After a less than spectacular first half, Providence was able to improve to 11-6, and 3-2 in the conference with a win over the DePaul University Blue Demons. The loss marked 23 straight
regular season BIG EAST losses for the Blue Demons and the first loss for interim coach Tracey Webster. Providence was led in scoring by Marshon Brooks. Brooks, coming off of an ankle tweak last game, came off of the bench but netted 17 points. Greedy Peterson also played well with another double double performance. Bilal Dixon and Sharaud Curry also scored in double digits in the winning effort. DePaul was without big man Mac Koshwal, who is out again with a foot injury. Without Koswhal DePaul looked to Will Walker, but the senior guard had a quiet night with only seven points. The only player to break double digits for the Blue Demons was Mike Stovall who had 30 points. With the loss DePaul falls to 7-9 and remains winless in four BIG EAST games. They will next travel to St. John’s to take on the Red Storm. The Friars will stay on the road to take on Marquette, Sunday at 4:00.
The first half of this game was tough to watch. The team didn’t look sharp and nobody was really playing inspired basketball. Luckily, however, we were playing DePaul. DePaul was beating us, but if they had any offense going for them last night they could have been beating up on us. We were able to stay close, really through no effort of our own, and were able to get the win. Marshon, played very well with seven rebounds and 17 assists. He also had a nasty steal/behind the back pass to open up a transition play. His ankle didn’t seem to bother him and he played like we need him to.
Greedy once again had a double double. He had a good game statistically, but he had some problems. Shot selection was an issue, and maybe it is just because we have come to expect a lot from him lately, but he didn’t seem to perform up to hos ability. Sharaud played well again, but VC looked like the better point guard last night. Some of his passes are just great. We were happy with the most part with Bilal. His numbers were the solid numbers we need from him. B-Mac…. not good. He scored the first point for the Friars and than that was it. He didn’t really grab any rebounds or anything. He just picked up a bunch of fouls… which was probably for the best because it put him on the bench. We have no problem with him starting or playing, but on the nights like last night, where he is clearly not helping, Coach Keno needs to sit him down. Duke Mondy and Kyle Wright have shown to be better shooters and can be more productive.
Also we won the rebounding battle which was good. We were lucky that Koshwal was out, and we didn’t out rebound them by enough in our opinion, but it was good enough for the win, and as always we will take wins however we get them this year in this league. Next up is Marquette who is much much better than there 1-3 record would lead you to believe. They have had some tough games, but have had a long break to prepare for Providence and they are always difficult to beat at home.
CT / Enrollment: 12,500 / Ivy League
PFB Perspective: First, we need to apologize for our recent abcence. With it being finals week and traveling home it was hard to get up post. There were some good things that happened last week so we will try to catch ourselves up during this week.
the Championship game of the World Vision Invitational. The Friars had leads over 17 points in both the first and second halves, but only managed to scrape by with a two point win over a resilient Mercer team.
, by Marshon Brooks, who looked confident and in control out on the court; however the real story of the night was Greedy Peterson. After redshirting all of last season, and being held out of scrimmages and exhibitions up until this point, this was the first chance to see Greedy in a long time. He certainly did not disappoint. Greedy finished with 20 points, 10 rebounds (six offensive), four blocked shots, and two steals… a double double in his first game in over a year. But these points didn’t just come on put-backs and high flying dunks as Friar fans might assume when recalling Greedy Peterson’s play; Greedy knocked down two three pointers, and was more active in the dribble-drive. Greedy told Paul Kenyon of the ProJo this:
Sorry for the delay in the Postgame. Once again this is only a D-2 team in an exhibition game; however, this is what we needed to see. Marshon once again looked really good offensively and PC was able to make 12 threes as opposed to 6 last game in a comparable number of attempts. As we said in the recap though the story is clearly Greedy Peterson’s big game. We had been really anxious to see him play. We have heard that he was dominating in practice and had really improved in his redshirt season… He did not disappoint. He was a beast out there. Inside and out, on both sides of the ball he played a great game, especially since it has been over a year since he last played. What we really liked to see was Greedy connecting from three. He is an undersized big man so the ability to spread the floor and create mismatches with bigger slower forwards will be necessary for him to have success. All those extra hours we have seen him put in just shooting three pointers in the Peterson Recreation Center has clearly paid off.
season really starts up.
them. His predictions are pretty much in line with most everybody else’s, except he has UConn at #2 and West Virginia at #3. Parrish put Providence at #14 saying this:
We really like Parrish as a writer and must say that his assessment is fair, and on target. it would be hard for anybody to pick Providence finishing anywhere under 12 given what they lost and all the inexperienced new faces coming in. This doesn’t mean that Providence can really surprise some people this season though, because as underdogs we really could.
PC took down the Merrimack College Warriors yesterday afternoon 97 to 74 in the first game held at Alumni Hall in over 30 years. Providence got off to a slow start and
the tight officiating didn’t help (Merrimack shot 27 free throws in the first half). The first half moved slowly and PC jump shots were far and few between. In the second half PC began to put some distance between themselves at Merrimack. The Friars were led by Marshon Brooks’ game high 33 points. Bilal Dixon and Sharuad Curry added 16 and 15 respectively. Dixon also had 15 rebounds. Alumni Hall provided an exciting atmosphere for an exhibition game although throughout the game the heat in the building was an issue. Marshon Brooks had this to say:
PC beat up on a very good D-2 team, which was to be expected, even with all the new faces on the court. We thought the goals going into this game should have been lock down defense, good jump shooting, and an absence of sloppy play. The defense was there (granted there were a ton of fouls, but some of those were questionable), but so was the sloppy play, and the shooting wasn’t. There were a few too many missed lay-ups and put backs. Also, at times, people were careless with the ball. But, this was the first time these guys are playing with each other, and for many their first collegiate competition so there is no reason to be too hard on anyone. What was not as ok was the 6 for 26 from behind the arc. That is a stat that is going to have to change if PC wants to be competitive.
We had been waiting quite some time to see all the newcomers out on the court, but went to the scrimmage unsure of what we’d see. Now before we say anything we understand that it is only one week into practice, and that it is practically a whole new team out there. The scrimmage was less than impressive. Marshon Brooks played very well, which of course is a great sign because we will need him to be a major contributer this year, but after Marshon the performances were lackluster. It just seemed as though nobody could find any sort of consistent shot, which for a team that relies on threes isn’t a great sign. Also it was really weird not seeing the usual crew suit up. No Weyinmi, or Geoff, or Jon Kale… it was weird.
