Where: Dunkin’ Donuts Center – Providence, RI
When: 9:00pm ET
How: ESPN2 (Will Flemming and Mark Plansky)/WatchESPN app (where available)/WPRO 99.7 FM & 630AM, TuneIn and Friars.com (John Rooke and Joe Hassett)/FriarTV
Game Notes
- Providence and Arkansas will meet for the 4th time ever on Tuesday. The Friars hold the advantage in the all-time series, 2-1. The first two meetings happened in 1999 with the Razorbacks, ranked 22nd in the nation, beating the Friars, 118-79, on January 23rd. The following season, Providence beat Arkansas, 87-81, on December 23rd. The most recent meeting was November 16, 2007 when the Friars upset the 18th-ranked Razorbacks, 67-51, in the 2007 Puerto Rico Tip-Off Classic.
- Providence is making their 20th appearance all-time in the NIT. Their last time playing in the event was after the 2012-13 season when they won two games and advanced to the quarterfinals. The Friars are 32-20 in NIT games all-time, including NIT titles in 1961 and 1963. Providence’s 32 wins if the 4th most ever in the NIT behind St. John’s (45), Dayton (40) and Minnesota (34).
- Arkansas finished the regular season 17-14 overall and 8-10 in SEC play to finish tied for 9th place in the league. The Razorbacks played Florida in the SEC Tournament on March 14th and lost, 66-50, to the Gators. Mike Anderson is in his 8th season at the helm of the Arkansas 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 162 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 fell to Villanova, 73-62, on Thursday afternoon in the Big East Tournament quarterfinals.
- 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.
- NIT 2019 Opening Line: (4) Providence -6 vs (5) Arkansas 3/19/19
Game Preview
Providence and Arkansas will meet for the 4th time ever on Tuesday when the teams meet in the first round of the 2019 NIT. The Friars are the host as the better-seeded school in this matchup. The winner will face the winner of (1) Indiana and (8) St. Francis (PA). For Providence, this presents a good opportunity for their roster of mostly young players to get more postseason and tournament-style experience after an up and down season and 1-1 performance at Madison Square Garden last week.
The big story ahead of this game is Arkansas’ leader in scoring, rebounding and blocked shots, Daniel Gafford, announced on Monday that he will not be playing in the NIT because the sophomore big man is declaring for the 2019 NBA Draft and hiring an agent. Gafford averaged 16.9 points/game, 8.6 rebounds/game and 1.9 blocks/game. Gafford and Nate Watson were expected to be an excellent matchup to watch, but that will no longer be possible.
To give a clearer picture of how much of a loss this will be for Mike Anderson’s team, Gafford had the highest Offensive Usage rate for Arkansas at 25.4% of offensive possessions, and he took the highest percentage of shots on the team at 24.0%. His eFG% of 66.0% was 19th-best in the nation and he protected the rim to the tune of an 8.7% Block rate, 44th-best in the country. In short, Gafford was Arkansas’ best player this season.
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
Arkansas
- Jalen Harris – #5 – Redshirt Sophomore
- Desi Sills – #0 – Freshman
- Isaiah Joe – #1 – Freshman
- Gabe Osabuohien – #22 – Sophomore
- Reggie Chaney – #35 – Freshman
The keys to victory for Providence are control the pace and take advantage of their size advantage inside by throwing the ball to the block and crashing the offensive glass. The Razorbacks like to play uptempto with the 25th shortest average possession length in the country, per Kenpom.com. Arkansas averaged an excellent 1.105 points per possession this season in transition and looked to run 19.1% of the time. They were just average in the half court on offense at 0.859 points per possession. For context, that ranked 241st in the country and Providence ranked 251st at 0.854.
Even with Gafford, Arkansas was vulnerable on the offensive glass, ranking 351st out of 353 teams in Division 1 at cleaning their opponents’ misses. Providence was 71st in the country at grabbing offensive rebounds this season. Gafford’s backup is a freshman listed at 6’8 and 222 lbs. Look for Watson to have a big game for the Friars as they advance to the second round to face either Indiana or St. Francis (PA).
Prediction: Providence 71 Arkansas 66
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