Dunn’s foul trouble dooms Friars in loss
Junior PG has to stay on court for Friars to succeed
PROVIDENCE – There have been times this season where Kris Dunn has ventured too close to the sun and found himself in deep foul trouble. The Providence junior went into Saturday with five games with at least four personal fouls by game’s end.
Foul woes once again crept into the equation with Dunn guilty of his fourth foul with 10:47 left. The margin for PC was already slim as Seton Hall enjoyed a comfortable 61-49 lead.
To Dunn’s credit, he’s successfully navigated his way across the tightrope and avoid picking up a fifth - and final foul. That wasn’t the case Saturday as he was forced to watch the final 3:02 from the bench. The Friars were down by nine at the time of Dunn’s disqualification and would end up falling to the Pirates by the same margin.
You don’t become the Big East’s leader in steals without being aggressive. Sometimes, your tendencies go unnoticed by the officials. Other times, nothing gets by them.
That said, the latest “Friar Film Review” takes a closer look at the fouls whistled at Dunn’s expense.
The first foul came at 11:13 of the opening half with the Friars on the offensive attack and Dunn seeking to gain some separation against Seton Hall reserve Derrick Gordon. Dunn was looking to penetrate on the right but Gordon refused to give an inch. A slight jab to Gordon’s ribcage didn’t go unnoticed as the offensive foul was called.
“(Gordon) cut off his angles so he couldn’t get to the rim,” said Fox Sports 1 analyst Tarik Turner.
If anything, Gordon’s hard-nosed approach was a sign that nothing was going to come easy for the Friars under the Pirates’ watch.
The goal for Dunn was to make it to halftime with just one foul. He was on target to do just that until Seton Hall’s Isaiah Whitehead went up and received what on replay appeared to be a generous whistle that favored the Pirates.
Dunn’s second foul came with 2:21 left in the opening half. He seemed to have all ball before any contact with Whitehead was made. Watching it again a second and a third time, it didn’t seem to warrant a whistle.
There’s no question that Whitehead’s ability to sell the call hurt Providence. With no Dunn on the court the final 2:21, the Friars missed their final five shots and a result limped off to the locker room with a 10-point deficit.
Providence had shifted to a 2-3 zone defense when Dunn hit Seton Hall’s Khadeen Carrington on the arm at 12:19 of the second half. While there’s no question Dunn was guilty of the infraction, he was caught in a position where he was moving sideways rather than giving some ground so as to avoid the blocking foul. Carrington would go on to make two free throws to sink PC into a 12point hole.
Gordon once again made Dunn take the bait as the former sacrificed his body at a time when Dunn had gathered a head of steam and sought to drive to the hoop. Meeting head-on at the right elbow, Gordon got to the spot and immediately went down like a ton of bricks upon taking the body blow.
“How careful does he have to be when he takes the ball to the hoop in case he picks up that fourth foul?” wondered Justin Kutcher, handling the FS1 play-by-play duties.
The sight of Dunn heading to the bench with four fouls with 10:47 left and the Friars down by double digits left everyone in the Dunkin’ Donuts Center with a queasy feeling. Providence had been able to weather such a storm in the past. Would they be as fortunate to dodge the raindrops this time around?
The answer, of course, was no. Ed Cooley tried to protect Dunn as much as he could, yet there was only so much the head coach could do in an effort to preserve his best player for the stretch run. At one point after Dunn picked up his fourth foul, Dunn took a seat for a grand total of seven seconds.
Looking at Dunn’s fifth foul again, it appeared Carrington got away with a walk – “he slipped into the body of Dunn,” said Kutcher. Also, it’s worth noting that Dunn seemed to have his body under control, not in a comprising position that would have made his fifth personal perhaps just a little bit easier to digest.
Dunn ended up logging just 28 minutes, the fewest he’s played in PC’s five Big East games.
“When Kris is in foul trouble, our identity changes as a program. He needs to be on the floor and we need to be more disciplined,” said Cooley.
Truer words were never spoken.