Friar Basketball News and Notes: Duncan Powell's Different Dimension, Jason Edwards as a Creator, and is Jamier Jones Time Now?
Also, check out Billy Ricci's interview with Johnny Jackson.
News and notes as we wait for Providence to return to the floor on Friday night against Seton Hall…
1. The Friars got a sizable lift from Duncan Powell in Saturday’s double overtime loss to Butler. Bright spots often get buried in a tough loss, but Powell came off the bench and scored Providence’s first seven points to get them back into the game. He later turned down a decent look at a corner 3-pointer for an and-1 at a critical moment in the second half.
He finished with 10 points, eight rebounds, and three assists in 20 minutes.
Powell was a victim of poor luck early — in more ways than one. He hurt his wrist in the season opener against Holy Cross, and then lost four teeth and suffered a concussion in practice, causing him to miss some matchups the Friars could have really used him in.
What’s more, Powell may have been negatively impacted by the fallout of Bryce Hopkins shutting it down last season, with some corners of the fanbase questioning the severity of his injury after missing time following the blow to his head.
Beyond the box score, Butler respected Powell enough in the post to double-team him, and he held up better against Michael Ajayi than some of his smaller teammates.
It wasn’t perfect on Saturday. Powell had a few turnovers when facing double teams and he didn’t solve the issues this team faced on the glass, but his time away and subsequent ramp back up to speed have been a hurdle for the Friars.
2. Jason Edwards may have turned the ball over at the most critical juncture of the game against Butler, but he was otherwise outstanding offensively.
Of course, the shooting and scoring stand out (32 points on 12-22 shooting and 6-13 from three), but Edwards passed the ball as well as he has all season. He ended up with six assists, but there were other plays that could have resulted in Providence scores.
The playmaking ability in these clips looks like a solid step forward:
3. With five days off between games, will Kim English look to tweak his rotation again prior to Friday’s home tilt with Seton Hall?
One thing is clear: Providence looks better when freshman Jamier Jones is on the floor. The numbers also seem to back that up:
In Quad 1 and 2 games, Jones has the best plus/minus rating of all the rotation players who have been healthy this year.
The same holds true throughout the entire season, as Jones’ +96 is the best mark on the team, followed by Oswin Erhunmwunse at +90. There’s a big discrepancy between Jones/Erhunmwunse and Stefan Vaaks at #3 (+44).
On a per-40 minute basis, Jones is third on the team in scoring (21.2) and he’s obviously been very efficient.
Conversely, backup big man Cole Hargrove has struggled to make an impact and it seems fair to ask whether Providence would be better suited to play Powell as a stretch five or lean into the size of Peteris Pinnis more.
4. Georgetown guard DeShawn Harris-Smith has stepped away from the program for personal reasons. He has not played in any of the Hoyas’ December games and removed all mentions of Georgetown from his social media profile.
The Maryland transfer was a top recruit coming out of high school, fell out of Maryland’s rotation last year, and was expected to bring toughness to Georgetown this season.
5. A potential wrinkle to keep an eye on is the Friars’ occasional use of a zone defense. Providence had not played a single possession of zone prior to facing Brown on Dec. 9.
PC was in zone on four possessions that night, per my count, and then tried to use it as a curveball late in regulation against Butler — but the Bulldogs found Jamie Kaiser for an open corner three to take the lead in the final minute.
Providence played zone in under 5% of its defensive possessions in each of English’s first two years at the helm, so it probably still stands to reason that we won’t see long stretches of it.
6. Finally, you’ll want to check out Billy Ricci’s interview with Johnny Jackson, AKA Johnny Buckets.
The New Jersey native was featured on ESPN last year for playing basketball while fighting Stage 4 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Jackson never missed a game, despite going through treatments, and he scored over 2,000 points during his high school career.
Nicely done Billy! We need more Johnny Buckets and less hand ringing over high pick and roll defense. Go Friars!
Great analysis as always.
Jones is a freak athlete and it's amazing to watch him dunk at will. He's unselfish, athletic and has a nose for the ball and the hoop to a degree that I worry a top 10 school is going to snap him up at the end of the year.
Edwards is fun to watch...lots of "no, no, no" moments but they so often end in "yes!" and it's shocking how low his turnover level is for his style of play. It seems like he's often slightly loosing the handle, or dribbling too much and begging for the ball to be stolen - but he's just so quick he gets out of trouble. What's his % on that 12-15 jumper--80%?
Powell - man I hope what I saw on Saturday was for real. Very, very different game than Ed Croswell but I think he could have the same statistical impact in points and rebounds. If he's a 9/6 or 10/7 guy with 23-24 minutes to give--that's the different between a winning season and an NIT bid with momentum going into next year and more of the same with the Kim English hot seat talk. It's wonderful to think that there could be an impact player down low so we don't have to go into a cold sweat each game with Oswin inevitably picks up that second foul before the second media time out because of a moving screen at the 3 point line or similar gaffe.
During the pre-season, I was hopeful that this was a borderline top 25 team. It's probably not, unfortunately, because the defensive metrics are so bad they point to a talent issue on that side of the court just as much as a scheme one. But the offense is there, a rotation is coming into place, and the fight they showed on the road against a decent Butler team suggested to me that the ceiling is 17-18 wins and an NIT bid. Not what everyone wants, but remember, they won 12 games last year and the world was crashing down around us. If they are competitive, get a couple of road wins, get to the post season, hold on on Jones, they can take Barron and Davis out of carbon freeze and get another big man for next year....then you have an NCAA tourney team in 26-27. I don't think that's a crazy amount of "ifs".