Friars Dismantled By West Virginia
So much for heart, huh? After most Friar fans (myself included) were singing the praises of this young Friars team for showing up and battling to the end against top 5 ranked Syracuse and Pitt, they have now taken 2 giant steps backwards by sleepwalking through two straight games. The biggest bright spot for this team so far in the winless Big East season had been the amount of fight they showed, never going down without a late charge. That kind of fight was not really there against a very bad Rutgers team earlier in the week, and last night there was no trace of it whatsoever outside of Ray Hall. The Friars let this one get away VERY early, and never really did much to stop it. Once West Virginia had built a fairly sizable lead, as Len Elmore pointed out on the broadcast, several Friars seemed to take the game as a lost cause and simply attempted to get theirs, taking poorly selected shots and really doing nothing to even try to get the team back in the game. That tells me that the discipline problem that plagued the program last year never fully went away and is beginning to show up again. The task for Keno Davis in the coming days is to get those issues firmly in check and get this team back on track for an eminently winnable game at a weak USF team. I’m not ready to hit the panic button on the future of this team just yet, but I certainly will be if the Friars don’t put a W on the board against USF. You would have to think an 0-6 start including losses to Rutgers and USF would make Ricky Ledo at least start to think twice about his decision, and a decommitment would be nothing short of devastating to Providence basketball.
A few other thoughts:
-As Friar Basketball points out, Bilal Dixon, Ray Hall, and Ron Giplaye were the only Friars able to shoot at a decent clip, while the wings struggled, especially from long range, again shooting under 30%. The game plan has to change. Fewer 3′s, more high percentage shots in the paint. Keno has to notice this, right?
-The aforementioned Ray Hall had a career night, and was possibly the Friars’ MVP last night. It’s a shame it happened on the road, because a performance from him like that would’ve blown the roof off the Dunk. He’s the most popular Friar since Thomas Aquinas. All of that said, if Ray Hall is your team MVP on any given night, you’re probably losing big.
-Who the hell is John Flowers? Sounds like last year’s trend of getting torched by a random role player is making a comeback.
-Outside of The Ostrogoth (9 boards, 7! offensive), the rebounding was atrocious. The Mountaineers didn’t miss many shots (48.6% shooting), and of those they did miss, they were able to grab their own rebound about 50% of the time. If you let that happen, you’re going to lose. Simple as that.
Let’s hope this team figures out a way to bounce back quickly, because this program needs a win on Sunday. Desperately.
-SM
