The Week Ahead: Can Providence Make More Noise on the Road?
Winning on the road is never easy in the Big East, but the Friars have a huge opportunity ahead of themselves this week after a thrilling double overtime victory against Marquette.
Providence is 2-0 in Big East play, with a realistic shot of starting 4-0 if they can take care of business on the road this week. As if Providence vs. UConn couldn’t be more highly anticipated, that would mean a 4-0 Friar team would be hosting a Husky group that is currently ranked #2 in the nation on Jan. 4.
Providence travels to Indianapolis on Thursday night to take on a Butler group that has dropped its first two conference games, albeit to perhaps the league’s two best teams in Connecticut and Creighton. PC will then take on DePaul on Jan. 1 before returning home to host UConn.
Let’s take a look at both matchups:
Providence at Butler on Thursday, Dec. 29 at 6:30pm (FS1, WPRO: 630 AM/99.7 FM).
It hasn’t always been easy, but Providence has held a pretty distinct advantage over the Bulldogs in recent seasons. Ed Cooley’s team has won four straight games against Butler, and eight of the last ten. For as well as PC played last year, they outscored a struggling Butler team by just 11 points across three games in 2022, including a one-point overtime win at Hinkle Fieldhouse on Feb. 20. On that afternoon it was Noah Horchler providing late game heroics on both ends of the floor.
Since Butler joined the Big East, Providence holds a 16-5 record against them. This year’s group will look different, however, under new head coach Thad Matta.
Butler’s 8-5 mark on the season is a bit misleading for two main reasons:
1. They kicked off league play against a Connecticut team that is 13-0. All 13 of those victories have come by double figures. They also caught a talented, and very desperate, Creighton team last week in Omaha. The result was a pair of 22-point losses — 68-46 to UConn and 78-56 at Creighton.
They trailed UConn, 43-39, midway through the second half, but the Huskies closed with a 25-7 burst. Creighton went down nine in the first half, but found its shooting stroke against them.
2. Butler has relied heavily on its starters to this point of the season. Five players average in double figures in scoring, but they have gotten next to nothing out of their bench.
That should change, as both Ali Ali and Jalen Thomas returned just two games ago. The 6’8 Ali was expected to be one of the most impactful transfers in the league. Here is what I wrote about him when previewing Butler in the fall:
Perhaps the most intriguing addition is 6’8 forward Ali Ali, who comes in from Akron. Ali is a lean (205 pound), versatile scorer whose production grew from 1.1 points per game as a freshman to 7.2 as a sophomore and 13.9 his junior year. He shot over 46% from the field and 40% from long range last year, with his biggest night coming in a 32-point effort against Buffalo in which he attempted 22 free throws.
He also did damage to Ohio State, as you can see from the highlights we pulled together here: