Friar Basketball Newsletter: PC scrimmages Purdue, predictions for the upcoming season, offensive and defensive efficiency of Sweet 16 teams, news, notes, and more.
We’ve just about made it. This week will be the last without an official college basketball game until April. Hopefully, the content we have posted over the past few months has helped to fill the void somewhat, but we are very excited to dig into the games.
Over the weekend, Providence hosted Purdue in a scrimmage at the Dunkin Donuts Center. The Boilermakers are a true Final Four contender this year, and their head coach Matt Painter has had a long-standing relationship with Ed Cooley. Here subscribers can read more about Purdue, as well as some takeaways from Cooley’s Coach’s Show on how PC would approach this scrimmage and notes from the box score (the scrimmage was closed to fans and media).
One goal that is coming more and more into focus for the fanbase is when Providence will return to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament. In this article I examined where Sweet 16 teams of the past five years have landed in terms of defensive and offensive efficiency per Ken Pomeroy — and where Providence has stood in comparison to those teams.
The responses for our preseason fan survey continue to come in, but if you haven’t had a chance to share your feedback and predictions please consider doing so here.
Also included this week are predictions for the 2021-22 season. This includes predictions on the Final Four, national champions, Big East champions, and questions more specific to Providence this year.
You can also read more on a big early season test for Quante Berry and Christ Essandoko next weekend, as well as notes on Noah Horchler’s adjustment last season, and a look at some of Providence’s best defensive teams of the past two decades. This is all included in our News and Notes column.
Finally, I wanted to give a final plug for our podseries on the 2003-04 Friars. The fourth (and final) episode was released last week, and both Billy Ricci and I have really appreciated the response to this series to date.
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