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Monday Mindset: Ticket to Success with Return of Jayden Pierre

Coming off a lackluster performance right after Thanksgiving against Lehigh one of the big positives coming from that game was the return to form of Bryce Hopkins. Hopkins hadn’t been bad prior to that game, but he hadn’t had the breakout performance that might be expected of a player that was picked as a preseason First Team All-Big East selection and someone that would be in the mix for Big East Player of the Year. After looking like a bully against Lehigh with 25 points and 11 rebounds, Hopkins continued his amped up play against Wagner next time out on Tuesday with 20 points in 27 minutes. The next player to finally break out for the first time this season (and first time as a Friar) was Ticket Gaines. The 5th year graduate student that has been with Kim English at Tennessee and George Mason finally got his outside shooting dialed in to the tune of 7/10 from deep for 21 points against Wagner. Gaines has been a player that fans have gotten to know in his short time in Friartown as an energy guy who dives all over the floor and plays excellent defense. But he’s been a very solid 3-point shooter to the tune of 34.6% for his career entering this season, but was just 3/20 through the first 6 games before the explosion against Wagner.

Dispatching with Wagner in their most dominant performance overall — though the win against Wisconsin may be their “best” win of the season to date — was very impressive because it was a complete obliteration from start to finish. What I found to be just as impressive was that Providence handled URI — and covered the spread — in a game in which they clearly didn’t play their best from start to finish. Kim English agreed saying in the postgame “we weren’t right from the start…our focus wasn’t there from the beginning.” While the second half was a better performance and the Friars were able to fully pull away and win the game by 15, English said the first half was “our worst half of the season by a mile.” There were definitely offensive issues with a bunch of missed layups and shots at the rim, but the thing that was most noticeable beyond that was defense. The Rams certainly made some tough and contested shots, but they also took advantage of a lackluster effort on that end from Providence. English specifically mentioned that everything for the Friars starts with getting stops on defense citing a stat of giving up 50% shooting as something that makes it harder to play with the pace they want to on offense. While this sounds negative and I started this by calling their win against URI something I found more impressive than waxing Wagner is because while all of those things happened — 9/18 on layups, missing defensive metrics and playing their worst half of the season, per English — they handled the Rams in the end with relative ease. Kenpom listed Providence’s lowest win probability during the game at 88.7% when the Rams came out hot from the locker room and tied the game at 38 with 17:52 to go. Part of that was that Bryce Hopkins continued rolling with his 3rd straight game scoring 20+ points with 26 points on 10/19 from the field, but another player that has been performing consistently well — beyond some higher than liked turnover numbers — is Devin Carter. Carter is second on the team in scoring and blocks per game, tied for the lead in rebounds, and leads the Friars in assists and steals. He truly has become a do-it-all guard in his first season under Kim English. Carter had his second straight double-double against URI and his 3rd of the season.

The other big thing for Providence in this URI game was the return of starting point guard Jayden Pierre who had missed the prior 3 games. Pierre was on a minutes restrictions after tweaking his groin in the team’s first practice in the Bahamas ahead of their game against Kansas State where Pierre played just 5 minutes before shutting it down. English pieced things together between freshman Garwey Dual playing most of the point guard against Kansas State to Corey Floyd, Jr. getting the assignment next time out against Georgia while Dual served a one-game suspension for fighting at the end of the Kansas State game to a mix of players handling the ball against Wagner — and a ridiculous 25 assists on 29 made field goals against Wagner — but getting Pierre back is critical. Joe Hassett in the postgame on WPRO characterized Pierre’s performance for a stretch of the second half against URI as “taking over the game” to allow Providence to get the lead to double digits and then never look back. Pierre entered the game with 9:26 to go in the second half with Providence up 7, 57-50, following a Gaines triple and the game had been largely back and forth after Providence ripped of a 7-0 run with the game tied at 38. Pierre created a mismatch in pick and roll action with Bryce Hopkins that led to a Hopkins driving 3-point play then went right to the rim off a URI make for his own old-fashioned 3-point play. The next two times down the offensive end, Pierre continued attacking the rim leading to 4-4 on free throws that pushed the Providence lead to 11 capping things off with a drop pass to Hopkins for a thunderous fastbreak dunk that gave Providence a 13-point lead, 69-56, and the game felt much more in control for Providence at that point with 7:15 to go than it did prior to Pierre entering the game 2+ minutes earlier. Pierre’s overall minutes may continue to be watched as he gets back into action after missing about 2 weeks, but I expect him to play closer to or more than 30 minutes against Oklahoma on Tuesday in Providence’s first true road test that is part of the Big East-Big 12 Battle. And he showed against the Rams that even just 2 minute stretches can provide a huge spark for Providence.

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Mike Hopkins

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