PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Non-conference play is only about wins and losses to a point. While the final score from Providence’s blowout of Vermont will jump out at most, there was much more to take from the game for the Friars.
A final score of 106-64 is usually indicative of the winning team playing very well and the losing team playing very poorly. That would certainly be an apt description of Tuesday night’s game, but there’s something bigger to take out of it. Clearly, Providence is getting better in the young season, and the result, as well as how it came to be, bears it out.
The Friars’ defense held the Catamounts below 37 percent shooting and forced 23 turnovers. They cashed in those turnovers for 33 points as Vermont simply couldn’t run with them. They had a 52-32 edge on the glass, owing mainly to 23 offensive rebounds. They never allowed the Catamounts to get untracked. While Marqus Blakely had 24 points on 9-15 shooting for Vermont, those numbers are deceptive because he was never really a factor in this game.
Most of all, the Friars bounced back from a tough loss in Alabama a few nights earlier with a stellar effort. It was exactly what the doctor ordered.
“You don’t know how a team is going to respond, especially a team that’s as young as this one,” said head coach Keno Davis. “So for us to come out and have that kind of intensity, running the court, rebounding the ball, talking on defense, that’s something that is a really good sign for us. As long as we do that, you’re going to see the individual players, the young players on this team improve.”
Davis thinks they can still improve a good deal defensively, especially after seeing what happened last year. He felt they started out well, but later simply weren’t good enough defensively against some of the better teams in the Big East.
While they certainly showed up on offense on Tuesday, going 15-27 from long range, the numbers aren’t what count there. Indeed, what really matters is that many of those shots came in the flow of the offense and with better ball movement. The Friars have had a tendency to settle for jump shots, including from long range, so it would seem to be no accident that the shots started dropping now.
“I think we’re getting a better vibe, getting chemistry together,” said freshman guard Duke Mondy. “We pushed each other and ran the break well.”
There were no better examples of the offense than Marshon Brooks and Jamine Peterson. Brooks had 24 points in 22 minutes, going 8-10 from the field and 4-5 from long range. Peterson suddenly found the touch from deep, making all three from there en route to 20 points in 16 minutes. Brooks has once again started off a season well, but he’s looking better than he was during his early season run last year and seems to be in a better place to sustain it.
Providence is 4-1 now, but they’ve done it in such a way that they look better every time out. Players are slowly establishing identities and they are clearly playing with each other better all the time. They’re taking better shots and looking more like a team that can thrive with their shooting in addition to using the press well. Perhaps most of all, they’ve passed the first test of true adversity they have had to face, which can never be underestimated given how much adversity teams face during a season. It all adds up to why the coach likes what he sees to this point.
“As you look at our team, we’re not really a finished product, but you see glimpses of, when everything comes together, how dangerous we can be,” Davis said.
