The Long Road to the Mountain Top
The Gap Between Providence and an Elite UConn Team is Apparent
Allow me to pull back the curtain on the operations over here at Divine Friars for a moment. When I watch Friar games, I take notes. A lot of them. The notes I take are usually time stamped bullets of important possessions of the game. The notes I take look like this:
I take notes for a couple reasons. First, it allows me to quickly go back and clip pieces that I think are worthy of highlighting for this blog. Taking notes also makes me a smarter fan. Perhaps most importantly though, taking notes allows me to divorce some of the emotion I have from the macro-Friars and just focus on the ‘why’. Friars just gave up a 15-2 run? That sucks, but let me look at those possessions and try to figure out why. Providence stormed back during the second half? That’s great, let me see if I can try to see what they did specifically that allowed them to have success. Understanding the why behind this beautiful game of college hoops has always been (almost) as important to me as watching my beloved alma mater try to win as many games as possible.
The ‘why’ on Saturday night was as clear as day. UConn has an ocean’s more talent than Providence. There was no need to take notes, and no need to overwhelm you with clips of Providence repeatedly turning the ball over (Jayden Pierre led the way with 6 of the team’s 14), getting out-physicaled for offensive rebounds (UConn had 11 and converted them into 17 second chance points) or the several 4 minute stretches where Providence looked completely lost on offense (The 5 players outside of Devin Carter and Josh Oduro combined to shoot 6-22 from the floor for 23 points).
The main thing that started to concern me down the stretch of this season was the inescapable thought that Kim English didn’t recognize what he had in terms of offensive talent. Why would you continue to run the same offense that emphasizes the 3 point shot when you don’t have a roster of above average 3 point shooters? However, Saturday’s press conference actually relieved some concerns for me. English admitted his staff was ‘made some mistakes’ and was ‘caught with their pants down’ this offseason in terms of roster construction and they he did not build a roster that was capable of withstanding an injury. He went on to comment about how next season will be different, and that remains to be seen of course, but this is about as close as you’ll get to a coach admitting ‘hey, we just didn’t have the talent this year’
That sucks for a lot of reasons. For a Program that judges itself on NCAA tournament appearances, barring a miracle at MSG, this season will go down as a failure. One thing that I haven’t been able to shake though is the sinking feeling that Devin Carter’s historic season in Friartown will be lost to the annals of history due to the lack of a postseason for this group. The truth is that while memories are made in the regular season, legacies are cemented in the postseason. That Carter likely won’t have an opportunity to do that is a damn shame.
As for where the Friars go from here, Saturday night laid bare just how far they have to go in the talent department to compete on a national level with the best teams in the country. Yes, it ended up as just a 14 point loss but UConn could’ve made the score whatever they wanted. With Josh Oduro, Ticket Gaines, and yes, Devin Carter set to move on after this season, Kim English certainly has his work cut out for him. I’d expect at least 3-4 incoming transfers to help fortify the roster around Bryce Hopkins and a similar number of current players to look for greener pastures elsewhere. It’ll be an offseason of change in Friartown, the first full one where Kim English will get to imprint his vision on the Program. All eyes are on him now.
Oh yeah, and his predeccessor? He could officially end Providence’s season Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden.