News and Notes: The Friars' Dominance in the Paint and Offensive Glass, Early Impressions of Recruit Daithi Quinn, Cam Whitmore's Incredible Usage Rate, What Devin Carter Leads The Big East In
1. Providence’s formula for success this year? Crushing teams on the offensive glass and getting to the free throw line a ton.
The Friars’ offensive rebounding rate currently stands at 38.8% — tops in the Big East and in the 99th% nationally. Only two other Big East teams rank in the 90th percentile in this category: St. John’s (thanks to rebounding machine Joel Soriano) in the 91st percentile, and UConn in the 90th. St. John’s is actually grabbing more offensive rebounds per game (13.7 to 13.1) than PC, but their percentage is lower due to the pace with which they play.
The Friars are attempting 24.8 free throws per game, which ranks in the 96th percentile in the nation. Comparatively, their two opponents this week come nowhere close. Butler takes 14.1 a game, and DePaul 17.5.
2. Providence’s offensive rating of 116.5 is second in the league (UConn is at 120.4). By this metric (which measures points scored per 100 possessions) three of the Friars’ first four conference opponents are in the bottom of the league.
Butler is 9th in the Big East (105.9), DePaul is 10th (102.2), and Seton Hall ranks last (100.8).
3. Offensive and defensive ratings numbers tell the story of just how dominant Connecticut has been through 13 games this season. They are also first in the league in defensive rating by a large margin. Their rating of 84.4 is in the 98th percentile in the country, and is well ahead of the Big East’s second best defense (Seton Hall at 91.7).
4. When UConn and Providence play on Jan. 4 it figures to be a pure battle in the paint. Adama Sanogo leads the Big East with 9.9 field goal attempts in the paint per game. He’s followed by a pair of Friars — Ed Croswell at 8.4 and Bryce Hopkins at 8.1.
Sanogo is scoring 13.5 points per game in the paint. Croswell ranks third in the league (10.8) and Hopkins eighth (8.9).
Croswell is second in the Big East in second chance points per game (4.2), UConn freshman Donovan Clingan and Hopkins are tied for sixth (3.3), while Sanogo isn’t far behind with 2.7.
5. One of the biggest reasons to love the Devin Carter signing last spring was that the sophomore puts constant pressure on opponents. He is quickly establishing himself as one of the top defenders in the league, while no one in the conference has taken more fast break attempts per game.
He is also taking over five free throws a game in a complementary role.
In both the overtime session against Marquette and in double overtime, PC won the tip and Carter made an instinctual play to fly upcourt the moment the Friars gained possession. He went to the line four seconds into each extra session. Neither was a set play, it was all instinct.
6. There was a lot of buzz about Southern California Academy as one of the top high school teams in the country early this year. There was good reason for that, as SoCal had Providence commits Drew Fielder and Garwey Dual in addition to other elite talent like Texas commit AJ Johnson (#14 in the class of 2023 per 247 Sports).
The Rams have had an up-and-down start to the season. They lost a pair of games at Stephen Jackson’s Battle in the Bluff (71-49 to Huntington Prep and 63-49 to Winston-Salem Christian) before bouncing back more recently with victories over NBA Global Academy (48-45) and Skyline Prep (who they held to four second half points in a 51-15 win) at the Tarkanian Classic in Las Vegas.
7. Villanova is 5-0 since the return of Cam Whitmore. In just over 21 minutes per game, Whitmore is averaging 12.4 points and 6.2 rebounds. Villanova will need a huge night out of Whitmore on Wednesday when Nova travels to #2 Connecticut.
Head Coach Kyle Neptune hasn’t shied away from leaning on Whitmore. His usage rate of 34.9% (factoring in all field goals, free throws, and assists while he is on the floor) is currently the highest in the Big East — and essentially the entire country.
To put this usage rate in some perspective, Sanogo is the only other Big East player above 30%, while the top Friar is Hopkins at 24.5%.
8. I didn’t know much about 2025 guard Daithi Quinn of Tabor Academy prior to seeing him at the Zero Gravity Prep Classic in early December. His Tabor Academy team had all sorts of eyes on it playing against one of the top players in the class of 2026 in AJ Dybantsa.
Quinn was terrific against St. Sebastian’s on that night, launching threes from far beyond the 3-point arc and knocking them down with relative ease. He had 20 points in the first half before the 6’7 Dybantsa began face guarding him in the second half.
Quinn is a 6’4 North Quincy, MA native who averaged nearly 24 points per game at North Quincy last year.