Recent content by CouchsideSteve

Did what they had to do, beating a disappointing Georgetown team at home after a week-plus COVID pause. Friars should be 6-7pt favorites hosting Butler at noon on Sunday, in another game they really ought to have. Hold serve and Providence will be 6-1 through the first third of their conference...

Wasn’t pretty, but an exceptional response in the second half without the team’s best shooter. Justin Minaya played all 40 and was phenomenal on D, with some clutch shots too. Durham and Horchler barely sat and weren’t super efficient, but hung tough. And Watson redeemed himself with 21-10...

Welp, the kids got absolutely rolled against a desperate Marquette team Tue night in Milwaukee. The vibes were awful from the very start. Burn the tapes — no one expected 20-0 in Big East play, anyway. Today’s noon tip-off hosting St. John’s is a different story. Gotta have it, even with Reeves...

Today was validating — 17pt road win, when we were actually mild underdogs. As the post above alludes to, even in the 2016-17 season when the Friars were last ranked, they dropped some baffling games, including a road loss to DePaul. Friars are 3-0, Marquette 0-3 to start conference play. This...

Beating #15 Seton Hall qualifies as a Quad 1 win, even if they had a few COVID absences. Friars keep rolling. Let’s beat DePaul on New Year’s Day!

The most encouraging thing about the UConn win — and the last few weeks, for that matter — has been Reeves. Up to 38% beyond the arc for the season on the strength of his last three shooting performances, with just one turnover during that span. Not to be confused with a sharpshooter, but super...

Vamos. This is a really good Providence Friars team.

Truly outstanding to finish a decently tough non-con schedule 10-1. The Big East is really good and deep, so 10-10 in conference play should be enough to dance in March. Lunardi has the Friars solidly in the field as a 7 seed right now. Beating UConn on the road tomorrow would substantially...

Evidently, I’m now a huge homer. But I really thought the trifecta of wins against Wisconsin, Northwestern, and TTU would be enough, particularly with just one loss to a good UVA team. Oh well. Friars come in at 32 in Jon Rothstein’s weekly ranking, and 37 on the initial NET rating. 73% chance...

That’ll do. Decisive win. Turns out, URI isn’t very good, but Providence can’t control that. Took care of business. Ed Croswell has played *very* well the last two games. Could be a significant development.

We shall see. Friars opened 6pt favorites but the line is closing -4.5. Bynum out again for PC, and the Rams play tough defense. But if Providence is as good as I think they might be, they should win handily. Crowd is going to be nuts.

[Ric Flair voice] Wooooooooooooo! Phenomenal effort to overcome an early 14-point deficit and beat Texas Tech. Huge games from Durham and Croswell, plus some clutch 3s by Reeves. Breed started with Bynum out and had key defensive possessions down the stretch. Beat URI on Saturday and your...

The beer collaboration is awesome. So excited to have the rivalry game back. I’ll be at the Dunk on Saturday and can’t wait! Will be even sweeter if we can pull the (mild) upset over Texas Tech tomorrow.

There are going to be 2 or 3 gut-punch losses in even the most successful Providence basketball seasons. The loss to Virginia wasn’t that, but it was a missed opportunity. The game was there for the taking with 8min left, despite an atrocious shooting performance and mental lapses throughout...

Favored by 1.5 over Virginia tonight, who dropped a buy game to Navy and got run out of the gym against Houston. They’ll course correct, though, making this a big opportunity. 7:30pm on ESPN2.