Game Notes & Preview: Providence (15-8, 6-4) vs Georgetown (13-9, 3-8) 2/6/18

Where: Dunkin’ Donuts Center – Providence, RI

When: 8:30pm EST

How: FS1 (Dave Sims & Donny Marshall)/Fox Sports GO (Where Available)/WEEI 103.7 FM and Friars.com (John Rooke and Joe Hassett)/FriarTV

Current Spread, Total, ML: Odds Central

Tickets: SeatGeek

Game Notes

• Providence and Georgetown will meet for the 71st time ever on Tuesday. Georgetown leads the all-time series, 44-26. The Friars are 17-14 against the Hoyas in Providence.
• Georgetown is 13-9 this season, including a 3-8 Big East record. The Hoyas are currently on a 3-game losing streak falling at home to DePaul and then on the road at Creighton and Xavier.  Georgetown is coached by Patrick Ewing who is in his 1st season at the helm of the program. The Hoyas are led in scoring by junior Jessie Govan who is averaging 16.5 points/game. Govan also leads the team in rebounding at 10.2 rebounds/game.
• The Friars ended a 2-game slide with a road win at Marquette, 77-75, last time out at the BMO Bradley Center in Milwaukee.
• 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 25th with 1,260 points. He is 22 points behind Donnie McGrath.
• 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 133 assists through 22 games. He has 583 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 -8 vs Georgetown 2/6/18

Game Preview

Providence and Georgetown will meet for the 71st time ever on Tuesday night at the Dunk. The game will tip at 8:30pm and be televised on FS1. Providence owns a 6-game winning streak over Georgetown that is the result of three straight season sweeps. This is only the second time that Providence has sported a 3-game or longer winning streak over Georgetown with the other dating back to the early 1990’s.

The Hoyas are coached by legendary player Patrick Ewing who has had a strong first campaign despite a lackluster league record. Ewing brings 15 years of NBA coaching experience to the Georgetown bench and it shows. While the record isn’t good at 3-8 in Big East play the Hoyas have played hard and haven’t really been blown out in any of their 8 losses save perhaps against #1 Villanova. Jessie Govan and Marcus Derrickson are the two experienced big men for Ewing who do the bulk of the scoring with Govan being the leading scorer but Derrickson being the more explosive player. Derrickson can step out and shoot the 3-ball, which he is doing at a 41.7% clip this season on 72 attempts and he gets the free throw line early and often, converting there at 88.6%.

The Hoyas lack experienced and consistent guard play, which has been their largest area of weakness. They turn the ball over at the highest rate in league play and, not coincidentally, have the second-worst Steal % in the Big East. On the defensive side of the ball the Hoyas have allowed teams to shoot well against them while mixing in some zone with man-to-man. They can be hurt from outside, giving up 34.7% of points against in Big East games from behind the 3-point line, the 3rd highest rate in the league.

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

Georgetown

• Jonathan Mulmore – #2 – Senior
• Kaleb Joseph – #32 – Junior
• Jamorko Pickett – #1 – Freshman
• Marcus Derrickson – #24 – Junior
• Jessie Govan – #15 – Junior

The keys to victory for Providence are to limit offensive rebounds and force the Hoyas to shoot jump shots. Georgetown is rebounding just over 30% of their misses, which ranks 3rd in the Big East. Those second chances help mitigate their loss of possession via turnover. To maintain the advantage created by Georgetown’s turnovers the Friars need to limit the offensive rebounds.

Georgetown lacks good outside shooting and their leading scorer, Jessie Govan, scores more than 83% of his points in the halfcourt around the basket. Part of forcing the Hoyas to shoot contested jump shots is that they aren’t as good at shooting jumpers as they are shooting inside, but the other factor is keeping Georgetown off the free throw line, which tends to happen more often when a team is shooting on drives to the basket and in the paint. The Hoyas lead the Big East in percentage of points scored at the charity stripe at 23.7%.  Their 23% for the season ranks 22nd nationally.

Prediction: Providence 79 Georgetown 74

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Mike Hopkins

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