Friar Basketball

What’s Ailing the Friars?

Cooley UMass

Let’s get this out of the way now for the “relax, it’s December” crowd. Yes, it’s early, and Providence is down a number of critical players.

Back in September, I was certain Emmitt Holt would be this team’s “gotta-have-a-basket scorer,” believed Alpha Diallo could potentially be the most improved player in the conference, and figured a healthy Kyron Cartwright would push for 1st Team All Big East.

Two of those players weren’t on the floor on Saturday, and the third was a shell of himself.

If the past six years under Ed Cooley have taught us anything, it’s that his teams typically go through a December or January swoon before figuring it all out in February. Chances are, that will be the case again this season.

That doesn’t make what we’ve seen over the past two weeks any easier to stomach.

Certainly, Cooley isn’t feeling great about where his team is at.

Perhaps the strong finishes the past couple of seasons have allowed a sense of complacency to set in. This writer has certainly been guilty of it. For every narrow win over the likes of Rider, Brown, and Belmont I’d adopted a mantra along the lines of “avoid the bad losses now and figure it out come January.”

Today’s 72-63 loss, which included a 21-3 run by an average-at-best Massachusetts team, was frustrating and disappointing. What’s more troubling is the feeling left over from watching Rhode Island take it to the Friars.

It wasn’t that PC lost to a good URI team, it’s how it played out that afternoon and the way in which PC has responded since.

The loss at the Ryan Center was almost to be expected. The Rams are talented, tested, and played with the edge of a team that grew tired of hearing how lopsided the rivalry with the Friars had become. An optimist would even look at the play of freshmen Nate Watson and Makai Ashton-Langford and take some positives away from the loss.

The truly troubling aspect was seeing URI’s players take on their head coach’s persona. The Rams were chippy and physical, while Providence, specifically its veterans, wilted when Rhode Island ramped up the pressure.

Providence was the opposite of their coach’s personality, and they have been for much of this confounding season.

Maybe it is the four straight NCAA Tournament appearances, the preseason hype surrounding this club, or the assumption that they can flip a switch during conference play — whatever the reason, this has the look of a club that has taken for granted that they’ll dance in March and forgotten what it takes to get there.

What’s troubling the Friars most right now?

Kyron Cartwright isn’t right. The senior point guard was off to a strong start to the year prior to a late game injury in Providence’s 86-66 win over Boston College. He played well the next time out against Rider (14 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds), but he hasn’t been himself since.

Cartwright is 3-19 over the past three games, and on Saturday against Massachusetts he got himself into position to knock down jumpers he hits with consistency, but he simply doesn’t have the lift.

This team is deep, but with a hobbled Cartwright they aren’t close to the same team.

Holt’s absence has thrust a green frontcourt into the spotlight. All offseason I’d pointed to the Ben Bentil timeline for Nate Watson’s freshman year. As you’ll recall, Bentil played on a team with great length his freshman season. That group featured a pair of seven footers in Carson Desrosiers and Paschal Chukwu, the 6’9 Tyler Harris, and undersized warrior of a power forward in LaDontae Henton.

Bentil was eased into the lineup before a breakout game in January at Georgetown. A handful of double doubles followed in February and March, setting up for his dominant sophomore campaign.

We’ve seen glimpses of greatness from Watson on the offensive end, with a more polished back-to-the-basket game than expected, but Cooley continues to hammer home the need for Watson and sophomore Kalif Young to rebound. On Saturday they combined for two boards in 35 minutes.

The duo had combined for just two assists in nearly 300 minutes played prior to the Massachusetts game.

Watson will one day become a star at Providence, but the lack of rebounding and limited playmaking in the middle has forced Cooley’s hand.

Playing with force. When Jalen Lindsey grabbed an offensive rebound and scored in the first half against UMass, it marked the first time he’d connected on a field goal inside the 3-point arc this season. Lindsey was 20-41 from the field heading into this game, and 20-36 from deep. That’s five shots attempted inside the arc in eight games for all you math majors (Lindsey didn’t play the season opener vs. Houston Baptist).

If he’s defending and knocking down 3-pointers with consistency, Lindsey is doing his job for the most part, but five attempts inside the arc and the lack of rebounding from the bigs are symptomatic of a team that isn’t doing enough of the dirty work.

The Friars have also struggled to contain dribble penetration going back to the second game of the season against Minnesota. On Saturday, it was 5’11 guard Luwane Pipkins killing the Friars. He knocked down four 3-pointers in the first half, but eight of the little man’s 12 made field goals came inside the arc. A 34% shooter last year, and 38% this season, he finished 12-16 on the day for 30 points.

