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Since Nova, Friars Dominating at the Arc

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Providence has won five straight in large part thanks to their ability to defend the three point line. The last time Providence lost, Villanova shot a scorching 14-26 from three in blowing that one open. PC has all but eliminated the three pointer from their opponents since.

Butler is the only team to have shot over 30% during the five game run, and they barely reached that mark (4-13, .308), while Creighton made just 21%, Georgetown 28%, and both Xavier (3-18) and St. John’s (1-10) couldn’t crack 20% against Ed Cooley’s bunch.

During the Keno Davis era, Providence was able to pull upsets because of off shooting nights from ranked opponents, but five games in a row is a trend, not good fortune. And PC is doing it against some of the better shooting teams in the Big East.

Creighton and Xavier are the top two three point shooting teams in the league, Georgetown and St. John’s are middle of the road from deep, while Butler is one of the weaker from beyond the arc (9th at .329).

Despite Villanova’s ridiculous night against them, Providence is now tops in conference play at defending the three (.310) and will look to continue the upward trend on Thursday night at Marquette, a team shooting a Big East-low 28% from three in Big East games.

At the beginning of this five game run there weren’t many who believed PC stood much of a chance of making the NCAA Tournament for the first time in ten seasons, but if they are to dance come March they may have to follow a similar formula as the 2004 Friars on the defensive end.

For the first time since then, PC has legitimate length at multiple positions (the 6’9 Tyler Harris on the wing and 6’5 Josh Fortune at the two, for instance) and they ran Xavier off of three point looks and filtered the game into a ready Carson Desrosiers, who blocked a season-high six shots (matching his total against LaSalle in November). In my pre-game preview I’d written how this one was a big opportunity for Desrosiers to shine as Xavier star Semaj Christon was making a living at the rim, shooting 63% from the field in Big East games coming in. Two of Desrosiers’ six blocks came at Christon’s expense, who shot just 5-14 from the field.

Xavier scored nine less points than they’d been averaging coming in, and when PC is keeping teams off of the arc and Desrosiers and Kadeem Batts combine for nine blocks, the Friars will be a difficult out.

 

Email Kevin at kevin.farrahar@friarbasketball.com

Twitter: @KevinFarrahar 

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