Where: Dunkin’ Donuts Center – Providence, RI
When: 6:30pm EST
How: FSN (Dave O’Brien & Vin Parise)/Fox Sports GO (Where Available)/WPRO 99.7 FM & 630AM, TuneIn and Friars.com (John Rooke and Joe Hassett)/FriarTV
Game Notes
- Providence and Siena will meet for the 15th time ever on Tuesday night. The Friars hold the advantage in the all-time series, 10-4. Providence is 5-0 against Siena at home. The last time these two teams squared off was December 28, 2003 with the Friars beating the Saints, 73-66, at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center. Siena last beat Providence the season prior, 89-81, on January 4, 2003 in Albany.
- Providence is 80-11 all-time in regular season opening games, including an 83-8 record in home openers. This will be the 18th time in the last 19 seasons that Providence has opened at home. The last time they didn’t open at home was when they played Temple in Puerto Rico in November 2007. The Friars have won 15 of the last 16 openers with the only loss coming in November 2008 against Northeastern in Keno Davis‘ first season.
- Siena is coming off an 8-24 season that ended with the resignation of head coach Jimmy Patsos. The Saints are now coached by Jamion Christon.
- Providence enters the 2018-19 season coming off their fifth straight trip to the NCAA Tournament and sixth straight season playing postseason basketball. The NCAA Tournament streak is the longest one in school history. The postseason streak is the 3rd-longest in school history behind the 8 season streak from the 1970-71 season through the 1977-78 season and the school-record 9 season streak from 1958-59 through 1966-67. Overall, Providence has now made 20 appearances in the NCAA Tournament and 19 appearances in the NIT.
- Providence was picked 3rd in the preseason Big East Coaches’ Poll. Junior Alpha Diallo was named to the Preseason First Team All-Big East and David Duke was Preseason co-Freshman of the Year with Villanova’s Jahvon Quinerly.
- The Friars played two exhibition games leading up to the 2018-19 season. Providence beat the University of Bridgeport, 96-57, on October 19th and then defeated Bowie State University, 83-55, on October 27th. Both games were played at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center.
- Opening Line: Providence -18.5 vs Siena 11/6/18
Game Preview
Providence and Siena will square off on Tuesday night in the earliest season opening in the history of college basketball. The date being moved up — largely done by the NCAA to not get lost in football weekends in November — helps out the Friars who have had to deal with conflicts at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center the last two seasons due to RI Comic Con taking over the Dunk and the RI Convention Center the second weekend of November. The first Tuesday no longer just means Election Day, it’s also now the tip off of the college basketball season.
Siena is coming off a horrendous season for the program, both in the win-loss record — 8-24 matched the most losses in school history — and the April resignation of head coach Jimmy Patsos after verbal and physical abuse allegations. The Saints hired Mount St. Mary’s coach Jamion Christian and Christian plans to bring frenetic “Mayhem” style to the program that hasn’t made an NCAA Tournament appearance since 2010.
Providence and Ed Cooley will be looking to see what they have and what their identity will be with so many new faces in new places. Cooley and his assistants recruited well with the class of 2018, but now the challenge with all the shiny new talent of David Duke, AJ Reeves, Jimmy Nichols and Kris Monroe will be how they integrate with returning players like Makai Ashton-Langford and Maliek White in the backcourt, Alpha Diallo, Isaiah Jackson and Drew Edwards on the wing and Emmitt Holt, Kalif Young and Nate Watson in the frontcourt. The Friars are deep, no doubt. But, as Cooley told reporters after the Friars’ final exhibition tune up against Bowie State last weekend, “depth is great in practice, but sometimes it’s a challenge in games.” Cooley’s challenge will be mixing and matching the talented newcomers with the more experienced players and the key position that is most in flux appears to be the point guard spot. Will Duke be handed the keys to his hometown team, or will his former Mass Rivals teammate Ashton-Langford show signs of improvement in his second year with the Friars? That question doesn’t figure to be answered all in one night, but it will be something to keep a keen eye on in the season opener.
The probable starters according to the game notes are:
Providence
- David Duke – #3 – Freshman
- Maliek White – #4 – Junior
- Alpha Diallo – #11 – Junior
- Emmitt Holt – #15 – Senior
- Nate Watson – #0 – Sophomore
Siena
- Kadeem Smithen – #5 – Senior
- Thomas Huerter Jr.– #11 – Junior
- Kevin Degnan – #34 – Senior
- Sammy Friday – #35 – Junior
- Evan Fisher – #32 – Senior
The keys to victory for Providence are to limit turnovers, crash the glass and guard the 3-point line. Christian’s teams at Mount St. Mary’s generally liked to press and take 3-pointers. They were never particularly strong rebounding teams even in their own league against similar competition. If Providence can limit the turnovers that lead to easy Siena buckets while grabbing some offensive rebounds to get some easy scores of their own they should handle the Saints in this one.
Prediction: Providence 80 Siena 65
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