Providence’s path to the NCAA Tournament has grown steeper as the Big East regular season nears its summit.
The Friars (18-11, 9-9 Big East) trudge into Tuesday’s game at Georgetown in Washington having lost two straight, including a costly 71-60 home setback to fellow bubble contender Villanova on Saturday.
Providence entered the weekend projected by ESPN’s Joe Lunardi as the final team in the tournament field. Saturday’s loss knocked the Friars to one of the first four teams out, according to Fox Sports’ Mike DeCourcy.
Despite the recent skid, first-year Providence coach Kim English and assistant Dennis Felton are embracing the team’s position ahead of its final two regular-season games.
“Coach Felton did a great job explaining to the guys in the locker room that the beauty of this league is that we still control our own destiny,” English said on Saturday.
A win over the lowly Hoyas (9-20, 2-16) wouldn’t strengthen the Friars’ resume much, but it would propel Providence into its regular-season finale against No. 2 UConn with some much-needed momentum.
“We have two great opportunities in front of us,” English said.
The Friars beat Georgetown 84-76 on Jan. 27 in Providence. That meeting marked Hoyas coach Ed Cooley’s first game against his former team.
Cooley won’t have to worry about facing the same hostile Friars crowd that harshly greeted him in his return to Providence in January, but he still has major concerns entering Tuesday’s home tilt.
Georgetown surrendered 61 points during the second half of Saturday’s game against Xavier, which saw the Hoyas blow a 12-point halftime lead to lose 98-93.
“Totally disappointed in our defense,” Cooley said. “Absolutely horrific attention to detail in this game.”
Georgetown’s defense has been one of the team’s biggest deficiencies throughout its treacherous conference slate.
The Hoyas surrender the highest field goal percentage (52.2 percent) and the second-most points per game (82.0) among all Big East teams in league play.
Friars guard Devin Carter cooked Cooley’s squad with 29 points on 10-of-14 shooting in the team’s January meeting. Carter averages a Big East-best 21.1 points per game in conference play.
Jayden Epps leads Georgetown with 18.0 points per game. The guard dropped 26 against Providence in the teams’ initial clash.
–Field Level Media