In what was supposed to be a rebuilding year for Ed Cooley and the Providence Friars, they instead find themselves on the fringes of the NCAA Tournament bubble discussion. At 16-11 and 6-8 in the Big East, they’re listed among the “Next Four Out” in many brackets and have even snuck into the field of 68 on several projections thanks to back-to-back wins over Butler and Xavier. A road win over Creighton might put them over the top, and with a favorable final stretch — home games against Marquette and DePaul, a road game at St. John’s — the Friars could potentially finish with nine or 10 conference wins, which would be remarkable for a team picked ninth in the preseason poll.
Injuries to Xavier’s Edmond Sumner and CU’s Maurice Watson mean the title of quickest point guard in the Big East now belongs to Providence’s Kyron Cartwright, a 5’11” dynamo who’s averaging 13.7 points, 6.4 assists and 4.0 rebounds over the last ten games. He played just 12 minutes in the first meeting after sitting the rest of the game with knee tendinitis, and in his absence Watson feasted to the tune of 11 points and 14 assists. Freshman Maliek White was thrust into action after Cartwright couldn’t go, and in his most extensive playing time of the season, he struggled on both ends. The good news for Providence is that Cartwright is back, Watson is gone, White will barely play, and the battle of point guards probably favors the Friars in this one.
Can Davion Mintz and Tyler Clement keep the lightning-quick Cartwright from driving into the lane? Can they run their own offense without turning it over? Those will be big questions tonight. After losing by 12 to the Friars last week, Xavier coach Chris Mack called Cartwright “a blur” and credited him as a big reason for his team’s uncharacteristic 17 turnovers.
Cartwright is a handful, but he’s far from the only Friar to worry about. Rodney Bullock is their leading scorer, as the 6’8″ 225-pound junior averages 16.7 points a game. The Bluejay defense frustrated him massively in the first meeting, with Bullock shooting 3-9 on two-pointers and 0-4 from behind the arc; he scored six points in 35 minutes, his second-lowest scoring game of the season (only an ugly two-point performance against a Xavier team playing at full-strength in late December ranks worse). Bullock has been terrific in almost every other game — he’s scored 12 or more in 10 of 14 Big East games — so if the Jays’ forwards can once again frustrate him, that will offset some of the damage Cartwright might inflict.
6’7″ guard Jalen Lindsay is the Friars’ third starter averaging in double-figures, at 10.4 points per game. Lindsay, too, struggled a bit in the first game as he shot 4-12 from the floor. It was the 6’7″ Emmitt Holt, who comes off the bench for the Friars, who had a big game instead — Holt had 17 points thanks to 7-10 shooting from two-point range, with seven rebounds and two blocks while playing 33 minutes.
Watson isn’t around for the Jays anymore, but two players the Friars had all sorts of trouble guarding still are. Justin Patton scored 20 points, shot 9-13 from the floor with six rebounds, three blocks and a steal, and played 35 minutes thanks to picking up just two fouls. Providence had no answer for the 7’0″ freshman, as he scored every way imaginable in the paint and played terrific defense on the other end. And should he struggle in the rematch, Zach Hanson is now available to back him up after not playing in the first meeting. Khyri Thomas also had a huge game, scoring 16 on 8-11 shooting while doing his usual lockdown job defensively.
Quick Notes on the Friars:
- Freshman guard Alpha Diallo has scored 15 points or more in three of the last six games. In the Friars’ loss to St. John’s on January 25, he recorded 18 points, eight rebounds and four as- sists. In the team’s loss to Villanova on February 1, the rookie guard tied his career high with 18 points versus Villanova. Diallo had a team-best 15 points (all in the second half) in the Friars’ 71-65 win over No. 22 Butler on February 11. He is averaging 5.1 points and 2.6 rebounds per game.
- Head Coach Ed Cooley is attempting to bring the Friars to their fifth straight post-season appearance for the first time since 1993-97. When Cooley was hired in 2011, the Friars had finished under .500 in six of the 10 previous seasons and had been to just one NCAA Tournament (2004) in that 10-year span. They’ve played in three straight NCAA Tournaments.
Bluejay Bytes:
- Greg McDermott became the winningest head coach in CenturyLink Center history with Sunday’s win, and enters Wednesday night with a 99-23 home record as Creighton head coach, one shy of the century mark. In Creighton history, only Dana Altman (199-46 at home) and Arthur A. Schabinger (108-30) at home) have previously reached 100 home wins. Schabinger coached at Creighton from 1922-35, when Creighton played its games at the Vinardi Center’s “Old Gym” on campus. Meanwhile, Altman was 102-28 at the Omaha Civic Auditorium and 97-18 at CenturyLink Center Omaha as CU head coach. Altman has 98 all-time wins as head coach at CenturyLink Center, as his Oregon team went 1-1 in the 2015 NCAA Tournament.
