Jason Edwards Shines, Defensive Glass Troubles, Freshmen Continue to Deliver, and Behind the Numbers After Providence's 98-66 Win Over UNH
Prior to this season, Jason Edwards notched more than four assists in a game just once as a D1 player. He matched his career high of six dimes against Colorado on Friday night, and Tuesday versus New Hampshire brought a new career high when he finished with eight.
Edwards was simply too much for New Hampshire, a team expected to finish near the bottom of the America East conference this year. The Wildcats had no one who could stay with the explosive guard, as he finished with 25 points, eight assists, five rebounds, and three steals in 30 minutes. He also didn’t turn the ball over once, dropping his Turnover Percentage this year to under 5%.
After an efficient night in which he shot 8-11 from the field, 3-6 beyond the arc, and 6-9 at the free throw line, Edwards was candid in his postgame remarks: “We know what we’re supposed to do. It’s disappointing when you go and watch games like Colorado, even the first half of this game, and we just don’t do what we do every day.”
“We looked like a whole different team (in the second half),” he said. “We just work too hard to come out here and lose sight of our principles.”
“Today we had a good intention and good mindset going into the game, which was: we’re going to get out of ourselves and play for those around us. We feel like we’ve had some selfish habits — on both sides of the ball — but defensively we just really wanted to make sure that whoever was guarding the ball knew that ‘You have four other players on the court with you. They have the same goal as you.’”
The Friars heard boos late in the first half — a half in which a UNH team that came in as a 30-point underdog closed to within one, thanks to their work on the offensive glass.
But Providence responded in the second, overwhelming the Wildcats, scoring 60 points on 22-33 shooting from the field, rolling to a 98-66 win. Four Friars scored in double figures in the second half alone, led by freshman Jamier Jones, who scored all 14 of his points after the break.
Edwards was the tone-setter in the second half, showing more to his game with lobs to Jones and Jaylin Sellers, while kicking out to shooters for open looks.
The Friars finished with 21 assists, 10 makes on 26 three-point attempts, and pretty much confirmed what we already knew — this team has plenty of upside offensively (even on a night in which they were down Corey Floyd Jr., Duncan Powell, Daquan Davis, and Rich Barron).
What else stood out on Tuesday?
UNH surprised the Friars on the glass in the first half
One of the worst offensive rebounding teams in the country coming into this one, UNH trailed by just seven (38-31) at halftime after grabbing 11 offensive rebounds and scoring 15 second-chance points.
The biggest culprits during this stretch were ill-timed block attempts, a few long rebounds, and a lack of physicality on block outs.
While Oswin Erhunmwunse is currently second in the country in blocks per game, there have been instances over the past week in which more discretion was needed. He hunted a few blocks he had little shot at deflecting, and it freed up his man for an easy board. He’s looked fatigued at times this season, which may have played a factor in him not coming up with other misses.
PC also lost two or three defensive rebounds when Nilavan Daniels couldn’t box out in his first extended minutes of the season.
Here’s a look at the first-half rebounding challenges:
The Friars cleaned up their rebounding issues in the second half, but Erhunmwunse will have to continue to balance being a deterrent at the rim with deciding when he’s better served to board.
Injuries are mounting up for the Friars
Kim English shared after the game that Duncan Powell was out after taking a hit to the mouth in practice, while Corey Floyd turned his ankle, Rich Barron remained out, and Daquan Davis sat while resting an apparent knee issue that English tied back to his freshman season at Florida State.
Davis missed just one game all year at FSU last season, while he’s already sat two of Providence’s first five games. After averaging a shade under nine points per game as a Seminole, Davis has made just one field goal and is playing fewer than ten minutes per game this season.
An animated conversation
Edwards, Sellers, and sophomore Ryan Mela engaged in a lengthy conversation after the first-half buzzer sounded. Sellers looked frustrated after not seeing the ball on the break and Mela, who was very quiet last season, was in the middle of the convo.
Sellers finished with 18 points in 25 minutes, and (like Edwards) didn’t turn the ball over once. Sellers is averaging 16.6 points per game and shooting 91% at the free throw line this season, while making 45% of his shots and 32% from three.
Edwards is at 20.4 points per game, while averaging 4.6 assists. He averaged 1.4 assists at North Texas two seasons ago, and 1.3 with Vanderbilt last year.
