Friar Basketball Newsletter: Providence Kicks Off Big East Play With a Road Win at Seton Hall, A Hot Marquette Team Is Up Next
Providence made a bit of a statement in its first conference game of the season, outscoring Seton Hall, 44-31, in the second half to erase a nine-point halftime deficit to win 71-67 in Newark.
It was a second half dominated on the interior by the physical play of Ed Croswell and Bryce Hopkins. Croswell shot 6-7 from the floor and went for 16 points and six rebounds in the game’s final 20 minutes, while Hopkins was simply a force in the second half with 16 points and 10 boards. Hopkins had quite the Big East debut with 24 points, 10 rebounds, and three assists.
“He’s got a lot of Ryan Gomes in him,” Ed Cooley said of Hopkins following Saturday’s win. “He’s got a lot of Jared Dudley. (He is) probably more athletic than those two guys, but he’s just a versatile guy, and we as coaches have got to continue to move him around and put him in positions of his strength.”
“I feel like we’re a dynamic duo,” Hopkins said of his pairing with Croswell. “We go at it in practice every day. I feel like we’re going to be something that people can’t really mess with in the Big East. It’s going to be hard for people to match up to both of us.”
“That was a great, old school Big East game. That reminded me of the ’80s, man, when bodies were flying,” Cooley said late Saturday afternoon.
You can read all about this game, including how Providence answered two questions I had about this team heading into Saturday.
Croswell and Hopkins weren’t the only standouts on Saturday. While his numbers weren’t eye-popping, Devin Carter had a big impact in the win. In this article you can read about how PC outscored Seton Hall 58-40 with Carter on the floor, and how the Friars Net Rating is a +20.5 this season with him on the court.
Miss the game, or looking to watch the highlights? See the game recapped in six minutes.
We get subscribers primed for the week ahead with a look at Marquette. PC and the Golden Eagles seemingly always play at least one terrific game against each other every year. Last season at the Dunk was no exception.
Additionally, Friar Basketball was on hand recently to see some of the top prospects in New England at the Scholar Roundball Classic. Impressions and video from that tournament can be seen here.
Prior to Providence’s game against Seton Hall on Saturday, the unfortunate news broke of the passing of former Friar Rob Sanders. Sanders played for PC under Tim Welsh from 2001-04 and was part of the terrific 2003-04 club. I shared some memories of watching Sanders play here. He was an athletic wonder who played a critical role in helping turn the program around after a few down seasons.
Lastly, the second episode of our podcast series on the 2013-14 Friars is available. This was a fun episode for us to pull together, and takes listeners from the beginning of the season through when the Friars upset Doug McDermott and Creighton at home in mid January. We hope you give it a listen!
We’re really looking forward to the Marquette game on Tuesday, and will have plenty of coverage this week.
Thanks, as always, for reading.