PC needs more from top three players
Friars need to break out of home-court lethargy Tuesday night against Butler
PROVIDENCE – Providence head coach Ed Cooley was still trying to make sense of his team’s latest loss at home when a reporter asked if the Friars were catching a break schedule-wise.
The Big East team that invades the Dunkin’ Donuts Center tonight is one that’s mighty familiar to PC. You only have to go back 2 ½ weeks when the Friars last tangled with Butler, thus only the need for a refresher course on the Bulldogs, no? Shouldn’t be too strenuous a task to game-plan for someone you played – and won – against on New Year’s Eve.
“If we show up and play like that,” said Cooley, referencing Providence’s lackluster showing against Seton Hall last Saturday, “and continue to get off to these slow starts, it doesn’t matter who you play.
“You’re going to scout a team, but at the end of the day you’ve got to do what you need to do if you want to be one of the best teams,” Cooley continued. “You can’t constantly think about the opponent. There’s nothing more important than the mirror in sports. Worry about yourself.”
If soul-searching and not Butler viewing is what Cooley sees as the best method to stop the bleeding, then Friar fans shouldn’t question the coach’s judgment. The internal structure is more in need of mending as opposed to watching clips of Bulldogs guard Roosevelt Jones.
For what seems like weeks now, the Friars have been their own worst enemy. The script, with some variations, has read like this: start slow, play well in spurts, and hope that Kris Dunn can bail them out in the end. Take into account all that uneven activity and it’s little wonder why PC wakes up this morning with a 3-2 league record that’s good for smack dab in the middle of the Big East standings.
(Actually, the Friars would be assessed the sixth spot in the Big East Tournament if the season ended today, given that the 3-2 Pirates own the tiebreaker.)
Are PC’s concerns a tempest in a teapot, or are we approaching critical mass? Guess that depends on if you’re a glass-is-half-full-or-half-empty type of person. That said, there are some modifications – tweaks might be more appropriate – that Cooley should take under advisement when self-scouting the Friars.
1). Ride the Big Three, and ride them hard
If you were to list the top trios in the Big East, the conversation would likely start and end with PC’s Dunn, Ben Bentil and Rodney Bullock. What makes them so special is that they all sport unique gifts and talents that when meshed together represent major headaches for the opposition.
In some respects, they aren’t being utilized or featured enough.
Looking at the stat sheet from the Seton Hall game, Dunn, Bullock and Bentil combined to take 37 of Providence’s 73 shots. There should never be a case when they are only taking right around 50 percent of the fieldgoal attempts.
There is a quick solution to this: stop trying to get the other Friars involved, particularly in the opening minutes when it should be Dunn, Bullock and Bentil setting the tempo and them alone. That means no more stat lines where Junior Lomomba, Kyron Cartwright and Jalen Lindsey are hoisting up nine shots apiece, which was the case against the Pirates.
That’s 27 shots not being taken by your best three players. To the naked eye, that seems like too high a total to leave in the hands of players who quite simply don’t bring the same intangibles to the table as the aforementioned trio.
They’ll probably be some Friar fans who bring up that Bullock is just 12-of- 32 from the floor since his memorable 7-of-14 performance from the first Butler contest. Then you should ask yourself this: who would you rather see hoisting away? Bullock or Lomomba?
Moving on …
2). Get some bullets for that triggerman
It’s fair to wonder if freshman Ryan Fazekas came back too early following a six-game absence due to mono. He’s just 1-for-12 from 3-point territory and 2-of-14 overall in three games since returning to PC’s lineup.
The thing is, the Friars badly need Fazekas to revert back to his pre-mono form and function as a capable fourth banana. Remember, we’re talking about someone who had started the season’s first nine games and was connecting at an impressive 47.2-percent clip from three.
“He was starting for a reason,” said Donovan Garletts, who coached Fazekas in high school. “Any time you have someone who can extend the defense a little bit, you have to respect it and that allows for more dribble-drives for Dunn or dump-offs to the bigs like Bentil. Ryan is going to extend the floor for them and allow for different scoring opportunities.”
How much running up and down the court in a competitive setting can Fazekas tolerate at this point is proba- bly something that runs through Cooley’s mind every game-day. Given the offensive shortcomings of the Friars lately, now appears as good a time as any to see if Fazekas can handle an expanded workload from the 10.7 minutes he’s been averaging since coming back.
3). It’s a big court, so use it
Time and time again, Cooley has talked about wanting to speed up the tempo and play fast. Yet for some strange reason, the Friars have largely been a team that’s waited for the other team to pounce on them before going into attack mode.
Here’s one suggestion when it comes to throwing the first punch. Why not press and trap right from the opening tap? In Dunn, the Friars possess arguably the top heat-seeking ballhawk in the country. Why not turn him completely loose and have him and Lomomba work off each other in such a fashion that the opponent unravels and begins treating the basketball like a hot potato?
In turn, watch as those turnovers off a helter-skelter defensive scheme result in a transition game that ends up in 2on-1 or 3-on-2 breaks. Suddenly, those offensive woes don’t seem as glaring as before.
Follow Brendan McGair on Twitter @BWMcGair03