Providence Fans, can Friars go 2-2 next 4?

[stever20]

I think that Providence will split their final 8 games, ending the season at 20-11, 10-8, leaving them on the bubble. They will need a win in the BE tournament to get a bid and that will depend on match ups which are almost impossible to determine at this point.

I think 4-4 is awfully optimistic at this point. They have a real tough schedule left- one of the toughest left quite frankly with 5 away games and a home game with Villanova. To have any shot at 4-4 they have to split this weekend.

I don't think that 4-4 is overly optimistic at all. This is a good Friar team; they have proven that. I expect them to win against DePaul, Butler, Marquette! and Seton Hall despite the fact that a couple of them are on the road. These should be close games, so I wouldn't be surprised if they lost one of them. However, the Georgetown and Xavier games should also be close and PC is as capable of pulling off an upset as being the victim of one. I even give them a shot against Villanova.

One thing about PC though- with how little depth they have, they are very prone to losing a game they shouldn't just because of that.

Also, pressure starts coming up. If they lose both games this weekend, they need to go 4-2 rest of the way. It loses pretty much all the wiggle room they have.

[Chalmers0]

Yes, a couple weeks ago Cooley made a comment about the quick turn around games. There have been a lot of Saturday-Monday, Thursday-Saturday type games. He just said it doesn't give alot of time to prepare for the second opponent- but its league wide so everyone deals with it.

Ya I was pretty upset when I saw Xavier's schedule with all of the one day turnarounds and then realized that it was like that across the conference. That's the price we pay though so FS1 can have content 5 or 6 days a week.

Hopefully PC makes an end of season run to dance this year but I'm selfishly hoping it starts after Saturday. I'm pretty worried about Xavier playing an angry team coming off what appeared to be an unfocused loss to St. Johns.

[Bill Marsh]

Yes, a couple weeks ago Cooley made a comment about the quick turn around games. There have been a lot of Saturday-Monday, Thursday-Saturday type games. He just said it doesn't give alot of time to prepare for the second opponent- but its league wide so everyone deals with it.

Ya I was pretty upset when I saw Xavier's schedule with all of the one day turnarounds and then realized that it was like that across the conference. That's the price we pay though so FS1 can have content 5 or 6 days a week.

Hopefully PC makes an end of season run to dance this year but I'm selfishly hoping it starts after Saturday. I'm pretty worried about Xavier playing an angry team coming off what appeared to be an unfocused loss to St. Johns.

Unfocused? I'd say tired after the trip to Milwaukee/Chicago. Having Harris off his game and playing limited minutes didn't help.

Maybe the minutes are starting to pile up and take their toll. But that can be dealt with. Cooley is going to have to figure that one out. Syracuse normally doesn't go more than 6-7 deep, so it's possible to play at a high level with a short bench.

[Chalmers0]

Yes, a couple weeks ago Cooley made a comment about the quick turn around games. There have been a lot of Saturday-Monday, Thursday-Saturday type games. He just said it doesn't give alot of time to prepare for the second opponent- but its league wide so everyone deals with it.

Ya I was pretty upset when I saw Xavier's schedule with all of the one day turnarounds and then realized that it was like that across the conference. That's the price we pay though so FS1 can have content 5 or 6 days a week.

Hopefully PC makes an end of season run to dance this year but I'm selfishly hoping it starts after Saturday. I'm pretty worried about Xavier playing an angry team coming off what appeared to be an unfocused loss to St. Johns.

Unfocused? I'd say tired after the trip to Milwaukee/Chicago. Having Harris off his game and playing limited minutes didn't help.

Maybe the minutes are starting to pile up and take their toll. But that can be dealt with. Cooley is going to have to figure that one out. Syracuse normally doesn't go more than 6-7 deep, so it's possible to play at a high level with a short bench.

“Energy, defensive alertness, paying attention to detail,” said Coach Ed Cooley after his team fell to St. Johns. “We were not attentive to detail in the first half. I thought we were rushed. I didn’t like our eye communication or our verbal communication. I thought our guys were really tight.”

Maybe unfocused wasn't the perfect word but I'm just going off of what Cooley said. I could definitely see fatigue being a factor though during this part of the season with only going 6 deep and some road trips/quick turnarounds.

[HoosierPal]

Yes, a couple weeks ago Cooley made a comment about the quick turn around games. There have been a lot of Saturday-Monday, Thursday-Saturday type games. He just said it doesn't give alot of time to prepare for the second opponent- but its league wide so everyone deals with it.

Ya I was pretty upset when I saw Xavier's schedule with all of the one day turnarounds and then realized that it was like that across the conference. That's the price we pay though so FS1 can have content 5 or 6 days a week.

You got it right. It's called selling out to the Almighty Dollar. I guess on the bright side, the student athletes may be missing less school than they would on a Wednesday - Saturday schedule.

[stever20]

Yes, a couple weeks ago Cooley made a comment about the quick turn around games. There have been a lot of Saturday-Monday, Thursday-Saturday type games. He just said it doesn't give alot of time to prepare for the second opponent- but its league wide so everyone deals with it.

Ya I was pretty upset when I saw Xavier's schedule with all of the one day turnarounds and then realized that it was like that across the conference. That's the price we pay though so FS1 can have content 5 or 6 days a week.

Hopefully PC makes an end of season run to dance this year but I'm selfishly hoping it starts after Saturday. I'm pretty worried about Xavier playing an angry team coming off what appeared to be an unfocused loss to St. Johns.

Unfocused? I'd say tired after the trip to Milwaukee/Chicago. Having Harris off his game and playing limited minutes didn't help.

