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Game Notes & Preview: Providence (13-6, 4-2) vs Creighton (15-4, 5-2) 1/20/18
Where: Dunkin’ Donuts Center – Providence, RI
When: 3:00pm EST
How: CBS Sports Network (Tom McCarthy & Jordan Cornette)/CBSSN Live (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 22nd time ever on Saturday. Providence leads the all-time series, 13-8. The Friars are 7-2 against the Bluejays in Providence.
- Creighton is 15-4 this season, including a 5-2 Big East record. The Bluejays are coming off an impressive victory over Seton Hall at home on Wednesday night. Creighton is coached by Greg McDermott who is in 8th season at the helm of the program. The Bluejays are led in scoring by senior Marcus Foster who is averaging 19.2 points/game. Sophomore Martin Krampelj leads the team in rebounding at 8.1 rebounds/game, though Krampelj tore his ACL against Seton Hall and will miss the remainder of the season.
- The Friars defeated Butler, 70-60, last time out at the Dunk on MLK Day.
- 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 29th with 1,213 points. He is 1 point behind Kris Dunn.
- 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 115 assists through 18 games. He has 565 assists in his career, which places him 3rd all-time at Providence. Next on the list in front of Cartwright is Ernie DiGregorio (662). 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. Holt did return to school over the MLK weekend and is back with the team, though he remains out of competition this season.
- Providence announced on January 11th that former Friar Ernie “Pop” Lewis passed away. Lewis was a key member of Providence’s 1987 Final Four team. You can read the official release and watch a tribute video here.
- Opening Line: Providence +3 vs Creighton 1/20/18
Game Preview
Providence and Creighton will meet for the 22nd time ever on Saturday afternoon at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center. The game will be on CBS Sports Network at 3pm and is already a sellout. The Friars own a 7-2 series lead when the game is played in Providence.
Creighton’s offense is one of the most efficient in the country, ranking 23rd nationally in Adjusted Offensive Efficeiency per Kenpom. If that looks like I left it in from the Butler preview and changed the name to Creighton, well, that’s because I did. The Bluejays are now ranked 23rd in Adjusted Offensive Efficiency like Butler was when I wrote the preview for that game. The difference is that the Bluejays will be without breakout big man Martin Krampelj who tore his ACL against Seton Hall on Wednesday night. Krampelj, whose name now appears in my autocorrect, was well on his way to winning the Big East’s Most Improved Player award before tearing an ACL for now the third time in his life.
Marcus Foster is Creighton’s leading scorer at 19.2 points/game, but equally dangerous is Khyri Thomas who has improved his game substantially from freshman year to now his junior season. The Bluejays match up well with Providence in that they have quite a few interchangeable pieces who are guards/wings/forwards. Creighton wants to push the pace and they sport the 10th shortest Average Offensive Possession Length in the country at 14.8 seconds. The Friars Average Defensive Possession Length is 17.3 seconds.
Creighton is a different team on the road than they are when they are in front of their 17,000+ crowd at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha. The Bluejays are 12-0 this season at home and 2-3 on the road, including 1-1 in league play away from Omaha.
Listen to the latest Providence Friarcast where we previewed this game:
The probable starters are:
Providence
- Kyron Cartwright – #24 – Senior
- Alpha Diallo – #11 – Sophomore
- Jalen Lindsey – #21 – Senior
- Rodney Bullock – #5 – Senior
- Kalif Young – #13 – Sophomore
Creighton
- Davion Mintz – #1 – Sophomore
- Marcus Foster – #0 – Redshirt Senior
- Khyri Thomas – #2 – Junior
- Ronnie Harrell – #4 – Junior
- Toby Hegner – #32 – Senior
The keys to victory for Providence are to slow the game down to their preferred pace and to score the ball inside. I mentioned the Average Possession Length disparity above and it would be very unlikely that Providence could score with Creighton if the pace was at the tempo the Bluejays want to play. Kyron Cartwright will have to slow things down most of the time and pick his spots to push the ball wisely. Expect to see plenty of flex offense in this game and an emphasis on getting the ball inside when the Friars are playing their bigger lineup with Kalif Young or Nate Watson at the center position. When the Friars do go small with Rodney Bullock at the 5 they still need to be mindful of the pace of the game, but they should be able to match up well with Creighton’s lineups that consist mainly of guards, wings and Toby Hegner.
Prediction: Providence 79 Creighton 72
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