Davis’ Friars Can’t Squeeze Orange, Fall 81-74

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Scott Cordischi, GoLocalProv Sports Editor

The Providence Friars opened up Big East play against 5th-ranked Syracuse at the Carrier Dome. PC battled the Orange all night long before eventually falling 81-74.

Some might say that it was a moral victory for Providence playing an undefeated Syracuse team tough on its own floor and that would be accurate. The problem is, moral victories don’t get your team into the NCAA Tournament, real victories do. And that will be Keno Davis’ challenge moving forward in league play.

The Friars jumped out to a 7-3 lead just 2:30 in forcing Jim Boeheim to call a quick timeout. The Orange responded going on a 16-6 run. Included in that run were 4 three’s by Syracuse including two by Kris Joseph (27 pts).

The Orange extended their lead to 13 over the Friars before Vincent Council’s (10 pts, 8 reb, 7 assists) three at the buzzer made it a 10-point game at halftime.

Providence would chip away at that deficit in the second half getting as close as 4 on a few occasions including at 51-47 with just over 13 minutes left. But the Orange always seemed to have an answer going on another run.

A Scoop Jardine (21 pts, 7 assists) lay-up in transitionfollowed by a Jardine three lifted the Syracuse lead to 9 heading into the media timeout at 11:18.

Out of the timeout, Brandon Triche (15 pts) hit an 8-foot jumper while Jardine made another bucket in transition putting the Orange in control 60-47.

The Friars would put together one last run outscoring Syracuse 11-3 during a 3+ minute span to pull to within 5 at 68-63. In the end, however, the more experienced Orange would prevail.

While no definitive conclusions can be drawn from last night’s loss, you wonder if Keno Davis’ team is good enough defensively to compete with the big boys in the Big East. While Davis has done a nice job of recruiting talent for his system, that system may need some tweaking because this is not the Missouri Valley Conference.

The Friars coach continues to emphasize how his team has improved its defense dramatically from a year ago which is true. The problem is, it was so bad last year that even a major improvement on that end of the floor still hasn’t made them a very good defensive team.

It’s not as if Davis has to scrap what he’s doing and try to implement a 2-3 zone like Boehiem and Syracuse. He needs his team to play better man-to-man defense and he may need to start recruiting players with the ability to do just that.

Still, it was a solid showing by the Friars even if #5 Syracuse (14-0, 1-0 Big East) lacks the star power you’re used to seeing each year.

Next up for Providence (11-3, 0-1 Big East) is St. John’s (7-3, 0-0 Big East) Saturday night at 7pm at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center.