Where: Dunkin’ Donuts Center – Providence, RI
When: 7:00pm EST
How: FSN (Dave Sims & 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 Sacred Heart will meet for the 6th time ever on Tuesday night. The Friars hold the advantage in the all-time series, 5-0, with all previous contests played at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center. The last time these two teams squared off was December 22, 2017 with the Friars beating the Pioneers, 89-75, at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center.
- Providence is 81-11 all-time in regular season opening games, including an 84-8 record in home openers. This will be the 19th time in the last 20 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 16 of the last 17 openers with the only loss coming in November 2008 against Northeastern in Keno Davis’ first season.
- Sacred Heart is coming off an 15-17 (11-7) season that ended with a loss to LIU Brooklyn in the NEC Conference Tournament. Their best win a season ago was against Hartford, 98-89, on November 27, 2018. The Pioneers return everyone except their leading scorer, Sean Hoehn, who was a senior in 2018-19. Sacred Heart was picked 2nd in the preseason NEC poll voted on by the league’s coaches. Junior E.J. Anosike was named to the Preseason All-NEC Team. Cameron Parker and Koreem Ozier garnered All-Rookie honors last season and Jare’l Spellman was named NEC Defensive Player of the Year.
- Providence enters the 2019-20 season coming off an NIT berth, their seventh straight postseason trip. That was Providence’s first time failing to make the NCAA Tournament since their last NIT appearance in 2013. 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 20 appearances in the NIT. The Friars finished at .500 or better for the seventh straight season in 2018-19. That marks the fourth longest streak in school history (12 seasons from 1956-67, 10 seasons from 1969-78 and 9 seasons from 1929-37).
- Providence was picked 4th in the preseason Big East Coaches’ Poll. Senior Alpha Diallo was named to the Preseason First Team All-Big East for the second straight season. Diallo and junior Nate Watson were named to watch lists ahead of the 2019-20 season. Diallo is on the 2020 Julius Erving Award watch list for the top small forward in Division 1 while Watson was named to the 2020 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award watch list for the top center in Division 1.
- The Friars played two exhibition games leading up to the 2019-20 season. Providence beat Stonehill, 87-68, on October 19th at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center, and then defeated Purdue, 60-53, on October 27th in a closed scrimmage in Indianapolis.
- Opening Line: Providence -18.5 vs Sacred Heart 11/5/2019
Game Preview
Providence and Sacred Heart tip off their 2019-20 seasons on Tuesday night at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center. This will be the 6th all-time meeting between the Friars and Pioneers with Providence owning a perfect 5-0 record against Sacred Heart coming into this game. Sacred Heart is coached by Anthony Lantina who is in his 7th season at the helm of the program. The Pioneers lose their leading scorer from last season but return everyone else from their team that finished 11-7 in NEC play and earned the 3 seed for the NEC Tournament, ultimately falling to LIU Brooklyn in the first round.
Providence and Ed Cooley will be looking to start a new NCAA Tournament streak after their 5 year run was snapped last season after an 18-16 finish and first round NIT loss at the hands of now-St. John’s head coach Mike Anderson and the Arkansas Razorbacks. The Friars return their top 3 scorers, and 6 of their top 7 point getters. Isaiah Jackson graduated, Drew Edwards is using his final season of eligibility as a graduate transfer at Charlotte and Makai Ashton-Langford is sitting out at Boston College following two up and down season in Providence. Luwane Pipkins was added in the offseason as an immediately eligible graduate transfer from UMass and his presence is expected to shore up the critical point guard position that hampered the 2018-19 Friars. Pipkins has been slowed in the summer and fall by knee and hamstring injuries, but he played in Providence’s most recent exhibition win over Purdue on October 27th. Providence also brought in top 70 recruit Greg Gantt who will be expected to contribute off the bench this season, though Gantt is currently on the mend from an achilles injury.
Also on the injured list is junior Nate Watson who sprained his MCL during one of the first official practices in late September. Watson is expected to miss 6-8 weeks with that knee injury and return before the Friars head to California for the Wooden Legacy tournament during Thanksgiving week.
Other key returners are sophomores David Duke and A.J. Reeves, seniors Maliek White, Kalif Young and graduate student Emmitt Holt are all back for one more ride with Holt granted a rare 6th year of eligibility by the NCAA. Duke had a solid rookie season and played well for Team USA this summer in the Pan Am games. Reeves got off to a hot start last season before being sidelined with a foot injury. Reeves wasn’t the same after his return and Cooley is looking forward to having Reeves fully healthy and ready to go in 2019-20. White is expected to be a versatile piece off the bench for the Friars with his ability to handle the ball and score while playing solid defense. He may play a similar role to Junior Lomomba and Isaiah Jackson with more scoring punch. Young will get the lion’s share of Watson’s minutes while the junior big man is on the shelf but Holt will also see some time at the 5 spot after missing the last two seasons due to illness and abdominal surgeries. Holt having a good final season would be on the of best feel-good stories in college basketball this season. Jimmy Nichols, Kris Monroe and Andrew Fonts are also back in 2019-20 with Nichols the most likely to contribute this season of that trio.
The probable starters according to the game notes are:
Providence
- Luwane Pipkins – #12 – Graduate
- David Duke – #3 – Sophomore
- A.J. Reeves – #10 – Sophomore
- Alpha Diallo – #11 – Junior
- Emmitt Holt – #15 – Graduate
Sacred Heart
- Koreem Ozier – #2 – Sophomore
- Cameron Parker – #11 – Sophomore
- E.J. Anosike – #24 – Junior
- Kinnon LaRose – #30 – Redshirt Senior
- Jare’l Spellman – #25 – Redshirt Senior
The keys to victory for Providence are to be Providence. It’s sort of tough to come up with one or two things for this game that will make or break the Friars’ chances of beating Sacred Heart. Providence is clearly the better team on paper and they just need to play like that. The Friars’ calling card will be defense, so they can likely win with just that against the Pioneers. But fans will want to see if the offense is as improved as some expect with Pipkins running the point.
Prediction: Providence 80 Sacred Heart 65
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