The Friar freshmen continue to roll
It’s probably a sign of how good Stefan Vaaks has been this season that he closed Tuesday night with 11 points (3-5 FT, 3-4 3PT FG) and four assists, and it felt like a quiet night.
Meanwhile, Jamier Jones simply overwhelmed UNH with his athleticism in the second half — throwing down dunks off the bounce and in transition.
Jones has 12 dunks already this season.
By the Numbers
Providence continues to do damage in the paint. In fact, their 45.6 points in the paint per game are the 15th best mark in the country.
With an Offensive Rating of 124.6, PC ranks 41st in the country and their 96.4 points per game are 11th. Here is their shot chart to date:
Conversely, the Friars are giving up 86.0 points a night — good for #301 nationally — and they are surrendering 34.8 paint points (230th). Their opponents are shooting 36.6% from three (282nd nationally), while they aren’t turning teams over much. Here is a look at PC’s defensive shot chart:
Providence returns to action on Saturday when they take on Penn State at Mohegan Sun.
The offensive stats are so welcome after more than a decade of pulling teeth...but some of the defensive stats are scary.
According to Evan Miyakawa, PC currently has:
* 5 of the 6 worst defensive players in the Big East with 150 possessions played
* 4 of the 10 worst defensive players in the BE regardless of possession played
* the worst defensive player in the league by a substantial margin ratings wise…Jaylin Sellers
I hate this feeling of Keno Davis…so I looked. In Keno’s 3 miserable seasons, PC gave up 89+ in the nonconference…once. A 110-97 OT win at GWU.
That said…the next 10 days could change everything.
I something different, actually. I don't think any halftime speech or switch flipping happened; what I saw was a team of bigger, faster athletes that ran an eight player rotation eventually wearing down a more tired, smaller team with a seven man rotation, a KenPom 348 rating, and was missing it's best player.
The real focus point was the 32-31 moment with 1:20 left - when the boo birds rightfully came out. Against an average Big East team that product on the floor produces an 8-10 point deficit at that junction in the game, and there's probably some foul trouble on our bigs at that point as well that will portend a rough second half.
The passes and looks that lead to Edward's eight assists in a regular BE game would produce something closer to 3-4; he didn't do anything different than in the past - it was simply that the competition was slower and smaller which created better angles and more open shots.
As always, let me lead with the caveat that I love the Friars and the team's players, and never miss a minute of any game. But I cannot unsee what I have seen so far and I've got big concerns that my initial hopes that this was a 16-17 win, NIT type team might have been optimistic. Looking more like a 14-15 win team with Kim English under an extreme amount of pressure as we head into February (rightly or wrongly).
Owsin is an average player who hasn't really improved, is possibly at his ceiling defensively and is net negative on offense. His closeouts on anything beyond 12 feet are really bad--his feet just aren't quick enough and other teams are exploiting this every game. Nothing he can do to change this really--he just lacks the type of dancing feet needed here. The one thing he can do and is in his power to control is that he can stop blocking shots into the crowd, back into his opponents hands--or goal tending. There's a scoreboard in basketball, math matters, and what he does isn't reducing his opponents points per possession as much as it could.
Hargrove looks bad; his first instinct when he gets a rebound is to chuck it out to the first person he sees on the perimeter--seems to be he's being coached that way but not sure that's super effective. Might help the team a bit more for him to look to go up strong and at the very least draw a foul or two a game--we are going to need to get other team's bigs in foul trouble if we are going to have a chance in real games given our own size issues. I watch him and can't help but wondering why, oh why did they not keep Bonke.
There's enough offense there to make this team fun to watch and to dream on a bit, but the defensive talent just isn't there I fear. Some of it's scheme, for sure; English is playing a game where he wants to race down the court and get more good three looks and force you into less of that--and more of the two point midrange variety. They just lack the height and closeout quickness to execute on this plan, and with the Jimmies and Joes he has on this team - not sure he can easily switch the X's and O's to another strategy and be effective this year. (Meaning, we don't have a PG).
Also, Jamier Jones needs more minutes and it seems like he's going to get them. Not sure how you get him and Mela on the court alot at the same time but they both play bigger than their actual heights and this team needs that. Especially with this pace - more possessions lead to more fouls - Oswin has not shown himself coordinated or capable enough to not make that unforced error or two in the first half of every game up to this point--why would that change moving forward? Hopefully Powell can do something here...jury is still out in my mind on him but man I hope he's got something to offer defensively down low.