The Friars Leave Paradise Defeated, but with a Week of Potential Redemption Ahead

Friar Family,

I, like you, didn’t enjoy my turkey as much this year.

There is something about these early season college basketball tournaments that leaves the stomach uneasy heading into the biggest eating holiday of the year. I was admittedly nervous, but cautiously optimistic heading into Wednesday’s game against Oklahoma.

Anytime (in the past decade, it feels like) PC plays on ESPN or ESPN2 there seems to be a little bit more early game jitters for some reason, which typically causes the Friars to come out a step behind their opponent. And that’s exactly how their first of the three games in the Battle 4 Atlantis began, down 8-0 early and clearly a step behind the Sooners.

Fixing these slow starts should begin with running familiar plays that include ball screens and motion style offense to make creating shots a little bit easier. As the game goes along, it’s typically easier to create offense organically through passing and getting a feel for the spots that are working. During the Ed Cooley era, as well as now the Kim English era, the idea of a slow start almost feels probable. And considering its transcended coaches it makes me wonder, is that just a PC thing?

Slow starts have no doubt been a problem for the Friars this season, but so have turnovers —16 turnovers for the Friars with 23 points coming off those same turnovers doesn’t tell the complete story though. As the OU game went along the Friars seemed to settle in more after a slow start and at one point took a 24-18 lead with seven minutes to go in the first half. The Friars weren’t able to pull away though as Jeremiah Fears and Kobe Elvis showed they are one of the best backcourts in the country. PC was able to narrowly hold a two point lead going into the half, however.

But the story would remain the same for Boomer Sooner with Fears and Elvis combining for 46 points on 14-18 from the field. It spoiled the night for Wesley Cardet who had 17 points on 6-9 shooting, with solid efforts also from Corey Floyd, Jayden Pierre and Bensley Joseph as well.

Oklahoma won Game 1 by shooting 51% from the field, with 30 of their points coming from the paint. They cashed in on 12 steals. What PC clearly showed they needed to do better heading into Game 2 was to move without the ball to create offensive looks and chances both inside and out, continue to cut down on turnovers, and up the defensive intensity just a little bit higher.

Even though Game 2 against Davidson saw Providence’s turnovers at only six, PC once again came out flat to a tune of a 9-0 run by Davidson to start, which lead to PC being down 27-8 with about nine minutes to play in the first half.

A poor defensive team in Davidson gave up 104 and 90 points respectively to Arizona and Gonzaga in the Bahamas. The Friars no doubt looked disjointed offensively. I believe at one point in the first half, the Friars were shooting in the teens from the field. Providence made everything harder on itself, while Davidson cruised.

Against Indiana, it felt like the Friars trailed by twenty points for much of the second half. Getting out-shot from the field, three, and the free throw line by wide margins just hours after losing the night before felt inevitable.

A brutal November stretch? We have been here before, most notably when Providence lost to Penn, Long Beach State and College of Charleston in 2019 and what was and still probably is the worst three-game stretch of Friar basketball I can remember in a long time.

Luckily, right now isn’t as bad as that, but to be honest, the upside of that team was higher than what we have here in 2024-25. Unfortunately, I am not sure after this weekend if we can expect this group of improving to the levels needed to be consistently top five or six in Big East play without Bryce Hopkins. With him I do still think PC has a shot, where Cardet, Jabri Abdur-Rahim and Christ Essandoko, for example, can slide into roles that align more with their games.

Having a true power forward missing from the starting five has been a gap, and if they can fill that gap (hopefully starting Tuesday night against BYU) maybe that little bit Providence lost by to the eventual tournament champs in Oklahoma is a better representation of who they are rather than the loss to Davidson.

Regardless, Friartown, it’s fair at 5-3 to wonder how they can be better on offense, how they can find the right rotations amidst some inconsistencies we have seen from some of the supporting cast, and how Providence will fair against a strong BYU team, an improved URI club, and dare I say… a very much improved DePaul team.

If English can get Hopkins back this week playing meaningful minutes, see more of the Abdur-Rahim we saw in the Indiana game, the Joseph and Cardet we saw in the Oklahoma game as Pierre continues to break out, then maybe we could see a 2019-2020 level comeback from these 2024-25 Friars