Better Boarding
The Friars come up big against Brown
Sometimes the answer is pretty simple.
Brown basically played Providence to a standstill Tuesday night.
Brown shot 28 for 65 from the field. PC shot 30 for 65. Both teams hit eight three-pointers. Brown went 15 for 20 from the foul line. PC went 18 for 21. Brown had 10 turnovers. PC had 14. But Providence came out ahead on the scoreboard, 86-79.
So what gives? The one big difference in this game came on the backboards. Providence outrebounded Brown, 44-33, including 13-8 on the offensive glass. That difference really showed up in the second half, as Providence had 11 of its offensive rebounds and outboarded the Bears, 26-14 overall.
“I think the story of the second half was our inability to defensive rebound, after a really good first half,’’ said Brown coach Mike Martin. “We felt good about our ability if we didn’t turn the ball over and defensive rebound at an adequate level, we felt that would give ourselves a chance. We forced a lot of misses in the second half but we weren’t able to finish the possessions.”
So, some plain talk: Brown was able to hang in this game because in many ways it was the sounder team, and executed better than did PC. But it’s no secret that Providence, a Big East team, had a big edge in physicality and athleticism. But when the Friars were able to minimize that difference in execution, and also match or exceed the effort level of Brown, that athleticism advantage was the difference in terms of getting to rebounds and other 50/50 balls.
That was evident in the post-game comments of Providence Kim English, who is almost always refreshingly blunt when talking about how he is trying to push his players to be as good as they can be.
“We took a couple of steps forward tonight, but we also took a couple of steps backward,’’ said English, who was not happy with his team’s execution on defense, but was encouraged about the progress he saw in a couple of his players effort level and aggressiveness, especially in terms of rebounding.
The two Friars who did the most damage on the glass were Jamier Jones and Cole Hargrove, who combined for eight offensive rebounds in the second half, most of which turned into easy put-backs.
“Cole and Jamier they just played HARD,’’ said English. “We’ve been showing Cole some edits, different players around college basketball, where just playing hard is their superpower. We’ve been really challenging Jamier about his rebounding. He had zero at half time. We called him out about it in front of everyone. He comes out in the second half and he changed the game, just with his effort, going to the glass. As athletic as he is, as big as he is, as strong as he is, as great as shape as he is in, he should be a rebounding machine.”
Indeed, both Hargrove, 6-8, and Jones, 6-6, are big, strong, studs physically. And they both also spoke openly about learning to just plain play harder.
“The coaches really kind of challenged me the last two weeks to see how I would respond,’’ said Hargrove. “It was just a change in my mindset in these past practices, playing with more effort, playing with more energy.’’
Hargrove had basically been benched of late, moving from a two-way time-share at the center position to third on the depth chart. In fact, English said Hargrove had recently been demoted to the scout team in one practice. Apparently, that was something of a wake-up-call for the first-year senior transfer.
His contribution was crucial on this night, as Providence’s starting center had three fouls at the half, which led to Hargrove getting a chance to start the second half.
Jones has been pushed to show more effort as well.
“My teammates and my coaches had been on me about rebounding. I hadn’t been playing as hard as I could, and once I played as hard as I could, that was the result,” said Jones, who made 7 of 8 shots to tie for a team-high 16 points.
Wow. Who knew that just playing harder could be so beneficial?