This week is the week that many Friar fans have been waiting for since the Big East schedule was released in September. It has gotten national attention, and was mentioned on Fox Sports, ESPN, and the Field of 68 as the most anticipated game of the year. It will be covered by every sports network in the country. It is the opener on Fox Sports as the national game of the week (Fox 64 locally at noon). Ticket prices on reseller sites are through the roof, and watch parties are being planned throughout Friartown and the entire region. Georgetown fans online are getting cocky since the injury to Bryce Hopkins, and many of them will consider this a successful initial campaign for Ed if they manage to be victorious.
For the Providence Friar team, this is a pivotal week for this season’s group, but it begins on Wednesday at Seton Hall. The Pirates have been the surprise of the league so far, off to a 6-2 start after a triple overtime loss to Creighton this past Saturday. This game is also a rematch of the lowest point of the season for Providence. On January 3rd, the Friars and Pirates were in a close battle, but the fans at the game were almost universally confident of victory. Then with 14:59 left in the game, Bryce Hopkins fed a lead pass to Devin Carter for a layup but landed awkwardly. It was apparent for all who were in attendance that this was much more than a routine injury as Bryce was clearly in pain and had to be helped off the court. The rest of the game went back and forth, with the Friars missing a late shot to send the game into overtime. The bigger concern that hovered over the remainder of the game was how would the Friars compete the rest of the way without one of their two all-conference players. After a four–game stretch with little time off between games that saw Providence lose two close games and win and lose a blowout, they finally had a week off to reset their mindset and work on the new reality.
Many people are viewing the game at Seton Hall as an appetizer for Saturday’s extravaganza. For the team, Wednesday could be the most important game of the season. As mentioned earlier, Seton Hall has been off to a great start in conference play, but they are a beatable team for the Friars. A win would put the Friars within one loss of second place. The key for the Friars is to get more consistent help for All-American candidate Devin Carter on the offensive side of the ball and keep Kadary Richmond in check when the Hall has the ball. Both of these keys require Corey Floyd and/or Garwey Dual to play up to their potential. If they are able to do so, the Friars should be in good shape.
After this game, we can turn our attention to Mr. Ed and the Hoyas. For all of the criticisms of this version of Georgetown, they do have two players (Jayden Epps and Dontrez Styles) who are capable of putting up big numbers, but fortunately the Friars have Carter, Floyd, and Dual to match up with them. This game will be more about the Friars playing to their potential than anything else. The elephant in the room is how the Friar crowd will react to the return of their former coach. There will be no bouquets of Roses tossed Ed’s way, and my guess is that it will look something like this:
A big win on Saturday may be cathartic for the Friar fan base, but two wins this week will go a long way toward a return trip to NCAA tournament for the team. After this, the Friars will embark on their toughest week of the season, with road games against Connecticut and Villanova. Connecticut is arguably the best team in the country, and in non-conference play their only loss was at Kansas where they had a chance to win in the final seconds. Every other game resulted in a double-digit win. In conference play they’ve have still been outstanding, but in addition to their loss to Seton Hall, they have had close wins over St. John’s, Butler, Xavier, and Villanova. Big East play again demonstrates that it is unlike any other conference. Villanova has been hard to define this year with wins over North Carolina, Memphis, Creighton, and Texas Tech balanced by losses to Penn, St. Joes, and Drexel. They have lost two straight and have road games against St. John’s and Butler as well as a home match with Marquette before the Friars travel to Wells Fargo Arena. All of this leads to the conclusion that this season is still full of potential for the Friars, and the Big East is the best conference to watch in the country. Let’s enjoy this week and the rest of the season.
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One response to “Brian Reddy: Beyond the Box Score – It’s Time”
Brian, I enjoy your posts. I am a PC graduate 66 and a fan since 1958.