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Post-Brown Takeaways

Dunn Slamming

Takeaways after Providence’s 94-73 victory over Brown — Providence is now 3-0 with an important week ahead.

No rust to be found. After two years away, Rodney Bullock has shown no signs of rust — quite the opposite, in fact. He’s the smoothest thing the Friars have.

The ease in how Bullock scores and the number of ways he can do so has been the most encouraging sign for a team that many thought would struggle for answers beyond Kris Dunn.

There’s a Ryan Gomes-like quality when Bullock has the ball near the rim. From the start Gomes was never flustered in the paint and rarely missed within five feet. With all due respect to Herbert Hill, who turned himself into a great interior scorer by his fifth year at PC, Bullock is as natural a scorer in the paint as we’ve seen since Gomes. While the game speeds up for so many in traffic, Bullock is calm and collected when shooting inside.

It’s early, but Bullock is averaging a cool 19.3 ppg and shooting over 60% from the field through three games. Not only adept at scoring in the paint, Bullock has flashed a promising face-up game and is starting to score more by running rim-to-rim. A year ago, LaDontae Henton feasted off of outrunning opposing fours and receiving long look-ahead passes from Dunn, and Bullock got a couple of easy ones against Brown by simply beating everyone up the floor.

Taking care of the rock. One of the knocks on Dunn from a season ago, and justifiably so, was his troubles with turnovers. With the Friars hoping to play at a faster pace and Dunn controlling the ball 90% of the time, keeping the turnover rate down is critical.

So far, so good: Providence has turned it over just 23 times in three games.

Jalen Lindsey’s niche. Much has been made of what role Lindsey can, or should, fill on this team. With the emergence of Bullock as a primary scoring option, Lindsey gets to transition into a secondary scorer/top wing defender role with this group.

What role will Lindsey play this season? How about one similar to Kerry Kittles after Jason Kidd arrived in New Jersey?

At the collegiate level Kittles was dominant, a 2,000 point scorer at Villanova and eventual lottery pick. The comp isn’t Kittles at Villanova, but Kittles with the Nets.

Once Jason Kidd arrived in Jersey, Kittles’ game truly flourished as a long, wiry defender, capable of burning teams from beyond the arc, but truly excelling in the open court when Kidd had Kittles and Richard Jefferson flanking him on the wings.

Lindsey simply didn’t get enough easy looks last season and admitted prior to this one that his confidence dropped off as a result. Four of Lindsey’s six field goals came inside the three point arc on Saturday against Brown, as he finished 6-7 from the field and 2-3 from 3.

Lindsey didn’t have a game last season in which he made more than 2 two-point field goals. He had four last night.

Like Kidd in the NBA, Dunn is a triple double threat every time he steps on the floor at this level, and Lindsey should be able to get his share of easy scores just by getting out and running alongside him as Kittles did 15 years ago.

The development of Ryan Fazkeas. It’s hard not be pleased with what Providence has gotten from the freshman to this point. While his 5-8 shooting from three point range against Brown and potential emergence as a much-needed outside threat is encouraging, Fazkeas has also been willing to mix it up on the interior.

Defense was an issue throughout the Brown game for Fazekas, as he was beaten for layups on three occasions, but his willingness to get dirty and his awareness in cutting to the basket are positive traits that weren’t highlighted in most recruiting scouting reports.

This isn’t just a shooter.

Kris Dunn’s 4.7 steals per game lead the nation; that’s rather impressive considering he didn’t have any against Illinois. The only thing keeping him from 10 in a game are the quicker whistles coming this season.

Twitter: @Kevin_Farrahar

Email: kevin.farrahar@friarbasketball.com

 

 

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