PC Basketball Friars - Good, Bad, and Ugly and NCAA Update
Robert McMahon, Sports Columnist
PC Basketball Friars - Good, Bad, and Ugly and NCAA Update
Nope. The Friars let the 3-22 DePaul Blue Demons make a game of it for the first 30 minutes of the contest. This was a puzzling PC win that featured the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
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The Good
Oduro and Carter continued to strengthen their respective cases for All-Big East Conference selections—Oduro’s stat line: 27 points, 83.0 fg%, and 6 rebounds. Carter’s stat line wasn’t too shabby either: 31 points, 71.3 overall fg%, 70.0 three-point fg%, and a game-leading 13 rebounds.
Other team positives: only 8 turnovers, a respectable number of assists with 15, and dominance on the boards with 42 to DePaul’s 32.
The defense was aggressive and quick, holding DePaul to just 58 points until the last 1 minute and 20 seconds of the game.
The Bad
Mirroring a troubling recent trait, the Friar offense got off to a slow start in the first half. PC had trouble getting the ball inside and settled for a slew of unsuccessful 3-pt shot attempts as the possession clock wound down.
The Friars are dead last in free throw percentage in the Big East at 70.2%. PC struggled again at the charity stripe in this game hitting just 63.2% of its free throws. (My CYO coach made me stay at every practice until I hit 8 out of 10 free throws.) Poor free throw shooting has cost the Friars at least two games this year, and fans continue to hold their breath when the Friars shoot one-on-one when the game is on the line.
The AMP seems to still have some issues with a wet court. The issue with a good moisture barrier for the ice below the wood court was supposedly solved before the season, but there were a few instances in the DePaul game where it was necessary for “the towel boys” to rush out on the court and wipe away moisture in areas unrelated to the play on the court. “The towel boys” were second only to Devin Carter in effort in this game.
The Ugly
Prior to Saturday’s game against DePaul, the Friars had played 11 games since Bryce Hopkins was injured and ruled out for the remainder of the season. Coach English has tried several combinations of players to get a consistent offense to support Oduro and Carter. Here we are with 5 games left in the season and it’s still anybody’s guess as to who will score points other than Oduro and Carter. The stat line for the DePaul game was Exhibit A that this Friar team is a two-man offense with unreliable offense from anyone else. Oduro and Carter scored 58 of the team’s 81 points. The other 6 players who played scored just 23 points and had a field goal percentage of 23.5%. English must be as discouraged as the Friar fans.
With 1 minute and 20 seconds remaining in the game and PC with a solid 81-58 lead, Coach English rightfully removed Oduro and Carter from the game after their giant performances. Then DePaul went on a 12-0 run to finish the game. Should we care about this since PC won 81-70? Yes, we should care. It was embarrassing. More importantly, it reflects PC’s struggle to close out games when ahead in the last few minutes. The last Butler game being a good example. This Friar team has had an overachieving year, but it is in a desperate situation now to make the NCAA tournament. Accordingly, even with Oduro and Carter on the bench, the other players should have taken no prisoners for a full 40 minutes of this game.
Can The Friars Make the NCAA’s?
I admit to overconfidence in my column last week about the number of Big East teams that might be selected for the NCAA tournament. I projected 6 teams from the Big East. That number now seems too high. In the past few years, if you won 11 regular season Big East games, you had a high probability of making the big dance. Accordingly, 6 and sometimes 7 Big East teams made the tournament.
This year, it is likely that only 4, maybe 5, Big East teams will be selected. The NCAA is relying not only on strength of schedule but also on so-called Quad 1 wins (wins against top 25 teams when the win occurred) and Quad 2 wins (wins against the next level of 25 teams). As of today, only UConn, Marquette, and Creighton are certain of selection from the Big East. Seton Hall and Providence might be selected for a play-in game or be one of the “first four teams out.” The strength of the Big 12 conference and, believe it or not, the Mountain West Conference is constraining more Big East team selections this year. PC has a modest Quad 1 record of 2-2.
With 5 games remaining—2 at home and 3 on the road—what does PC have to do to get selected? Here’s my scenario for getting selected: beat Xavier on the road (Xavier spanked the Friars by 20 points earlier this year at the AMP); beat Villanova at the AMP (Villanova embarrassed PC by 18 points earlier this season in Philly); beat Georgetown on the road; and beat either Marquette on the road or beat UConn at the AMP, the last regular season game. It is a tall order, starting Wednesday night against Xavier in Cincinnati. I don’t think the Friars can beat Marquette in Milwaukee. But I’d love to be wrong. I do think they have a good chance to beat UConn at the AMP, even though no team in college basketball is playing as well as the Huskies.
One game at a time. The Xavier game is the first of many Friar must-wins