PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey wasted no time heaping praise on the team that beat his Fighting Irish convincingly on Saturday. He had barely sat down when he started.
“I think they are the most underrated team in our league, quite frankly,” said Brey. “They are really hard to guard. I think Ed’s done a fabulous job with them.”
Providence is clearly hitting its stride at long last, and Saturday was the best exhibition of that. After battling personnel issues through the early part of Big East play, this team finally seems to have settled into what they are. The Friars are healthy, have found their roles, they know what’s expected and they have found a rotation that is working. And it probably doesn’t hurt from an intangible standpoint that one of the players they were eager to get eligible is not with them now.
After Saturday’s win, the Friars have won four straight games and have yet to lose in February. They are doing what a coach always hopes at the beginning of the season in that they are playing their best basketball to this point in the season. When they hit the skids after an 8-2 start, defense was an area of concern, as head coach Ed Cooley was publicly critical of the team about it. That’s becoming less of an issue now, and Saturday again provides the best example of that.
Notre Dame leads the Big East in three-point shooting, but the Friars held them to 1-14 from long range. The Fighting Irish were also held below 40 percent from the field. They also out-rebounded Notre Dame 43-32. In this streak, only USF shot better than 40 percent against Providence, and that included a 31 percent mark in the second half when Providence shot 64 percent to come back to win after a bad start. In non-conference play, the Friars were routinely holding teams under 40 percent, a large reason they ran out to an 8-2 start.
“Defensively, we’ve come a long way – a very long way – and that’s what’s winning basketball games for us,” said Cooley. “We held another team under 40 percent today.”
Offensively, the Friars are becoming what Brey described. Kadeem Batts is now consistently putting up good numbers, while Bryce Cotton continues to lead the Big East in scoring. A now very healthy Vincent Council is bringing it all together, and on Saturday he nearly had a triple-double as he had 11 assists (just two turnovers) to become the school’s all-time leader in that category, along with 11 rebounds and just seven points. He leads the Big East in assists and assist-to-turnover ratio in conference games (he missed too many games to qualify for the overall lead).
In fact, Cooley had a little fun with Council’s apparent attempts to get those final three points.
“I think he was a three away from a triple-double,” Cooley said. “I was wondering why he kept heaving up bad shots.”
Batts drew praise from Brey, while Cooley said he thinks Batts “has been the best player in the league the past month or so, or last few weeks.” In Big East play, the junior forward is averaging almost 14 points per game and shooting over 50 percent from the field after putting in 20 points on 10-16 shooting on Saturday. He was clearly better than any of Notre Dame’s big men, and that’s a very good group. After posting just two points at Villanova, Batts has had games of 25, 24 and 20 points in the last three games. He nearly had a double-double in one of them.
Brey said he’s glad Notre Dame doesn’t have to play Providence again and hopes he doesn’t have to play them in the Big East Tournament. It’s not hard to imagine the Friars being on a roll by then if they can keep up what they have been doing of late. Providence heads to Syracuse on Wednesday, and aside from that the schedule is a bit easier as Connecticut and St. John’s are the best remaining teams on their schedule. The Friars had a chance to beat the Huskies in the last game before the current winning streak, and St. John’s will play them at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center.
It wouldn’t be a surprise if the Friars made a late run to get above .500 in Big East play now that they have reached the point they are at. The four-game winning streak figures to give them more confidence to go with it. They are playing their best basketball of the season to date, and that makes them a dangerous team.
