’s first year as the Red Storm head coach. In terms of statistics, DePaul ranks dead last during conference play in Defensive Efficiency, Effective FG% Against, 3-Point Shooting Against, Turnover % and a few others. Those stats are courtesy of Kenpom.com.

The probable starters according to the game notes and prior box scores are:

Providence

• Kyron Cartwright – #24 – Sophomore
• Kris Dunn – #3 – Junior
• Junior Lomomba – #32 – Junior
• Rodney Bullock – #5 – Sophomore
• Ben Bentil – #0 – Sophomore

DePaul

• Billy Garrett, Jr.  – #5 – Junior
• Eli Cain- #11 – Freshman
• Erten Gazi – #23 – Freshman
• Myke Henry – #4 – Senior
• Tommy Hamilton – #2 – Junior

The keys for a Providence victory are:

• Avoid the trap game
• Turn DePaul over
• Get Rodney Bullock going

Coming off a big road win, Providence has to be wary of avoiding a possible trap game. They have 3rd ranked Villanova on the horizon at home on Saturday, but the Friars can’t lose sight of the lowly DePaul Blue Demons that are right in front of them Tuesday night. I haven’t heard a lot of people talking about this being a trap game, but it certainly sets up that way.

DePaul has turned the ball over at a high clip this season and, unsurprisingly, they’ve gotten worse since Big East play began. The Blue Demons are averaging 15.1 turnovers/game in league play. That number is up from 13.6 in non-conference play. In terms of turnover %, DePaul is sporting a 21.3% mark for all games — good for 319th nationally — and a 22.7% mark in Big East games — dead last in the Big East. Providence’s hounding defense should be able to turn DePaul over and those turnovers should lead to some easy points.

Rodney Bullock showed some signs of life on Saturday night in Providence’s win against Georgetown. Bullock managed 10 points and 14 rebounds against a pretty burly Georgetown frontline. I like Bullock’s matchups against DePaul. The Blue Demons don’t have too much beef inside and Bullock’s quickness should be a big advantage on the offensive end. He needs to be less careless with the ball — he had 7 turnovers on Saturday — but I think Bullock will get some early confidence against DePaul and score north of 15 points on Tuesday night.

Prediction: Providence 78 DePaul 69

Follow me on Twitter @pcbb1917

About Author

Mike Hopkins

See author's posts