Friar Basketball

The UMass Challenge

Chaz

Previewing Saturday’s road game at Massachusetts.

Game time: Saturday, Dec. 28 at 6:00 p.m.

Television: ESPNU

Radio: 103.7 WEEI

Location: Mullins Center, Amherst, MA (capacity: 10,500)

Why this game is so significant: The RPI implications. UMass is currently 10-1 on the season, but more significantly, they are #2 in the RPI. In the wake of the losses of Kris Dunn, Brandon Austin and Rodney Bullock, some in Providence aren’t focusing on the NCAA Tournament at this point, but heading into conference play at 11-2, with a road win over a top 10 RPI team, would position PC nicely.

The Friars will have plenty of opportunities to defeat top 50 and 100 teams once the Big East kicks off, but currently the league only has one team ranked in the top 25 (Villanova), as two teams expected to carry the league (Georgetown, Marquette) are a combined 14-8 this year.

Why is UMass’s RPI so high? The Minutemen have done damage away from home. They are 2-0 on the road and 5-1 on neutral courts. They have three wins over top 50 RPI teams, four more against teams 51-100, and they haven’t played a game against one higher than 200. In fact, nine of their ten wins are teams 150 or above, and they’ve already taken out BC, Clemson, LSU, New Mexico, Nebraska and BYU.

Conversely, Providence has only played two games against top 50 RPI teams and lost them both (Kentucky, Maryland). The Friars have one win over a top 100 team, and seven of their ten wins have come against teams with an RPI rating of 200 or above. Their strength of schedule should find it’s way into the top 50-60 by season’s end, thanks to the depth of the Big East (compensating for the lack of elite teams), however.

Why else is this so important for PC? This one may be bigger mentally for the fan base than the team. Expectations were so high heading into the season, yet the Friars will play shorthanded once again — a trend that has to be deflating for Friartown. There’s no better way to lift those spirits than to head into Big East play with a road win over a nationally ranked opponent.

Let’s not forget, Providence still has significant pieces in place. Bryce Cotton is playing at an elite level, they have three forwards capable of getting them 20 on any given night, and Carson Desrosiers has been dominant in spurts defensively. It will be a significant challenge for Ed Cooley to get consistent production out of two scholarship guards, but the pieces are good enough to win any game on this schedule going forward. Stringing together consecutive wins will be the challenge.

The Key Matchup: Providence won’t run into many point guards as explosive as Chaz Williams, the 5’9 bundle of energy who is third in the nation in assists, while making 41% of his three point shots this year. His best game to date was a 32 point, 15 assist effort in the win over BYU.

A year ago, Williams had 17/6/6 in a 77-75 win over Providence. Both he and Bryce Cotton will play nearly 40 minutes (Williams has gone 37 and 38 the last two) and will certainly be the featured matchup coming in. Cotton had 23 points and five assists against UMass last year.

The real matchup problem might come in the form of 6’10, 250 pound center Cady Lalanne. The junior opened the year with 27 points in a win against Boston College, has grabbed 12 or more rebounds on six occasions already, and most recently submitted a 10 point, 15 rebound, four block effort in last weekend’s loss to Florida State.

Keeping Lalanne off of the offensive glass will be critically important — he’s averaging a ridiculous 4.6 offensive rebounds a game.

Notes:

  • PC is 22-6 all-time against UMass and 8-1 on the road against them. The series dates back to 1932. PC hasn’t played in Amherst since December of 2000, an 85-70 victory.
  • The Friars will look to finish 3-0 against the Atlantic 10 this season. They’ve already defeated Rhode Island and LaSalle.
  • Providence is first in the nation in free throw shooting (.816).
  • The Friars haven’t defeated a ranked team on the road since a 66-56 victory over Connecticut on January 24, 2004.
  • PC will look to go 7-0 against teams from New England this year after finishing 4-5 versus them last year.

Friarbasketball.com’s PC/UMass in 7 Minutes from last season: I’d forgotten just how good this second half was until re-watching it here. The Friars trailed big in the first half, controlled it over the final six minutes, but lost in a tip in at the buzzer. PC got contributions from Lee Goldsbrough (best dunk of his PC career), Josh Fortune (three 3s) and Brice Kofane (a pair of put-backs and a block that led to a Cotton dunk), while Kadeem Batts was big in the first half (14 points, 7 boards).

 

 

 

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