Game Notes & Preview: Providence (10-4, 1-0) at (25) Creighton (10-3, 0-1) 12/31/17

Where: CenturyLink Center – Omaha, NE

When: 2:30pm EST

How: FS1 (Vince Welch & Nick Bahe)/Fox Sports GO (Where Available)/WEEI 103.7 FM and Friars.com (John Rooke and Joe Hassett)/FriarTV

Tickets: SeatGeek

Game Notes

• Providence and Creighton will meet for the 21st time ever on Sunday. Providence leads the all-time series, 13-7. The last 10 meetings have come with both teams in the Big East.
• Creighton is 10-3 this season. The Bluejays opened Big East play on Thursday night with a loss at Seton Hall. Creighton is coached by Greg McDermott who is in 8th season at the helm of the program. The Bluejays are led in scoring by redshirt senior Marcus Foster who is averaging 19.1 points/game. Redshirt sophomore Martin Krampelj leads the team in rebounding at 7.8 rebounds/game.
• The Friars opened Big East play with a win at St. John’s, 94-72, at Carnesecca Arena in Queens.
• 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 32nd with 1,157 points. He is 2 points behind Bill Eason.
• 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 83 assists through 13 games. He has 533 assists in his career, which places him 5th all-time at Providence. Next on the list in front of Cartwright is Billy Donovan (546). Cartwright recorded his 500th career assist against URI on December 2nd. He is the 7th Providence player to record at least 500 career assists. Cartwright notched a career-high 15 assists in Providence’s win at St. John’s on December 28th.
• 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 +9.5 at (25) Creighton 12/31/17

Game Preview

Providence and Creighton will meet for the 21st time ever on Sunday afternoon with the last 10 meetings coming as members of the Big East conference. The Friars are coming off a win at St. John’s while the Bluejays dropped their first league game at Seton Hall. Providence used a hot-shooting night in Queens and a career-high 15 assists from Kyron Cartwright to surprise the Red Storm. Creighton coughed up a halftime lead and then a lead in the last few minutes against the Pirates. The positive news for Creighton is they survived a potentially disastrous injury to Marcus Foster who appeared to seriously injure his knee only to return minutes later.

The Bluejays preferred pace is uptempo and Providence may deploy a strategy to slow things down like they did last season in Omaha. Creighton’s use of their 1-3-1 zone got them back into the game on Thursday against Seton Hall and it’s something they keep in their back pocket that could make an appearance on Sunday.

Foster is the key to Creighton’s offense as their leading scorer but the Bluejays have also gotten excellent play on the wing from Khyri Thomas. Redshirt sophomore big man Martin Krampelj has increased his production and he could present a matchup issue for Providence’s frontcourt or possibly entice Ed Cooley to go with the smaller lineup with Rodney Bullock at the center position.

Listen to the latest Providence Friarcast where Chris previewed this game with Jon Nyatawa of the Omaha World-Herald:

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

Creighton

• Davion Mintz – #1 – Sophomore
• Marcus Foster – #0 – Redshirt Senior
• Khyri Thomas – #2 – Junior
• Martin Krampelj – #15 – Redshirt Sophomore
• Toby Hegner – #32 – Senior

The keys to victory for Providence are to control the tempo and take care of the basketball. If Providence can play this game near the 69 possessions they did against St. John’s last time out they will have an excellent chance of winning this game. If they allow Creighton to dictate up and down action and the game ends up with 75 or more possessions it would be to Creighton’s advantage.

The key to playing a slower, halfcourt game is executing on offense and not giving up turnovers that lead to easy opportunities for the opponent. If Providence can limit themselves 10 turnovers like the did against St. John’s and shoot somewhere in the ballpark of the 53.3% they shot from beyond the arc this could be another exciting road win for Cooley’s team. I suspect the shooting will cool off, at least a bit, but I expect a dogfight in Omaha on New Year’s Eve.

Prediction: Providence 75 Creighton 79

Follow me on Twitter @pcbb1917

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Mike Hopkins

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