Out of Their Hats: Providence Slows the JackRabbit Offense, Advances to the Round of 32
For the third time this season, the Providence Friars gave me goosebumps. The first two instances came as the crowd roared during the national anthem — the first time, against URI, was perhaps when it truly hit home how much we had missed all of this over the past two years. The second, when PC hosted Villanova, was the appreciation, passion, and unmitigated thrill of being on such a stage, playing in a game with such importance.
Thursday, at Buffalo’s KeyBank Arena in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, came the third.
There is so much uncertainty in this tournament, when your season can end on a handful of plays against an opponent that few have any familiarity with prior to the game.
That was certainly the case on Thursday. The fourth-seeded Friars took on the 13th seed South Dakota State. And it didn’t take rabbit ears to hear the noise.
Led by star forward Baylor Scheierman, and sporting the second-highest scoring offense in the country, South Dakota State was getting a lot of love nationally — while Providence became the trendy pick to fall in the opening round.
The Friars had, after all, just gotten their doors blown off by Creighton in the Big East Tournament Semifinals. They hadn’t blown many teams out this season, and missed out on playing at Creighton and Seton Hall, and avoided a home date with Connecticut due to a Covid pause.
As an aside, Ed Cooley’s bunch also entered the NCAA Tournament with a 25-5 record after having won 14 of 17 Big East games in the regular season. They’ve been ranked since December, and finished 13th in the final AP poll.
But these were the Jackrabbits, who were the best 3-point shooting team in the country, became the first team to finish undefeated in the Summit League, and entered Thursday with the longest winning-streak in the country at 21 games.
Removing tongue from cheek, the unknown that came with South Dakota State, and their overwhelming offensive efficiency, certainly was a cause for apprehension.
So, when Providence opened on a mini 7-3 run highlighted by an Al Durham 3-pointer and a pair of looks inside to Nate Watson, the chills came flooding back again.
After the Friars got a stop following Watson’s second bucket, it appeared as though they were starting to exert their will on both ends of the floor.
Durham pounded the ball into the floor with vigor, the sizable Friar crowd and PC bench rose in unison, and it felt as though a message was being sent — you bet on the wrong team.
Then South Dakota State countered — in a big way. They ripped off four straight buckets, each prettier than the next. The explosive Douglas Wilson finished on a pair of artistic lobs, and then he converted for a third time in transition.
Scheierman was feeling it on this stage as well — throwing a behind-the-back pass for Wilson’s third score and scooping home an underhand layup to cap an 8-0 run that served as SDSU’s own message: this offense is for real and it is dangerous.
The Friars weren’t rattled. Justin Minaya knocked down a corner three to stop the bleeding, and kicked off an 8-2 spurt that included another 3-pointer from AJ Reeves and a Durham layup.
That’s how this one went for a majority of the afternoon: punches and counterpunches.
The opening eight minutes were being played at the Jackrabbit’s pace, but that all changed when Ed Croswell came off of the bench and went to work with his team down 17-15.
Croswell changed the tenor of this game by crashing the glass and serving as an irritant in the paint. In six first half minutes, Croswell grabbed five rebounds and three steals, but more importantly, the game was played at the Friars’ pace over the final 12 minutes of the first.
“It’s been like that all season,” Croswell said afterwards. “We come off the bench and give each other energy. We’re together. We’re connected. And I feel like we keep rolling like this. We did this all year, so it’s normal.”
South Dakota State made just two field goals over the final 11 minutes of the first half, as PC also got a lift from Alyn Breed (a difficult transition layup and a trey to put them up 27-23 with 2:43 to go), while Durham converted two more layups, including this beauty:
It was shades of the 2014 Big East Championship against Creighton, as the SDSU team that averaged nearly 87 points per game on the year headed to the locker room trailing 31-23.
Providence simply couldn’t shake South Dakota State in the second half. Scheierman opened the second with a 3-pointer, which was countered by a Reeves three on the next possession.
