Friars to take on Oklahoma in Atlantis, will we see Bryce Hopkins?
There’s no burying the lede today. Providence kicks off the Battle 4 Atlantis on Wednesday against Oklahoma, and both Jeff Goodman and John Fanta of the Field of 68 are reporting that Bryce Hopkins is likely to make his season debut against the Sooners.
We are 326 days removed from when Hopkins tore his ACL against Seton Hall in Providence’s third conference game of last season, and his return will obviously be a major boon for the Friars — regardless of how many minutes he plays in PC’s three games this week.
Providence is 5-0 on the season, but in many ways, this feels like the start of the 2024-25 campaign. They took care of five teams they should have, and tinkered with different rotations, but now the fun begins.
The Sooners are off to a 4-0 start of their own, with three of those victories coming against bottom-25 teams in the country. Now in his fourth year at Oklahoma, head coach Porter Moser had a team that fell just outside of the NCAA Tournament last season, a season in which they won 20+ games for the first time since their Final Four run of 2016.
One of their victories from a season ago came when the Sooners blew out Providence, 72-51, in Norman in the Big East/Big 12 Challenge. Only two starters return from that group, and Moser welcomed eight newcomers to his rotation (including one former Friar).
Key for Providence on Wednesday will be taking care of the ball. Oklahoma turns teams over on nearly 25% of their possessions, scores 18 fast break points per game, and ranks in the top five in the country with 11.8 steals per game. That’s a significant point of concern for a Friar team that handed it over at will through three games, before turning the ball over fewer than ten times in their last two.
Here’s a bit of what the Sooners look like in transition:
New to the SEC this season, Oklahoma didn’t enter the year with high expectations, but there is plenty of talent here to cause problems.
On tape, and by the numbers, forward Jalon Moore stands out. He’s athletic, strong, and is putting up 18.8 points and 6.3 rebounds per game. Moore is doing all of that in just 26 minutes a night. The Georgia Tech transfer is shooting the ball well, with 52/77/39 splits.