Leaving points at the line. Providence entered Saturday shooting 67% from the charity stripe, a number that wasn’t helped by an 11-20 performance against Massachusetts.

Providence led 51-46 after a Jalen Lindsey 3-pointer at the 10:51 mark, but wouldn’t make another field goal until there was 2:03 left.

For as brutal as that stretch was, they might have had a chance to pull this one out had they not missed five of their eight chances at the free throw line in the final 10 minutes. This was a seven-point game with a minute to go.

Nailing down the rotation. The season is a third of the way through, and it’s still unclear what this rotation will look like come conference play.

That’s not all that rare. Look no further than last season when Ryan Fazekas started a number of out of conference games before falling out of the rotation so far that his transfer at season’s end barely registered with PC fans.

Prior to the recent rash of injuries, four of the starters looked to be locks for the rest of the year — Cartwright, Diallo, Lindsey, and Bullock. Young has taken a step back after playing well in wins against Washington and St. Louis in Madison Square Garden. Is it time to insert Watson into the starting lineup?

What sort of role does Isaiah Jackson play going forward? Cooley can’t be blamed for going away from Jackson after his recent struggles. The redshirt junior scored 21 points in the first two games of the season, making 5-6 from 3 in the process. He then put up four combined in MSG and followed that up with zeros in the scoring column in four games (albeit in limited minutes).

Against Massachusetts, Jackson provided a spark with seven first-half points. He might have been PC’s best player on the floor. Jackson then sat the first 15 minutes of the second half. By the time he returned momentum had swung too far in UMass’s favor.

The rotation will come down to what style Cooley wants to play as much as it does individuals. If he goes small with Bullock at the five, that could mean more time for Jackson, who provides a little more length and girth on the wing. A smaller group would also mean more minutes for Drew Edwards, who played a combined 33 minutes in two games in New York, but then saw seven minutes or less in three of the next four.

If any of the players caught in the battle for minutes separated himself, it would be sophomore Maliek White. White has shot the ball exceptionally well (47% from 3, 53% overall), has cut way down on his turnovers (8 in 145 minutes), and has more steals per minute than anyone else on the roster. When he returns to health, White will be a critical component of this bench.

5 Comments

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  2. collins

    December 10, 2017 at 5:04 pm

    Good writing. Cooley does have a difficult job in doling out the minutes. We have been getting killed on the glass and we will basically go as far as Cartwright takes us.

  3. Anonymous

    December 10, 2017 at 6:56 pm

    Cooley is shuffling the lineup so often that the lineup just can’t get a rhythm and the seniors just aren’t showing much imo.

    URI hacked the crap out of them a week ago with only 18 fouls called against them and now they are tentative handling the ball. URI was called for 29 fouls against Alabama last week. Maybe at the Ryan center they can get away with that a lot more.

    Either way it looks like the Friars are just standing around instead of moving towards the ball – the ‘motion’ offense has them waiting til there’s only 5-10 seconds left on the shot clock to take a shot. Their missing shots right under the basket.

  4. Derec Lamendola

    December 10, 2017 at 7:55 pm

    Coach Cooley Has To Win This Year And We Got A Long Season This Year And Becuase DERREC Lamemdola Birthday IS In December 22 And Becuase Ed Cooley Got To Do Something This Year And Get Redey And Ed Cooley Needs To Figer OUt What To Do Hear And Becuase Makai Ashton Langford Has TO Get Redey And Providence. College Men’s Basketball Has To SUCK IT UP Get Redey And Becuase We I’m Am NOT Happy About Yeartersay And Becuase Providence. College Men’s Basketballl Needs Apila Dallio Maliek Wight And Becuase We Got Do Something Hear And Makai Ashton Langford Has To Get Going And Get Redey DEREC LAMENDOLA HATS LUSING Becuase I Won’t To Win Becuase IS Aomrst Derec Lamendola Birthday December 22 So Get Redey So I Won’t Providnce College Pleryas Has Finials Tommmerrrow And Pertkias Tuesday Finals Pertkias Wedensday Finals Pertkias Thursday Finals Pertkias Friday Last Day OF Finals And Close UP Apmomments And Pertkias Saturday Pertkias And Get Redey For Sunday I Won’t Wish Providence. College Men’s Basketball Plerys Good Luck Thery Finals Keep IT The Good Work So Get Redey

  5. Irish Spectre

    December 11, 2017 at 8:45 pm

    I thought Cartwright had a bad ankle sprain or something, but that’s not the gist of what this analysis suggests; if not, then things are worse than I thought. They definitely miss Holt. Anyway, there’s a lot of runway ahead of the Friars; they just need to have faith in one another, bear down, and get it going.

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