PROVIDENCE, R.I. – It’s fair to say that the young Providence Friars are learning, despite some formidable obstacles placed in their path. They went 5-1 during a recent stretch of six games in less than two weeks, with the last game being a nice bounce-back from the only loss in that stretch. With that, they enter a break for final exams with a 10-2 mark that might not have been expected by many.
To be sure, the Friars haven’t exactly played a schedule full of world-beaters. Their strength of schedule is just barely in the top half entering this week, hence the 10-2 mark gets them an RPI just inside the top 60. But for a team with so little experience entering the season, the important things were to get better and ideally do that through wins, which is largely what has happened. The idea was for the team to build confidence by the time they reach the Big East at the end of the month.
“They knew that the non-conference part of our schedule was going to be very important, and yet demanding with so many games in so few days,” head coach Keno Davis said. “For a young team to be able to recover and come back and have the kind of effort they’ve had in just about every game is a real credit to the type of young men that we have in our program.”
Effort hasn’t been a concern save for some stretches of games. Additionally, this team is developing some depth, although a lot of it is young, and it has shown. The Friars have on several occasions turned a close game at halftime into a blowout in the second half, blitzing the opposition at some point in the latter frame. They are outscoring opponents by an average of 12 in the second half, including a 54-20 edge over Central Connecticut and a 52-30 margin against Brown.
“I think that’s why we’ve been successful in the second half of games this year, is we’re a deeper team,” Davis said.
This team continues to do it with defense as well, something no one would have figured after seeing this team last season. Opponents are shooting just over 40 percent and turning the ball over nearly 15 times per game against the Friars.
Most of all, this team has done it with so little practice time. Davis said the short times in between games of late has meant they haven’t really practiced over the last couple of weeks. He has limited the practice time so that players stay fresh come game time, instead opting for more film and walk-throughs. This has happened as they have started to face more zone defenses, which began in Cancun but has continued of late. Considering they don’t have anyone who strikes fear in opponents as a shooter, they may face more of it.
Few young players know how to attack a zone defense, a big reason Syracuse continues to have a great deal of success with its 2-3 zone defense. The Friars aren’t exactly shredding the zones they are facing, because they’ve managed to control the pace of the game, but they are managing well against it. Given the lack of real practice time with it of late, that’s a credit to how they are learning.
Perhaps the best example of the learning with this team came in Saturday’s 82-70 win over Alabama. There were times where it looked like Alabama might get its first road win of the season, but Marshon Brooks and Gerard Coleman carried them later in the second half as they took it home. It was three days after a tough but well-deserved loss at Boston College, one they almost stole when Vincent Council’s last-second heave went off the backboard and hit the rim but was too hard and fell harmlessly to the floor.
Wednesday night, it wasn’t hard to tell who was the veteran team and who was the young team. Boston College played with a good deal of poise, as they have most of the season thus far, while Providence looked like a young team learning the game. The Friars were impatient on offense, while the Eagles methodically moved the ball and got good shots, several coming at the end of the shot clock. A late run almost bailed them out.
On Saturday, they didn’t need that.
“We didn’t start playing until the last five minutes of the game,” Coleman said after scoring 18 points on 8-12 shooting against Alabama. “We didn’t want to make the same mistake twice, so we played with the same energy we played with the last five minutes of the BC game. If we do that, we could walk away with this game, and we did that.”
In particular, Brooks has played like a senior leader of late. He started and ended the three-game week with 33-point, eight-rebound outings and had 28 and 10 rebounds at Boston College mixed in. The Friars have at times gone smaller and used him at the power forward spot, and he’s done well in part because the opposing lineups haven’t always been big but also because he’s used his advantages.
“We were having a problem rebounding, so I just took it upon myself to get every rebound I could,” Brooks said after Saturday’s win.
Brooks added that he’s showing an extra gear in terms of offensive aggressiveness, and lately his confidence appears to be as high as it’s been. His aunt, who is a referee, told him to go to the rim, and he certainly did that on Saturday as he got to the foul line 16 times.
The Friars head into final exams on a good note. They are learning despite limited practice time, and they understood why they lost at Boston College. With one more non-conference game left, they’ll need to keep that up, because the Big East has proven its mettle in non-conference play and the Friars already saw what can happen to young teams there last year. This year’s team may be a little different, but it’s still young. Unlike last year’s team, this one appears to be learning and improving.
