Providence pulls a no-show at Georgetown

Photo courtesy of Carl Rizzo

Disengaged. Disinterested. Disorganized. Call it whatever you want, but Providence’s effort wasn’t anywhere near close to good enough on Wednesday night — and the result was a 93-72 loss to a Georgetown team playing without Thomas Sorber.

And no, no one has forgotten who the Friars are without, but in a season filled with reasonable caveats, there was simply no excuse for the type of performance they put out in the nation’s capital.

This team’s record can be explained away, but what we saw on Wednesday?

Providence didn’t show up, whereas Georgetown yapped, flexed, and played like a group that had just about enough of being the butt of Friartown’s jokes. Comparatively (and amazingly), the Friars were the opposite. They were unfocused from the start and seemed apathetic for one of the few times this season. It was shocking given what this matchup has meant over the past two seasons.

“Our most disappointing loss of the season,” Kim English dubbed it. “Just from an execution effort and a mindset standpoint.”

It was a game that was over by halftime. No one came close to competing with Micah Peavy on the wing (a career-high 30 points that gave him 57 against PC in two games), and they didn’t have anyone capable of giving them minutes when Oswin Erhunmwunse picked up his third foul with just over five minutes left in a 29-28 game. The Hoyas ripped off a 19-3 run to close the first half after PC’s starting center took a seat.

By halftime the Hoyas led 48-31, behind 19 points from Peavy, a 24-8 edge in points in the paint, and a zone defense that befuddled the Friars.

“We need a body language adjustment from Providence right now,” Fox analyst Phil Martelli noted in the opening minute of the second half.

That didn’t happen.

Instead, Providence started 1-7 from the floor coming out of the break (0-5 from three) and quickly went down 22 points to a Georgetown team that had a lot to play for.

The Hoyas’ victory snapped an eight-game losing streak to Providence, and gave Ed Cooley his first win against his former club in five tries. An emotional Cooley, grieving the recent loss of his mother, received hugs from his players as they exited a dismantling of their budding rivals.

“This, to me, was a really signature win for me as a coach. Not so much because of the opponent, but because of the adversity that we were facing,” Cooley said after the win.

With the loss, Providence (12-15 overall and 6-10 in the Big East) fell 1.5 games behind Georgetown for seventh in the league and owns just a half game advantage over ninth place Butler.

The loss was even more disappointing considering how the Friars executed defensively on Saturday against Villanova, holding the Wildcats to 62 points. But the Providence defense has been substandard for much of the Big East schedule. They gave up 91 points at home against Xavier last week in a game that they trailed by 26 at one point, and saw both Creighton and Butler crack 80 points in the two games prior.

“Anything we did positive on Saturday, we pissed it away,” English said. “I told our guys, this past Friday I thought we deserved to win against Villanova. I did not feel that way in our prep this week and that’s disappointing — and it’s evident.”

English was just as irked with the lack of force his team played with on the offensive end: “To see us come out and make flimsy ass plays at the rim when Tommy Sorber ain’t out there, it’s very disappointing. It’s ridiculous. You don’t deserve to win — you don’t deserve to be on the court, but when you’ve got guys out you get to be on the court.”

Personnel has been an issue — partly due to injuries, but also due to roster mismanagement at the center position. Outside of Erhunmwunse, Providence’s centers have been far too ineffective for much of this season. PC wasn’t going to replace Josh Oduro with one man, but the center committee provides them with virtually no post scoring and little rim protection when Erhunmwunse heads to the bench.

With Corey Floyd Jr. out for the third straight game and Wesley Cardet Jr. working his way back into the lineup after an extended absence (4 points in 12 minutes), the Friars need both Jayden Pierre and Bensley Joseph to be good on a consistent basis. Joseph was, by far, the best Friar on the floor on Wednesday (25 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists), but Pierre was shutout in the first half and finished with 10 points on 2-12 shooting from the field. Justyn Fernandez was the third Friar in double figures with 11 points on 4-7 shooting.

Peavy manhandled the Friars with 30 points, seven rebounds, seven assists, and six steals in 40 minutes, while the Hoyas got big lifts from Drew Fielder (17 points) and Jordan Burks (13 points). Jayden Epps added 18.

“Our execution, our discipline was a zero tonight and we got every single thing we deserved,” English said.

In a season that’s been more frustrating than disappointing, a year in which losses have been explained away by bad luck, Wednesday night was different. Providence’s effort against Georgetown fell well short of what’s expected of this program.

The Friars didn’t show up.