Maybe the minutes are starting to pile up and take their toll. But that can be dealt with. Cooley is going to have to figure that one out. Syracuse normally doesn't go more than 6-7 deep, so it's possible to play at a high level with a short bench.

Here's the thing though... looking at Ken Pom, who tracks bench minutes(since like 2007)...

the year the bench players from Cuse played the least was 2007. That year they missed the tourney. Bench players played 20.7% of the minutes....

PC's bench players are playing 17.7% minutes this year. There's a huge difference there. That's 6 more minutes per game that the starters are having to play(from Syracuse's smallest bench year).

Heck, last year PC's bench played 26.6%. That means this year starters are having to play an extra 18 minutes per game- or 3-4 more per starter. That's a pretty big difference. Considering Cotton doesn't come out(he's #1 in the country playing 95.6% of the minutes), that's an extra 4-5 minutes per other 4 starters. Cotton has missed 4 minutes of action since December 1 game with Kentucky.

[Bill Marsh]

Ya I was pretty upset when I saw Xavier's schedule with all of the one day turnarounds and then realized that it was like that across the conference. That's the price we pay though so FS1 can have content 5 or 6 days a week.

Hopefully PC makes an end of season run to dance this year but I'm selfishly hoping it starts after Saturday. I'm pretty worried about Xavier playing an angry team coming off what appeared to be an unfocused loss to St. Johns.

Unfocused? I'd say tired after the trip to Milwaukee/Chicago. Having Harris off his game and playing limited minutes didn't help.

Maybe the minutes are starting to pile up and take their toll. But that can be dealt with. Cooley is going to have to figure that one out. Syracuse normally doesn't go more than 6-7 deep, so it's possible to play at a high level with a short bench.

“Energy, defensive alertness, paying attention to detail,” said Coach Ed Cooley after his team fell to St. Johns. “We were not attentive to detail in the first half. I thought we were rushed. I didn’t like our eye communication or our verbal communication. I thought our guys were really tight.”

Maybe unfocused wasn't the perfect word but I'm just going off of what Cooley said. I could definitely see fatigue being a factor though during this part of the season with only going 6 deep and some road trips/quick turnarounds.

I'm not disagreeing at all. You were right about unfocused. I was trying to say - and probably did so poorly - that I didn't see it as a lack of effort, but rather as a function of being weary.

The tendency of most coaches when this happens is to work the team harder, to push them more. I don't know what Cooley will do, but I think the right move would be to give them a day off and come back with shorter practices but ones which are very focused on specific issues. We'll see how it goes.

[ChelseaFriar]

Turnaround issue

Providence improved to 3-1 in so-called turnaround games when Ed Cooley and his staff have just one day to prepare in between games. A fourth quick flip comes next weekend when the Friars play at Xavier on Saturday and Georgetown on Monday.

Some of these turnarounds are explainable in an era when TV windows need to be filled, but the Big East butchered its first try at scheduling for a 10-team league.

The A-10, for example, didn’t schedule Rhode Island into a single one-day turnaround. Fox Sports executives were heavily involved in drafting the Big East’s schedule, much to the dismay of head coaches around the league. One coach (not Cooley) insisted recently that the tight scheduling “will cost us an (NCAA) at-large berth or two, for sure. We made a major mistake here.”

Perhaps Cooley did comment on it, but I have not seen him comment. Another coach, per the above, commented on it. PC is 3-1 in the turnaround games.


http://www.providencejournal.com/sports ... -other.ece

[redmen9194]

I'm not sure why there is all this complaining about the one day turn around by teams that were in the Big East prior to this year. We have had one day turn arounds all the time. Usually they were Saturday / Monday games. I think what they can do to help the one day turnaround is either give you two home games for your turnaround or at least keep you in the geographic area for the two games. Earlier St. John's had a home against Seton Hall on a Thursday night then a Saturday afternoon game at Butler. Maybe if St. John's is going to be home on Thursday night, send them to Nova or Providence or G'Town on the Saturday. But it really should not be anything too new for most of the teams in the league. The one factor working against the Friars is not really their schedule as they managed to play everyone fairly well the first half of conference play. The problem may come from their short bench. It is very easy to get worn down in February when you are playing six or seven guys a game. Especially in a league like this where every game is really a battle. If the Friars can hold off the fatigue, they could be OK.

[Bill Marsh]

I'm not sure why there is all this complaining about the one day turn around by teams that were in the Big East prior to this year. We have had one day turn arounds all the time. Usually they were Saturday / Monday games. I think what they can do to help the one day turnaround is either give you two home games for your turnaround or at least keep you in the geographic area for the two games. Earlier St. John's had a home against Seton Hall on a Thursday night then a Saturday afternoon game at Butler. Maybe if St. John's is going to be home on Thursday night, send them to Nova or Providence or G'Town on the Saturday. But it really should not be anything too new for most of the teams in the league. The one factor working against the Friars is not really their schedule as they managed to play everyone fairly well the first half of conference play. The problem may come from their short bench. It is very easy to get worn down in February when you are playing six or seven guys a game. Especially in a league like this where every game is really a battle. If the Friars can hold off the fatigue, they could be OK.

I agree that the short bench hurts Providence, but it's not an insurmountable problem. They're not the first team to go only 6-7 deep and they do have experienced veterans on the bench if Cooley chooses to use them down the stretch. Cotton is the only one who really has no backup. Syracuse has played with a short bench for years by choice. It can be done, but Cooley has to manage it properly. That's his challenge.