College Basketball Big East Power Rankings: Week 10
PROVIDENCE FRIARS
Last week: 11-7, 1-4 Big East
Last rank: N/A
Despite starting the Big East season with three losses in four games, it was tough to slide Providence too far down the ladder – the losses came at the hands of three of the top four squads in the Big East (Xavier, Butler, and Creighton). Until, of course, they lost at home Tuesday night against DePaul, a tough loss to a fellow cellar dweller.
Overall, the Friars have had a solid start to the season. After Kris Dunn’s graduation and Ben Bentil’s departure for the NBA (their top 2 players), Providence was widely expected to take a big step back after finishing 5th in the conference last year. Instead, Ed Cooley has done a great job coaching up what he had left, with the Friars currently sitting at 11-7. While some of this is certainly due to a soft schedule – Rhode Island (35th in KenPom) is their best win at this point – it’s all about beating expectations for the Friars at this point.
They’ve carried over their strong defensive play from last year, despite losing Kris Dunn, one of their best defenders from last year, Providence has maintained a top-50 defense, per KenPom’s adjusted ratings. And junior Rodney Bullock has emerged from the ‘shadow’ of Bentil and Dunn to prove he can be a solid go-to option for a team. Despite increasing his usage nearly 10 percent from last year, he’s maintained above average efficiency while having to create much more offense on his own. The Friars might be able to work their way into a position to challenge for the 5th or 6th spot in the league, a designation that might just carry an NCAA bid.
ST. JOHN'S RED STORM
Last week: 8-10, 2-3 Big East
Last rank: N/A
Despite falling to a team below them in these rankings (Georgetown) in their last game, I’ve got St. John’s ahead – their conference play-opening win over Butler is a more impressive victory than the Hoyas have had all season, let alone just the Big East.
And while St. John’s has struggled so far through sophomore head coach Chris Mullin’s tenure – they finished 8-24 last year amid some off-court turmoil – there are positive signs of improvement so far this year.
The biggest have to be the play of the freshman guard combo of Marcus Lovett and Shamorie Poinds. The team overall is unusually young – there are only three upperclassmen junior or higher on the squad – and KenPom’s ‘experience’ metric pegs them as the third-youngest squad in all of Division I. The combination of Ponds and Lovett (along with the steady play of junior Bashir Ahmed) has driven the offense of the Johnnies. The pair is currently combining to hit 82 of their 204 threes (40.2%) and 113 of 219 two-pointers (51.60%). Most of those twos are unassisted, too – Ponds has only received assists on 12 of his 35 makes at the rim, while Lovett has gotten 5 assists on his 27 makes in the same area.
It’s a great base on which to build for next year’s offense, as the other young players on the squad continue to develop. For this year, they’ll probably lurk near the bottom of the Big East. But as the Butler game showed, they’ll be dangerous.