Amica Mutual Pavilion, Providence, RI
Saturday, December 2, 2023
7:30PM
Media
TV: FS1
Online: FS1
Radio: Tune In Radio
PC Radio: 99.7FM/630AM
App: Varsity Network
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast
Previews
Providence College Fan Forum
Another Providence College Fan Forum
Well, well, well…look what game is up next on the Rams’ schedule. The University of Rhode Island will travel thirty minutes north to take on vaunted instate rivals Providence this coming Saturday evening. As everyone knows, former Friar coach Ed Cooley comically infuriated the Friar fanbase by giving up late last season (finishing with 4 straight loses) and taking a job at conference foes Georgetown before the season was even finished. Providence quickly regrouped by signing George Mason’s head coach, Kim English. English is the youngest P5/BE coach at just 35 years old. The Friars are basically a glorified A-10 team as last season they had Ed Croswell & Clifton Moore from La Salle & Jared Byrnum from St. Joe’s. This season, they have two George Mason players who followed English to the Friars in Josh Oduro & Davonte Gaines. Although there is obviously some familiarity between the former Patriots & current Rams, Josh Oduro absolutely TORCHED Rhody last season. He went for 24 & 14 & then 27 & 6, while shooting it at 76% from the field. The Rams just had no answer for the big man.
Providence, who was picked to finish seventh in the Big East preseason polls, comes in with a 5-1 record at the time of this writing. They should easily win Tuesday night when Wagner comes to town, giving them a 6-1 record come tipoff Saturday night. The Friars made easy work of Wisconsin at home & also took care of Georgia down in the Bahamas. Their one loss come at the hands of Kansas St in overtime, 73-70, which was also in the Bahamas. Speaking of hands, Friar Garwey Dual threw hands at Dai Dai Ames late in that game. Along with the aforementioned Oduro, the Friars have 3 players averaging 15 points per game. The first one is the facilitator for this team, Devin Carter, who is averaging 15.8, 7.5, & 3.3. Whomever is guarding him (Kortright?) will need to put a body on him because at 6’ 3” this guard crashes the boards well. Some good news is Carter is turnover prone, in half of his games so far, he has had 4 or more turnovers. Hopefully Rhody will get some runouts off his sloppy ball handling. Finally is All-Big East First Team pick last season, Bryce Hopkins, who is averaging 15 & 9. Last season Rhody had a tough time with Hopkins as he went for 14 & 15. Some good news is Hopkins has been awful from deep even though he has the second most attempts on the team, shooting it at just 18%. The Friars are not a good three point shooting team, shooting it 30% on the season. Hopkins, Gaines, & Corey Floyd Jr have taken the most threes behind Devin Carter & the three of them are shooting it at under 16%. If the Rams pack in the defense, daring the Friars to hoist 3s, maybe the will continue the cold shooting. The Friars have one more double digit scorer in Jayden Pierre. He has missed the last two games due to a hamstring injury. Will be interesting to see if he plays Tuesday night against Wagner.
As for the Rams, they had what possibly could be a season changing win at home against Yale. On the surface that sentence sounds crazy as how a home win against an Ivy is season changing, but it is true. Heavily favored Yale came into the Ryan Center Sunday afternoon & built an 18 first half point lead. The Rams easily could have packed it in & set their sights on the Friars. Instead they fought back & got the win. It was their rebounding that got them the victory against the Bulldogs. The Rams had as many offensive rebounds in the second half as Yale had total. Second chance points were 18-2 in the Rams favor in the second half. Lastly, the Rams had only 2 second half turnovers.
The Rams have struggled against the Friars as of late, losing 3 of the last 4 and a vomit inducing 10 of the last 12 meetings. Time to get back to the late 1930s/1940s when the Rams won 20 of 21 contests. A guy can dream, can’t he. Playing at Providence is going to be a very difficult challenge for this Rams team. No one currently on this team has played at whatever the name of that arena is now. Only Bilau, Rory & Weston have played a game in this rivalry. The place holds about 12,400 fans & roughly 12,300 of those will be friar fans as tickets were never available for sale for just this game. Even PC season ticket holders couldn’t buy extra tickets for this game like in years past. For the Rams to win this game they will take advantage of Providence’s turnovers & their poor three-point shooting. The Friars average over 2.5 more turnovers per game compared the Rams, 14.7 to 12.1 respectively. The Rams are shooting it about 4.5% better from three. The problem is once the ball is downlow for the Friars, Oduro & Hopkins can score at will. Hopefully Bilau is fully healthy as they will need a repeat performance from him last season when he went for 16 & 5 on just 5 of 7 shooting. The Friars have won 9 straight at home against the Rams. Unfortunately, I think this trend continues again on Saturday. After watching how the Rams did against Northwestern & Washington St, I don’t know how they can get this win. Anything can happen when these two teams meet, but it has been a lot of Ram losses of late. When I become properly hydrated for this game, my tune may change but right now I don’t see it. I am tired of leaving Providence disappointed so please, please, please win this one. My prediction, Providence 71 – URI 63. Go Rhody!!
Opponent
Record:
5-1, 0-0 in the Big East
21-12, 13-7 in the Big East (Last Season)
Rankings (URI):
NCAA NET: 51 (263)*
RPI: 55 (181)
KenPom: 50 (174)
BPI: 58 (258)
Sagarin: 39 (229)*
Barttovik: 39 (159)
*Denotes Last Season Rankings
Leaders:
Points – Devin Carter 15.8 (Jr., G)
Rebounds – Bryce Hopkins 9.2 (Jr., F)
Assists – Devin Carter 3.3 (Jr., G) (3.7 TO per game)
Historical
Series: 58-76
H: 40-29, A: 17-44, N: 1-2
Most Recent Matchup: 12/3/22 88-74 L at URI
Most Recent Win Streak: 2 - PC
Match-up Predictor: 7.3% Chance of URI Winning
Some final notes:
Some videos to get you excited for this weekend…
As a reminder, Providence students thought this video was a good idea to get their fellow students excited for the upcoming season...
Unsurprisingly they went 4-14 that year in the Big East that season.