- Creighton ranks second in the nation in field goal percentage, connecting at a 52.2 percent clip. Only UCLA (53.3%) and unbeaten Gonzaga (51.4%) are over 51% through games of Sunday. Creighton is also shooting the ball well in league play, draining 50.8 percent of its attempts. That would rank as the Big East’s best league mark since Syracuse shot 51.3% in 1988-89.
- Creighton men’s basketball (22) and Creighton women’s basketball (20) each have surpassed 20 wins this season, the 11th time in school history that both teams have 20 or more wins in the same season. CU is one of 12 schools with 20 or more wins in both men’s and women’s basketball this season, a list that includes Baylor, Bucknell, Creighton, Duke, FGCU, Florida State, Gonzaga, Louisville, Maryland, Notre Dame, South Carolina and UCLA. The 42 combined wins between the Creighton MBB and WBB programs is tied for 10th in school history for one season; the record is 53, set during both the 2002-03 and 2012-13 seasons.
The Series:
Providence owns a 12-6 lead in a series that dates back to 1961, including a 4-3 lead in Omaha. The Friars have won six of the eight meetings since the two became Big East foes, with CU’s only two wins coming on Senior Night 2014 and last month in Rhode Island.
The Last Time They Played:
Creighton won their first game at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in four tries as a Big East member with a 78-64 win over Providence on January 7. They blasted out to a 10-0 lead, but saw the Friars battle back to tie it at 31 late in the half. Another Bluejay run, this one 8-0, gave them a 39-33 lead at the break. In the second half, the Friars missed seven straight shots at one point and the Bluejays led by as many as 19 points.
Justin Patton had 20 points and tied his career-high with three blocks. Marcus Foster added 17 points, while Khyri Thomas had 16. Maurice Watson had 11 points and tied his Creighton-high with 14 assists for his sixth double-double of the year.
Gratuitous Linkage, Friar Edition:
“The math is quite simple for Emmitt Holt and his Providence College teammates.
With four games left in the regular season beginning Wednesday at Creighton, PC fans are wondering just how the Friars can negotiate a path to the NCAA Tournament. Holt says the easiest path is uncomplicated.
“I feel like all these games are winnable,” he said. “We finish out strong, win ’em all, we’ll be back in this tournament.”
–Friars know that way to NCAA tourney starts with win at Creighton, Providence Journal
Gratuitous Linkage, Bluejay Edition:
On the latest Bluejay Bytes Podcast presented by our terrific partners Lawlors Custom Sportswear, the guys talk to transfer Kaleb Joseph about his redshirt season, and his preparation for next season when he’s expected to play major minutes at point guard (if not take over the main role entirely). The conversation with Joseph starts at the 1:26:00 mark.
This Date in Creighton Hoops History:
On February 22, 2003, Creighton beat Fresno State 67-66 in the first-ever ESPN BracketBuster game, which was treated as a much-bigger deal by ESPN that year than it was in subsequent years. Both Jay Bilas and Andy Katz were in Omaha for the telecast, for example. We looked back at the game in a Bluejay Rewind installment a couple of years ago.
“Creighton came into the game 23-3 and ranked 18th in the country, and playing before their fourth-straight home sellout, the atmosphere was electric. It was so loud in the Civic that even Bilas, the former Duke player, was impressed — telling reporters after the game that he believed Creighton’s crowd affected the outcome. Of course, having Kyle Korver on your side didn’t hurt either, especially on a day when his shot was in vintage form. The senior made seven 3-pointers en route to 27 points, connecting on everything from shots off missed assignments to shots off screens and in one instance, making a shot with two hands draped on him.
His most impressive play came late in the game — on a play where he never touched the ball. With the game in the balance, he set a devastatingly hard pick on Fresno State’s Terry Pettis that knocked the Bulldog guard to the floor. It freed up Tyler McKinney to drive the paint, where he found Mike Grimes for an easy bucket that gave the Jays a 67-62 lead with two minutes to play.”
Completely Random, Totally Rad Music Video of the Day:
The Bottom Line:
KenPom predicts a 10-point Bluejay win, and Vegas opened with the Jays as a 8-point favorite. That’s a bit more favorable than I’d peg it, but let’s go with it!
Creighton 77, Providence 67