PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Could Providence become a bubble team? The answer to that might not be as easy as you think, or may have thought not so long ago. Providence’s 76-66 win over Seton Hall on Tuesday night is certainly not a resume builder, but it puts them above .500 in Big East play, something that likewise seemed unthinkable once upon a time.
It wasn’t all that long ago that some might have written this team off as far as postseason play was concerned. The Friars started Big East play 2-7 with a pair of three-game losing streaks, and they simply didn’t look good. The two wins came at Seton Hall and at home against Villanova, neither of which seemed very impressive at the time and still don’t now. A 5-1 month of February changed all of that, and now they are 2-0 in March to stay on a roll.
“I credit our players,” said head coach Ed Cooley. “It’s been their concentration, it’s been their pride, it’s been their resolve. Paying attention to detail, wanting to do something.”
Cooley, who St. John’s head coach Steve Lavin praised heavily a few nights earlier for getting this team to .500 in Big East play, went on to talk about Kadeem Batts, who has been on a tear since the calendar turned over to February. Throw away the first game, a victory at Villanova where Batts scored just two points and had three rebounds. Since then, he is averaging 19.7 points and 7.9 rebounds per game, and on the season he is now averaging over 15 points per game after putting up 27 points on 10-18 shooting and 12 rebounds against Seton Hall on Tuesday night. Batts is easily one of the most improved players in the country.
“Kadeem has been a big piece of that, he’s having a monster year,” Cooley said.
The first half of Tuesday night’s game was full of offense until the final minutes, with Providence being the better team at that end for much of the time. But the Pirates were better in the final minutes and shot 55.6 percent, while the Friars had the lead despite shooting just 42.1 percent. The second half was a defensive battle, and the Friars held down the Pirates to at times build the lead up despite struggling to score. Providence shot just 39.3 percent after intermission but held the Pirates to 31 percent, and turned the ball over just eight times on the evening.
“Our guys are playing at a really high level right now,” said Cooley.
It was far from a thing of beauty, but Providence continues to win. They are in the midst of a relatively soft close to the conference schedule, with only a trip to Connecticut left. Providence let the first meeting between the two teams get away, and they draw some confidence from having played well in Connecticut over the years. A win there will be paramount.
Because the bubble is so soft, it might not be a stretch to say that Providence could become a bubble team. Seton Hall is not a resume win, but the Friars’ regular season finale at Connecticut would be one. They can still pick up a quality win or two in New York as well, and that might make things interesting. Providence enters the week with an RPI of 78, so they clearly have some work to do, but then, so do a number of other teams that are on the bubble.
Providence has a bye into the second round of the Big East Tournament and can still climb a bit higher in the standings. They will need one win there to avoid a bad loss since they will be playing a team seeded below them, then they should have another opportunity for a quality win. They will also need to break out of a funk they have had in New York, as they haven’t won a Big East Tournament game since beating DePaul back in 2009, and that win broke a five-game losing streak in the tournament. The last two years, they have lost by at least 20 points.
The NCAA Tournament is still a long shot, because the Friars played a very soft non-conference schedule and have lost at Brown and at home to DePaul. Wins over Cincinnati and Notre Dame aren’t bad, but the Bearcats are now below .500 in Big East play. The best non-conference win is probably their second of the season against Bryant at home, and the Bulldogs have an RPI that is well into triple digits. In other words, they don’t have much to fall back on.
With the way Providence has played since the start of February, the Friars could certainly work their way onto the bubble. They have to sustain this level and do so against a better team or two. This team is coming together from a chemistry standpoint and the confidence is there, so they’re in a better position to win games they need to than they were a month ago.
“We as a team want to play as long as we can,” said Batts. “We want to make history. This is a real special team and we want to take advantage of it.”
That doesn’t seem like as far-fetched an idea as it once did.
