Friar Basketball

Five Things to Watch: Providence vs UMass in Puerto Rico

Batts_ville

1. Massachusetts returns four starters from a 25 win team from a season ago.  What a difference a year makes.  At this time last year there were serious questions in regards to head coach Derek Kellogg’s future in Amherst, as he’d lost eight more games than he’d won in his first three seasons as the head coach at UMass, but after a run to the Final Four of the NIT to close out last season expectations are high for this group.

Are they good enough to be the first Massachusetts team to make the NCAA Tournament since 1998?  It will be difficult in the improved Atlantic-10 conference, but they certainly have the pieces in place to compete for a bid.

Their motor is 5’9 point guard Chaz Williams, a near 17 point per game scorer as a sophomore who made over 41% of his three point attempts in leading the highest scoring team in the A-10 last year (76.9 points per game, good for 20th in the country overall).  The New York City guard should vie for first team all conference honors as a junior, and he’ll be accompanied by a solid veteran core.

One-time Friar recruit Terrell Vinson is a 6’7, 220 pound senior who has been a steady contributor for the Minutemen, twice averaging over nine points per game on the season in his first three years.  UMass isn’t a huge team, but they’ll be bigger than they were a season ago thanks to the return of 6’8, 220 pound senior forward Sampson Carter and 6’9, 250 pound big Cady Lalanne– the duo combined to miss nearly 50 games a season ago.

2. With Vincent Council out for the next four to five weeks, expect Kellogg’s group to push the tempo on both ends.  The Friars have survived without Council for a pair of games against teams that project to finish near the bottom of all DI teams by season’s end, but Massachusetts presents a far more stiff challenge from both a talent and style perspective.  The Minutemen prefer to push the pace and will only be further enticed to do so against a short-handed Friar group.

Typically, the Friars would welcome the pace being pushed themselves, but with Council out the game’s biggest question surrounds Bryce Cotton and his ability to handle a full forty minutes of pressure.  Ed Cooley is certainly asking a lot of Cotton, who was thrust into a new role five minutes into the season, while playing with a group that needs him to continue to score at a high clip (he’s scored 45 points in two games).

On Thursday Cotton will be asked to both create and score, while tending to Williams, who very well could be the A-10’s leading scorer this season.

3. While the production hasn’t been there on the offensive end for either of them, both Brice Kofane and Lee Goldsbrough were solid contributors in the season’s first two games.  Kofane has been a true difference maker at the rim, blocking three shots per game and altering countless others, while Goldsbrough has asserted himself more in the paint than in his first two seasons – drawing charges and showing a willingness to crash the glass that wasn’t there previously.

The level of athleticism and physicality increases greatly on Thursday night, and it will be intriguing to see if either, or both, third year player can continue to contribute on energy plays.

4. Much was made of Kadeem Batts’ 23 point first half against Bryant, and for good reason.  Not only did the redshirt junior score in a variety of ways (a pair of jump hooks, a turn-around in the paint, off of the offensive glass, at the line, and flashing more confidence on his jump shot), but his early assertiveness inside set the tone for the Friars against a smaller Bryant club.  Not only did Providence benefit from his scoring, but they also ran Cotton off of screens after dumping the ball in to Batts, who was effective in finding the team’s top sniper in those situations.

Batts will most likely match up with Lalanne who was impressive himself in UMass’ opener against Harvard with 13 rebounds and four blocked shots in 32 minutes.  At 6’9, 250 pounds, Lalanne won’t be as easy to out-muscle, but the Friars desperately need Batts to play with similar assertiveness for the duration of 2012-13.

Consistency issues have plagued Batts throughout his first two seasons and a solid effort following up his monster night against Bryant may go a long way in establishing the confidence that has waned at times in the past.

5. The buzz surrounding Josh Fortune seemed to quietly grow as the season approached, as the Virginian received early praise from Cooley and got positive reviews from the likes of Rhode Island College Bob Walsh in October.

The buzz only got louder when Fortune went off in the team’s final exhibition tune-up against Walsh’s group, as he scored 16 points on six straight jump shots in just over three minutes near the end of the game.

Fortune struggled with his jump shot in the opener against New Jersey Institute of Technology, and was largely quiet in the first half against Bryant, before seemingly righting himself late by scoring seven points in the second half.  He also managed to dish out a sneaky six assists – a figure that went largely under the radar in the midst of the big nights from Batts and Cotton.

Providence could use a lift from Fortune, not only against UMass, but on the trip in general, as the Friars are set to play three games in four nights.

 

Email Kevin at kevin.farrahar@friarbasketball.com

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