Freshmen Flash, Defense Falters: Takeaways from Providence’s Season Opener

It was the youth movement on Monday night at the Amica Mutual Pavilion as the Providence Friars were able to defeat the Holy Cross Crusaders 89-79 led by the freshman duo of Stefan Vaaks and Jamier Jones to start their season off 1-0.

Here are my takeaways from PC's first game:

1) Friars' Freshman Duo Dazzle in Debut

Going into the game, we all did not know what the starting lineup and rotation was going to look like. It turned out to be Jason Edwards, Jaylin Sellers, Corey Floyd Jr., Duncan Powell, and Oswin Erhunmwunse with a 10-man rotation. The two most impressive players? Vaaks and Jones! You can see the trust that Kim English has in these young two phenoms with the 20 minutes both played off the bench in their first collegiate game together and the flashes that both showed in different ways. For Vaaks it was his three-point shooting and efficiency as he went 3-7 from behind the arc and 6-6 from the charity stripe in only his 20 minutes of play. As Jones said postgame, "I trust Vaaks to hit an open three every time, no matter what." It is clear that his international Estonian playing experience will have no problem transferring over to American college basketball as he is a confident shooter, a creative playmaker who can score at all three levels, and someone who can create on his own which is something this team greatly lacked last season. He reminds me of a college Luka Dončić, something Friar fans should be very excited about as again he's only a freshman.

As for Jones, it did not take long to realize that he does not look like the average freshman and the 43rd national recruit coming out of high school with his freak athletic ability. Jones displayed his strength and downhill attacking style playing of basketball as he was able to finish with 16 points while going 7-7 from the field with all of his points being scored inside the paint. Outside of his box score it was evident that he brings a swagger, toughness, and edge presence to him as he was able to back it up and something both the team and fan base will quickly attach to. Last year it was Ryan Mela and Oswin Erhunmwunse, this year it looks to be Vaaks and Jones. The future is bright in Friartown, let's savor them while they're all here.

2) A New Identity Takes Shape in Friartown

This one was a relief and made me take a deep breath after the victory as I got flashbacks and PTSD from last year's transfer portal class pregame. As I mentioned in the game preview article, I felt different about this season's transfer portal class compared to last seasons because of the identity they all bring. The headliners in Edwards, Sellers, and Powell had respectable performances with Edwards and Sellers scoring in double figures but we did not have to find ourselves desperately relying on them to score and get us points when they necessarily didn't have to. Not to mention Drexel transfer forward Cole Hargrove finding himself into the game early and playing well with six rebounds as Erhunmwunse found himself in foul trouble early and eventually ended with four personal fouls. The longest tenured Friar on the roster Floyd Jr. only had 12 points with the most minutes played, Mela only had nine points with the second most minutes, and sophomore guard transfer from Florida State Daquan Davis did not even record a single point in 11 minutes of action. Five Friars scored in double figures led by Vaaks and Jones 19 and 16 respectively followed by Floyd Jr. and Sellers both with 12 and Edwards with 11. Additionally, Providence's bench outscored Holy Cross's 44-11, with two in double figures. As English said postgame, "I'm really proud of our young guys and our bench. That is what a bench is supposed to do. Our bench is supposed to withstand a good start and play well on both sides of the ball." So far so good for the 10-man rotation in a game that Rich Barron and 80th ranked nationally freshman Jaylen Harrell didn't even play in.

As for the identity part of this, it was clear that this is a team that wants to be aggressive on both ends of the floor, play fast in transition, and finish downhill at the cup as PC finished with 15 fast break points and 44 points in the paint. What was so refreshing about this is that we did not force the ball down into the paint and play iso ball per se, instead it was created by collective ball movement both in transition and around the perimeter. Seeing these numbers, one would have thought that Erhunmwunse must have had a field day down low only to be held to four points in the contest due to foul trouble. Again, this only goes to show the depth of the roster. Defensively, I loved seeing the full court presses when we were leading with our largest lead being 20, we have the athletes and guys to press as this was a good call by English and the staff especially against an inferior opponent.

3) A Win's a Win...But That Second Half Defense? Yikes.

Providence is 1-0, Vaaks and Jones looked great but the second half defense? Not so much. This is already becoming an early season trend this season as Providence allowed 52 points to Holy Cross and 50 points to Harvard in their last two second halves of play. In the first half, Holy Cross shot an abysmal 0-11 from three meanwhile in the second half the Crusaders shot 11-22 from behind the arc. In fact, Holy Cross cut the deficit to six with 50 seconds left before Sellers converted an and-one layup to give Providence the eight-point cushion. A tale of two halves to say the least. Going into the game, Providence was a 24.5-point favorites only for them to only win by 10 points. I don't mean to be greedy or selfish about the win; we are 1-0 after all but when you allow back-to-back second halves with over 50 points for the opposing team in non-conference play after seeing what St. John's did in their opener against Quinnipiac (108-74 victory), I'd be a little bit concerned to say the least. This is a concern and trend that must decrease points wise if Providence wants to compete with the big three and upper echelon of the Big East conference with the Johnnies, UConn, and Creighton.

Those are my takeaways, the Friars find themselves 1-0 before traveling to Uncasville Connecticut to face Virginia Tech in the Hall of Fame Tipoff on Saturday Nov. 8 at The Mohegan Sun Arena, who also find themselves 1-0 after a 98-67 victory over the Charleston Southern Buccaneers on Monday night.