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Big East Tournament 2018 Game Notes & Preview: (5) Providence (19-12, 10-8) vs (4) Creighton (21-10, 10-8) 3/8/18

Where: Madison Square Garden – New York, NY

When: 2:30pm EST

How: FS1 (Justin Kutcher, Jim Jackson & Lisa Byington)/Fox Sports GO (Where Available)/WEEI 103.7 FM and Friars.com (John Rooke and Joe Hassett)/FriarTV

Current Odds: pcbb1917 Odds Central

Tickets: SeatGeek

Game Notes

  • Providence and Creighton will meet for the 23rd time ever on Thursday. Providence leads the all-time series, 14-8, which includes a split of the season series in 2017-18 with each team winning on their home court. The Friars are 1-1 against the Bluejays in Big East Tournament play. The win came in 2014 in the game that earned the Friars their 2nd ever Big East Tournament Championship and the loss was in last year’s Quarterfinals.
  • Providence is 62-59 all-time at Madison Square Garden including 2 NIT titles (1961 and 1963), 2 Big East Tournament titles (1994 and 2014) and a 2-0 record this season with 2K Classic wins over Washington and Saint Louis in November.
  • Creighton is 21-10 this season, including a 10-8 Big East record. The Bluejays were tied for the 3rd most wins in the league with Seton Hall and Providence at 10 and they slotted into the 4th spot after a mini-conference tiebreaker. 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 20.3 points/game. Redshirt junior Ronnie Harrell leads the team in rebounding at 6.5 rebounds/game.
  • The Friars closed out the regular season with a Senior Day win over St. John’s, 61-57, last time out at the Dunk on Saturday to finish with at least 10 Big East wins for the 5th straight season.
  • 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 21st with 1,342 points. He is 82 points behind Bob Cooper.
  • 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 173 assists through 30 games. He has 623 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 and the 3rd Friar with 600 career assists. Cartwright notched a career-high 15 assists in Providence’s win at St. John’s on December 28th. He recorded his 600th assist in the first half of Providence’s game at Butler on February 17th. Cartwright also surpassed the 1,000 point marker on February 21st against Seton Hall. Cartwright became the 49th player in school history to score at least 1,000 points in a career at Providence and he’s the third player to combine that with at least 600 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. 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.
  • Big East Tournament 2018 Opening Line: (5) Providence +4 vs (4) Creighton 3/8/18

Game Preview

Providence and Creighton will meet for the 23rd time ever on Thursday at Madison Square Garden in the quarterfinals of the Big East Tournament. The game will tip at 2:30pm and be televised on FS1. Providence is 1-1 all-time against Creighton in the Big East Tournament. Providence’s first game against the Bluejays in the postseason tournament came in the 2014 title game when the Friars earned their second ever Big East Tournament championship. The other meeting was in the 2017 quarterfinals when 6th-seed Creighton beat 3rd-seeded Providence.

Providence is coming off a win against St. John’s at home on Senior Day to close out the regular season with 10 Big East wins for the 5th straight season. Prior to the 2013-14 season they won 10 or more league games only 6 times total. Providence also has a chance to get their 20th overall win on Thursday. If they are able to get to that mark it will be the 5th straight season with 20 or more wins. There have only been two longer streaks in school history with 8 straight seasons between 1970-78 and 9 straight seasons between 1958-67.

Creighton lost their regular season finale at Marquette on Saturday. The Bluejays were without redshirt junior Ronnie Harrell for the 3rd straight game with a foot injury and freshman big man Jacob Epperson injured his knee forcing him to play just 2 second half minutes. Their status for Thursday’s game is uncertain at the moment. The Bluejays are led by Big East First Teamer Marcus Foster and back-to-back Big East Defensive Player of the Year Khyri Thomas. Those two are the key players for Greg McDermott. The Bluejays went 1-1 on neutral courts this season and 4-7 on the road for an overall 5-8 record away from the friendly confines of the CenturyLink Center in Omaha.

The probable starters are:

Providence
Creighton

The keys to victory for Providence are controlling the tempo and defending the 3-point line. Creighton wants to push the pace and play uptempo. They are in the top-35 in PPP in transition and nearly 25% of their offensive possessions come in transition, which is the 3rd-largest percentage in the country. Creighton also gets more than 37% of their points from behind the 3-point line and then shoot it at a top-50 level nationally  Providence needs to slow the game down and grind out the game on the defensive end to advance to the semifinals.

Prediction: Providence 68 Creighton 67

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