Behind a pair of buckets from both Minaya and Noah Horchler, Providence pushed ahead 43-29 with 16 minutes left. Minaya finished a tricky floater in the paint, and came swooping in for an offensive rebound and put-back, while Horchler slipped to the rim for a slam and buried a corner three to cap the outburst.
But these are the 2021-22 Friars, and seemingly nothing has come easy for them, so back came the Jacks.
Head coach Eric Henderson’s group responded with their second 8-0 run of the game — and Minaya stopped another 8-0 run by getting to the free throw line after taking Scheierman into the paint.
This would be a good time to highlight the job Minaya did against Scheierman. The star forward finished with 18 points, 10 rebounds, and three assists on 7-17 shooting, but it’s worth noting that after a 4-4 start in the opening minutes of the game, he was hounded into a 1-9 stretch that spanned from the 11:35 mark of the first half and lasted until there was 3:20 on the clock in the second.
It was the kind of behind-the-box-score effort that Friar fans have come to love about Minaya.
Yet, if we learned anything about South Dakota State on Thursday it is that they are far from a one-man show. Douglas Wilson, Zeke Mayo, and Alex Arians kept the Jackrabbits relatively close whenever PC seemed primed to pull away.
Following a Watson dunk on an assist from Reeves, the Friars led, 56-47 with under five minutes to go, but Scheierman hit a deep three, and Arians finished an and-1 to slice the lead to 56-53 with 2:37 left.
“We all know basketball is a game of runs. It’s going to be highs and lows, but you got to be able to weather the storm, weather the punches,” Durham said. “We never look at these runs as ‘Oh, my God, they’re making runs.’ We look at them and say, ‘Okay, we took a few punches, now let’s punch back.’”
That’s when Jared Bynum went to work. He knocked down a mid-range jumper late in the shot clock to push PC ahead 60-55 at the 1:11 mark, then he was fouled on a 3-point attempt after Scheierman made it a one possession game 30 seconds earlier (and yes, Bynum was fouled).
Providence closed by making six straight free throws to take the 66-57 win and advance to the second round.
They’ll face off against a red-hot Richmond team that won the A-10 tournament to get here, and then bounced Big 10 Tournament champion Iowa on Thursday.
Durham was the offensive catalyst, with 13 points, eight rebounds, and six assists, returning to his birthplace in Buffalo.
Horchler narrowly missed a double double (13 points, 9 rebounds), while Croswell had nine boards and four steals off of the bench.
“We hear the noise that everybody says, but we can’t let that rattle us. We knew what we were capable of. We knew when we were coming in, we were going to have an edge, fire, and chip on our shoulder,” Durham said of the win.
The story of this one was holding South Dakota State to 30 points below their season average, and limiting a team that shot 45% from deep in the regular season to 30% on Thursday.
“We wanted to be real physical and run them off the three-point line, making sure we were defending,” Durham said. “You know, get up in them.”
As has been the case all season, when the game got tight late, the Friars responded.
“That’s our identity now, I guess. Everyone talks about how we win close games, so we’re just coming out ready to win. We’ll take any win we can get,” Horchler said.
Now, despite some of the naysayers, Providence has a chance to reach the Sweet 16 for the first time under Cooley.
“I think in life, we’re all lucky. Look at where we’re at. We’re at the greatest stage in college basketball, and that just has been a phrase that we used, and I run with it, but in order to advance in these tournaments, there has to be some luck. I think we’re crazy if we don’t use that, and our players are kind of driving off of it,” Cooley said.
“If the luck narrative continues to keep us connected and winning, we’ll take it. It just so happens it’s St. Patrick’s Day, and I kind of have been joking about it, but it’s real. You know, you have to be lucky in order to be successful, no matter if we’re in a game or in life.”
Great stuff as always, Kevin. Since this team battled back against Texas Tech early in the season, I felt they had a chance to do something special. It’s so great to see it all coming together for Coach Cooley and this group. One game at a time. Survive and advance. Why not us