Game Notes & Preview: Providence (9-4) at St. John’s (10-2) 12/28/17

Where: Carnesecca Arena – Queens, NY

When: 7:00pm EST

How: FSN (Rich Ackerman & Tarik Turner)/Fox Sports GO (Where Available)/WEEI 103.7 FM and Friars.com (John Rooke and Joe Hassett)/FriarTV

Tickets: SeatGeek

Game Notes

• Providence and St. John’s will meet for the 111th time ever on Thursday. St. John’s leads the all-time series, 61-49. The two schools have played every single season since 1969-70.
• St. John’s is 10-2 this season. The Red Storm closed out non-conference play on a 2-game winning streak. St. John’s is coached by Chris Mullin who is in 3rd season at the helm of the program. The Red Storm are led in scoring by sophomore Shamorie Ponds who is averaging 20.4 points/game. Redshirt sophomore Justin Simon leads the team in rebounding at 8.2 rebounds/game.
• The Friars closed out their non-conference slate with a win over Sacred Heart, 89-75, at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center.
• Providence senior forward Rodney Bullock went over 1,000 points in his career against Boston College on November 25th. He became the 48th player in school history to score at least 1,000 points. Bullock is the 17th-fastest Providence player, tied with Eric Murdock, to score his 1,000th point (73 games). Bullock’s current place on the list is 33rd with 1,137 points. He is 6 points behind Kevin Stacom.
• Providence senior guard Kyron Cartwright continues his drive up the all-time assist record list at Providence. He began the season tied for 12th with John Linehan (450). Cartwright has 68 assists through 12 games. He has 518 assists in his career, which places him 7th all-time at Providence. Next on the list in front of Cartwright is Ricky Tucker (520). Cartwright recorded his 500th career assist against URI on December 2nd. He is the 7th Providence player to record at least 500 career assists.
• Providence officially announced on November 29th that Emmitt Holt would miss the entire 2017-18 season as a redshirt while he continues to recover from abdominal surgery. Holt has been off campus recovering, but is expected to return to school in January.
• Opening Line: Providence +7 at St. John’s 12/28/17

Game Preview

Providence and St. John’s will meet for the 111th time ever on Thursday night and this mark the 49th straight season the two teams have played each other. Providence is coming off a 9-4 non-conference slate that featured no particularly noteworthy wins combined with road losses to URI and UMass, a neutral court loss to Houston at Mohegan Sun and a home loss to Minnesota as part of the annual Gavitt Tipoff Games. The Friars have been dealing with injuries for much of the last month with Kyron Cartwright and Alpha Diallo nursing sore ankles and Maliek White missing time with a knee injury. I expect both Cartwright and Diallo to return to action for this game, but it sounds like White is still at least a week away from getting back on the court.

Rodney Bullock has been Providence’s only main  source of offense in recent games, taking 23 and 24 shots in Providence’s last two games, respectively. That might sound like entirely too many shots for a single player to take but injuries and ineffective offense have led to this scoring load being placed on Bullock’s back. Bullock has scored 24 and 31 points in the two games mentioned above and Providence may need a similar performance to defeat St. John’s in this game.

St. John’s went 10-2 in their non-conference with both of their losses coming on neutral courts. They fell to Missouri right after Thanksgiving and then to Arizona State nearly three weeks ago. Their best non-conference win came against UCF and they beat Iona and St. Joseph’s to close out pre-Big East play. The Red Storm also have been dealing with an injury to a key player with Marcus LoVett missing the last 5 games with a knee sprain. LoVett will not play in this game, per Zach Braziller of the NY Post.

For those that have only watched St. John’s in games where they’ve played Providence it might be surprising to hear that the key to the Red Storm’s 10-2 start to the season has been largely on the back of their defense. St. John’s defensive efficiency is ranked 12th nationally, per Kenpom.com. They have the 3rd best Turnover %, 3rd best Block %, 9th best Steal % and the 22nd best Effective FG%. The Red Storm are averaging 74.3 points/game while giving up an average of 62.8 points/game.

Shamorie Ponds leads the offense, especially when LoVett has been out. Ponds is an elite scorer in the Big East, but he has lacked efficiency, shooting just 20.3% from beyond the arc on 69 attempts. Overall this season Ponds is averaging nearly 17 shot attempts per game, connecting at a 39.6%.

The probable starters are:

Providence

• Kyron Cartwright – #24 – Senior
• Alpha Diallo – #11 – Sophomore
• Jalen Lindsey – #21 – Senior
• Rodney Bullock – #5 – Senior
• Nate Watson – #0 – Freshman

St. John’s

• Shamorie Ponds – #2 – Sophomore
• Justin Simon – #5 – Redshirt Sophomore
• Bashir Ahmed – #1 – Senior
• Marvin Clark – #13 – Redshirt Junior
• Tariq Owens – #11 – Redshirt Junior

The keys to victory for Providence are to keep St. John’s away from offensive rebounds and contain Shamorie Ponds. The Red Storm haven’t been a great offensive rebounding team to date, clocking in right at 167th nationally, but Providence has been bad at keeping their opponents away from second and third chances. Providence is 232nd in the country in this stat and with their own offense being at a premium lately it would behoove Ed Cooley to do whatever he can to make sure St. John’s isn’t getting more than one look at the basket each time they possess the ball on Providence’s end.

Ponds will likely be able to score his points, especially if Cooley insists on playing mostly man-to-man with Cartwright still not likely at 100%. But if the Friars can contain Ponds and prevent any other player from having a career night they may have a chance at the road upset.

Prediction: Providence 68 St. John’s 73

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Mike Hopkins

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