Where: Madison Square Garden – New York, NY
When: 7:00pm ET
How: FS1 (Gus Johnson, Bill Raftery & Lisa Byington)/Fox Sports GO app (where available)/WPRO 99.7 FM & 630AM, TuneIn and Friars.com (John Rooke and Joe Hassett)/FriarTV
Game Notes
- Providence and Butler will meet for the 14th time ever on Wednesday. The Friars hold the advantage in the all-time series, 10-3, including wins in both regular season meetings in 2018-19.
- Butler finished the regular season 16-15 overall and 7-11 in Big East play. The Bulldogs lost 5 of their final 7 league games, including twice to Providence in less than two weeks. LaVall Jordan is in his 2nd season at the helm of the Butler program.
- Ed Cooley passed Al McClellan on the all-time wins list for Providence head coaches with the Friars’ win over Iona on November 24th. Cooley then moved ahead of Tim Welsh for 3rd most wins as the Providence head coach on March 9th vs Butler. Cooley currently has 161 wins and trails Dave Gavitt (209 wins) and Joe Mullaney (319 wins).
- Providence announced the signing of 2019 commit Greg Gantt on November 16th. Gantt, a native of North Carolina, is currently the only committed player for Providence next season. The Friars will also add preferred walk-on Tommy Dempsey next season, the son of the Binghamton head coach announced via his Twitter on December 19th.
- The Big East, USA Basketball and Providence announced on December 18th that the 2019 USA Pan American men’s basketball team will be represented solely by Big East players and coached by Ed Cooley.
- Providence junior Alpha Diallo became the 50th Providence player to score at least 1,000 points in his career when he hit a 3-pointer with 999 points against Georgetown on February 6th.
- Providence redshirt senior Isaiah Jackson became the 51st Providence player to score at least 1,000 points in his career on Senior Day at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center on March 9th against Butler.
- The Friars finished off the regular season with a win at home, 83-70, against Butler on March 9th. Providence finished the regular season 7-11 in Big East play and will have the 8 seed due to the head-to-head tiebreaker with Butler.
- Providence inducted 11 new members to the Providence College Athletics Hall of Fame on Friday, February 22nd. Jamel Thomas was one of the new inductees, and he and the other 10 members of the new hall of fame class were honored at halftime Providence’s February 23rd game against Marquette.
- Big East Tournament 2019 Opening Line: (8) Providence +2 vs (9) Butler 3/13/19
Game Preview
Providence and and Butler will meet for the 14th time ever on Wednesday when the teams meet in the first game of the 2019 Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden. This will also be the 3rd meeting in 22 days between the Friars and Bulldogs.
Providence beat Butler handily in the regular season finale a few days ago behind arguably their best offensive performance in all of Big East play. The Bulldogs struggled down the stretch of the season, losing their 5 of their final 7 games.
The probable starters according to the game notes are:
Providence
- David Duke – #3 – Freshman
- Maliek White – #4 – Junior
- A.J. Reeves – #10 – Freshman
- Alpha Diallo – #11 – Junior
- Nate Watson – #0 – Sophomore
Butler
- Kamar Baldwin – #3 – Junior
- Aaron Thompson – #2 – Sophomore
- Paul Jorgensen – #5 – Redshirt Senior
- Sean McDermott – #22 – Redshirt Junior
- Nate Fowler – #51 – Senior
The keys to victory for Providence are to force the action inside early and often to Nate Watson and make open shots when Butler doubles the Friar big man. The Friars were hot shooting early against Butler last time out, but the real advantage they hold no matter of shooter prowess in this game is their size inside. Watson and Kalif Young have been very good of late for Ed Cooley’s squad. Tossing the ball to the block should allow Watson to do some damage and, if Butler crashes down on him, there will be open shooters. Making those open shots has been a question for the Friars much of the season, but perhaps they will carry over some of their shooting suave from Senior Day.
Prediction: Providence 70 Butler 67
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