Super Scintillating Selections Top 30 Countdown: #21 Providence Friars

Places you don’t want to play at when you have a number next to your name: Cassell Coliseum, Xfinity Center, and “The AMP” (formerly known as “The Dunk”). Amica Mutual Pavilion is home of our #21 in the Super Scintillating Selections. The Providence Friars rely on the environment of their home crowd to lead them to a win. Having that is crucial for the regular season to get you big wins, but what happens when you play a neutral site game and don't have that environment?

20-7 overall and 12-4 in a high powered Big East Conference. The Friars best road win is against Seton Hall, who is ranked #71 in the NET Rankings. So, their best road win is against a quad-2 team…not great. However, this team had a similar story last year and made it to the sweet 16, losing a close game to Kansas to keep them from going to an Elite 8. Coach Ed Cooley has a lot to do with that, one of the best coaches in the country.

Games to watch for the team before the season is over: 2/22 @ #18 UCONN and 3/1 vs. #16 Xavier. I need to see this team win a solid road game before the regular season is over. Also, if they perform well in the Big East tournament, that will also tell me this team is tournament ready and make me feel better about picking them to go on a run.

Let’s run it back shall we?

Why can the Friars win the national championship?

1. Coaching. Ed Cooley has done everything but breakthrough for a Final Four run for Providence in his twelve years as the head coach. 6 trips to the NCAA tournament, a sweet 16 appearance, a Big East regular season title, a Big East tournament title, and has been named National Coach of the Year. It's only a matter of time Coach Cooley takes this on a historic final four run. His players buy in to what he is selling, and he has totally changed the expectations for their basketball program over the years. When he was hired, Providence finished at or under .500 in six of the ten previous seasons and has only been to the Big Dance one time in that same ten year span. Ed Cooley knows how to coach and has a hell of a roster this year to be able to put together a couple wins in the tournament.

1. Regional Placement. This sounds so dumb, but it's just the truth. If Providence gets lucky and draws a favorable region, they can play close to home (Rhode Island). They need to get up to a 5 seed and draw the West or the East region. Their first two games would be in Albany, NY and the Friar faithful would travel well to those. Why do I keep bringing up “home” for the friars? Well, they are 15-0 and have wins against some of the top teams in the country there. They simply don't lose when they are backed by their fans and can run off their energy.

What's holding Providence back?

1. Non-Conference Confidence. According to the KenPom rankings, Providence has the #348 non-conference strength of schedule. The reason this is an issue is because three of their seven losses have come outside of their conference, two of them being on a neutral site. An out of conference team, at a neutral site is exactly who they will have to face for at least the first couple rounds of the tournament. The Friars and their fans are hoping history doesn't repeat itself, and their team can push through.

My Prediction: Round of 32 exit

Next Game: 2/22 vs. UCONN