Saturday’s game at The Heights between Providence and host Boston College has a few notable items to it. It’s a matchup of regional rivals and of former conference foes, as the two used to play each other in the Big East all the time. The schools are less than 50 miles apart and are continuing the rivalry despite Boston College’s jump to the ACC back in 2005. It’s also a homecoming of sorts for Providence head coach Keno Davis. As a young kid, he was around the Boston College program while his father, Dr. Tom Davis, was head coach from 1977-82.
But once that’s all out of the way, Saturday’s game becomes a matchup of two teams for whom the jury is still out. Both teams have similar winning records – Boston College is 8-2 and Providence is 7-3 – but have also left at least as many questions as answers thus far. The Eagles entered the week with an RPI of 62, dragged down by a strength of schedule of 165, while the Friars were at 108. That’s not surprising since neither team has a win that’s bound to make someone stand up and take notice.
To boot, both teams have at least one major question mark, big enough to make them look like a question mark for the NCAA Tournament as conference play approaches. That’s why, while there are plenty of angles to this matchup, from a purely basketball standpoint it’s a matchup of two teams that could use a boost at this point and not just in their NCAA Tournament profiles.
Both teams share a question mark about inside scoring. Both teams have players capable of doing it, but Geoff McDermott (Providence) and Corey Raji (Boston College) do more than just score the occasional inside basket. Post scoring isn’t really who they are, although Raji has emerged as the consummate garbage man for the Eagles. For Providence, Randall Hanke could be that player, but he doesn’t rebound or defend well enough to play significant minutes, and Jonathan Kale is the opposite as he’s an emotional leader, a rebounder and an enforcer, but not a guy you dump the ball into on the low blocks and get 6-8 baskets from. The same is true of Eagles like Josh Southern and Evan Ravenel.
But the similarities end there, and in fact the personnel shows a contrast. The young Eagles have just two upperclassmen, while the Friars are the picture of a veteran team as they start nothing but upperclassmen (usually four seniors) and have just two underclassmen in the rotation.
The Friars’ lack of inside scoring leads to another offensive issue: living and dying by the three-point shot. The Friars don’t have a lights-out shooter, but they have plenty who are capable of knocking down good shots. That’s the problem right there: all too often, this team settles for shots from behind the arc instead of taking them in the flow of an offense with ball movement, so they don’t take the best shots. Weyinmi Efejuku is one of the best athletes in the country, and has the potential to be a great slashing scorer, but he’s always been a tease. One game he looks like a potential All-American, the next he looks only a little better than ordinary. And while Davis expects that the Friars will sooner or later have a breakout game from long range, at some point one has to wonder if that’s really going to happen.
Boston College, meanwhile, has a question mark besides the support for star senior Tyrese Rice. The Eagles still don’t have consistent support other than Joe Trapani and Raji, and whether or not those two will help lead them to a number of ACC wins remains to be seen. There is more depth on this team, as ten players average at least 12 minutes per game, but one of those ten (Tyler Roche) has only played in five of their ten games thus far. Rakim Sanders has plenty of talent, but also plenty of inconsistency. He’s the most likely player to be a major complement to Rice, but the consistency is still not there.
Both teams have some things going for them, but watching both teams play, it’s hard to see them as NCAA Tournament teams. But teams get better as the season goes along, and sometimes a team surprises with how much they might raise their level.
In their last game, both teams trailed in the first half before winning by double figures. While they came back to win the game in each case, that they fell behind early at home against inferior competition is a concern. Teams can’t always rally from being down in the first half, especially if they have been thoroughly out-played. Boston College would have trailed at halftime last Sunday if Roche didn’t get hot and make four of five from long range late in the half. While the Friars were coming off final exams in their win over Jackson State on Wednesday, the Eagles didn’t have that explanation as they were off for exams following their last game.
In the future, first half efforts like that won’t help either team.
“In the first half we came out sloppy,” Providence guard Jeff Xavier said after Wednesday’s game. “I don’t think we gave this team respect. In the Big East, that’s not going to work for us. We’re going to have to come out in the first half of every game with fire and energy. We can’t just bring it 20 minutes a game, we have to bring it for 40 minutes night in and night out.”
Both coaches have spoken highly of the character of their team recently. BC mentor Al Skinner thought his team showed a lot of character nearly two weeks ago when they beat UMass in overtime after failing to close it out in regulation, while Davis has spoken of his team’s ability to come back. But each knows that going forward, they’ll have a much tougher time surviving a bad first half or a bad stretch against better teams.
Saturday starts the final stretch for both teams before conference play. Neither is likely to answer any of the questions looming in this game, and although the winner might get a small boost heading into their final game before Christmas (Providence plays Monday, BC plays Tuesday), most likely the game’s significance is that of your typical rivalry game. The winner walks away with bragging rights.
