Tale of Two Basketball Teams on the Road to the NCAA Tournament: PC & URI
Monday, March 09, 2020
Talk about your tale of two basketball teams! Turnaround is thy name college basketball.
For most of the 2019-20 basketball season, it’s been the University of Rhode Island that’s taken its place atop the most likely Rhode Island school to make the NCAA Tournament. Providence College has been the chaser in this race for months. Yet, now, here we are at the close of the regular season for both the Atlantic 10 and Big East Conferences and It’s exactly the opposite.
After a fabulous close to February and start to March that has seen the Friars win their last six games, three against ranked teams, most experts now see Providence as a lock for the Big Dance, no matter what they do in the upcoming Big East Tournament this week in New York. Providence routed DePaul Saturday night (GoLocal Prov) 93-55 on Senior Night to earn its 19th win of the season (19-12) as well as a team record 12th conference victory (12-6). PC, as the fourth seed, will take on #5 Butler in the quarterfinals Thursday at 2:30 pm.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTAs for Rhody (21-9), they’ve limped into March, losing 2 of 3 to Saint Louis and Dayton while just clipping UMass Saturday night 64-63 on Fats Russell’s two free throws with 2.2 seconds left. The Rams had built a 17-point first-half edge before seeing the Minutemen take the lead in the final seconds.
Now, losing to the Billikens and #3 ranked Dayton isn’t devastating on its face, it’s the fact that both losses were at home and that the Dayton loss, 84-57, was the second in a few weeks in which the Rams were dominated and not really in the game in the second half. URI now has work to do in the A10 Tournament where they will start play on Friday night as the third seed. The Rams will take on either Fordham, George Washington or Duquesne at 8:30 pm.
As for the Brown Bears, they had a very successful close to the regular season, sweeping road tilts at Harvard and Dartmouth. Unfortunately for Brown, Penn also won its two games this weekend over Columbia and Cornell to tie the Bears at 8-6 in conference play, tied for the final spot in the standings. The Quakers win the tiebreaker based on their win over Yale earlier this season. Now, Brown will await its invitation into a postseason tournament other than the NCAA Tournament.
Bryant’s season is over after a first-round loss to Saint Francis (PA) in the Northeast Conference Tournament.
Let’s take a closer look (rankings as of Sunday).
University of Rhode Island
Record: 21-9 (13-5 3rd in Atlantic 10)
KenPom Rankings: 48
NET: 57
RPI: 30
Record vs. Quad 1: 1-6
Record vs. Quad 2: 6-2
Record vs. Quad 3: 7-1
Record vs. Quad 4: 7-0
Strength of Schedule: 84
Non-conference strength of schedule: 81
Remaining games: #3 seed in the Atlantic 10 Tournament. Will play Friday at 8:30 pm vs. TBD in Brooklyn
With 21 wins overall and 13 victories in A10 play, the regular season is far from a disappointment for the Rams. Unfortunately, it’s how URI has finished that’s put them in a precarious position to make the NCAA Tournament. The loss to Saint Louis definitely hurt Rhody’s chances and two non-competitive losses to 3rd ranked Dayton have done the Rams no favors. With only one quad 1 victory on the season, URI lacks those quality wins that stick out so much for Providence. By our account, it’s going to take at least two wins and getting to the finals of the A10 Tournament to get the Rams back into the conversation on Selection Sunday.
What do the experts say?
ESPN’s bracketologist Joe Lunardi, in a tweet Sunday morning, has the Rams far from the conversation, not even making the top 8 teams out
CBS Sports, as of Sunday morning, has the Rams out of the talk for the bubble at the moment.
So, clearly Rhody could use a big-time upset in the A10 Tournament, presumably against top-seeded Dayton, who has yet to lose a conference game all season long while going 29-2 overall to net it's 3rd overall ranking in the AP Top 25.
Providence College
Record: 19-12 (12-6 4th in Big East)
KenPom Rankings: 40
NET: 36
RPI: 39
Record vs. Quad 1: 7-8
Record vs. Quad 2: 5-0
Record vs. Quad 3: 2-3
Record vs. Quad 4: 5-1
Strength of schedule: 38
Non-conference strength of schedule: 89
Remaining games: #4 seed in the Big East Tournament. Will play Thursday at 2:30pm vs. #5 Butler
Nobody wants to play the Friars these days, n-o-b-o-d-y! They are one of the hottest teams in the country and as we know from past history, they love to play in New York in the Big East Conference Tournament under head coach Ed Cooley. With a team record 12 Big East victories already, Cooley’s crew will start BET play Thursday against Butler in 4 vs. 5 quarterfinal matchup (2:30 pm).
Cooley definitely has his fans including CBS Sports College Basketball Insider Jon Rothstein, who called Cooley “the American Dream” in a tweet Saturday.
Cooley spoke highly of his team, his family after the DePaul game Saturday night.
"This is a credit to everyone. It's not just the players, it's a whole family, it's a whole unit together. Our donors, our fans, the media, you guys help us out," said Cooley.
The case for the Friars to make the tournament is easy. The Big East is the top-ranked conference as ranked by Team Rankings RPI and they are one of its best teams. With five wins over ranked teams in February alone, their resume speaks volumes as does its seven Quad 1 victories. They’ll be dancing on Selection Sunday and now it’s just a matter of seeding and where they go against who. That’ll depend on how far they go this week in the Big East Tournament. Right now, I’d say PC is a 7 or 8 seed before the start of this week’s play. Winning the Big East Tournament could lift them as high as a 5 or 6 seed.
The experts concur. CBS Sports sees the Friars as a 7th seed in the South Region as of Sunday morning. ESPN’s Bracketology sees the same thing – 7th seed in the South. To complete the trifecta, NBC Sports also has PC in the South as the 7th seed. Team Rankings Bracketology has Providence as a fifth seed on Sunday.
Brown University
Record: 15-12 (8-6 tied for 4th in Ivy League with Penn)
KenPom Rankings: 224
NET: 224
Remaining games: tbd
Despite a successful 2-0 weekend, the Brown Bears fell just shy of its goal to make the Ivy League postseason tournament. After another upset victory Friday night at Harvard, 64-55 -- its second of the season over the Crimson, and a win at Dartmouth Saturday, 70-58 the Bears found themselves tied with Penn for the fourth and final spot in the four-team tournament. Since Brown and Penn both finished at 8-6 in conference regular-season play and split their two games with each other, the league tiebreaker goes to the team’s record against the top-seeded team. Penn beat Yale once while Brown lost twice to the Bulldogs, so the Quakers earn the berth in the tournament.
"Tonight (Saturday) was a terrific win on the road against a very tough opponent," said head coach Mike Martin, according to the team’s website. "I'm really proud of our team."
So, next weekend in Boston, it’ll be #1 Yale vs. #4 Penn and #2 Harvard vs. #4 Princeton. Brown will await its fate as to whether it makes one of the postseason tournaments other than the NCAA Tournament for an invitation to the NIT or CBIT. Last season, the Bears beat the University of Alabama-Birmingham in the first round of the CBIT before losing to Loyola-Marymount in the quarterfinals.
Bryant University
Record: 15-17 (7-11 in Northeast regular season, 0-1 in the tournament)
KenPom Rankings: 236
NET: 243
Remaining games: done for the season
With an 87-61 defeat at Saint Francis (PA) in the Northeast Conference Tournament Quarterfinals, Bryant’s season has come to a close. The Bulldogs were down 22-4 and 32-10 to start the game and never fully recovered. The Bulldogs shot just 33% for the game while giving Saint Francis shot it to the tune of 57%.
