Providence Friars 63 (3-0)
Wisconsin Badgers 58 (2-1)
Nate Watson was able to carry the Friars throughout the game and seemingly score at will when given the ball anywhere on the floor. Watson scored a season-high 24 points and did so in a variety of ways, finishing around the basket, cleaning up the glass, and facing up to the hoop when needed.
Al Durham and A.J. Reeves followed Watson’s lead, also finishing in double figures with 13 & 11 points respectively. Although Wisconsin slowly clawed their way back into the game late in the second half due to Providence missing free throws and getting away from running their offense through Big Nate, the Friars were still able to find a way to pull out the win on the road in the Gavitt Games for the Big East.
Game Notes:
- Nate Watson feasted on the young Badgers team, converting on 11/15 attempts for a season-high 24 points and taking down 6 rebounds.
- Wisconsin had no answer defensively for Big Nate as he dominated on the offensive end wherever he chose to.
- Watson didn’t have a field goal attempt after his made jumper with 7:59 left in the second half which is inexcusable, even if you have to force him the ball one or two times to keep the defense honest.
- Al Durham has been even better than advertised and has now scored in double-digits in each of the first three games in Friartown, averaging 14.3 ppg in the early goings of the season.
- He’s still taking a few too many hero-ball shots and forcing some contested jumpers early in offensive possessions but he comes away with 1 or 2 of those “no, no, no, no, YES” plays each game too. He’s playing a lot freer than the clips I saw of him at Indiana.
- You could definitely tell that Al and Brad Davison have been playing against each other for the last decade.
- Durham finished with 13 points, going 3/5 from three, and handing out 4 assists. He was a little wild at times trying to single-handedly break the press but I’m not going to knock the aggressiveness.
- When A.J. Reeves has his feet set for a three-point shot, it’s a thing of beauty.
- That would be 3 straight games with a made three for the Senior archer.
- Reeves hit 3 threes on his way to scoring 11 points and crashing the boards to the tune of 8 rebounds. He had 1 rebound in the first two games combined over 51 minutes of playing time. His 8 rebounds are the most since his Freshman year against Villanova (10) in the Big East Tournament.
- Speaking of rebounds, Jared Bynum LED the Friars with 9 boards to go-along with a game-high 7 assists. That helped to slightly over-shadow the fact that committed 5 turnovers and shot 1/10 from the field. It was a pretty sweet bucket, to be faiiiiir.
- The 9 rebounds by Bynum tied his career-high that he set at Villanova during his Freshman season at St. Joe’s.
- Despite the uptick in TOs, Bynum still holds a 2.1:1 assist to turnover ratio on the young season.
- Apparently Noah Horchler only attempted 1 field goal, which he made. Hopefully Cooley can run a few plays through him going forward to get him more involved.
- He did play solid defense besides getting a little jump happy on some pump fakes down low, to the tune of 3 blocks and 6 rebounds. Noah now has at least one block in each of the three games this season.
- Blocks you say? How about this one from Ed Croswell…
- Justin Minaya is a swiss army knife.
- Alyn Breed played well in his limited time on the court.
- I had to break out the Dunking Friar for the first Big game of the season.
- Brad Davison is for sure making my All-Hate Team for this season.
- Bill Raftery was apparently in love with him and threw out every single adjective you could think of for a white athlete. A few of my favorites, and by favorites, I mean I didn’t like them at all.
- “Doesn’t mind taking a licking.”
- “He’s touched people harder in the cafeteria.”
- “He loves the hit.”
- Stick-to-it-ivness. Relentless. Heart. Desire. Tough. Compete. And a million others.
- Whether it was calling the ref sir or trying to point to the video board for the refs to take a look at a replay for what he thought was a hard foul, his annoyingness will not soon be forgotten. The guy can shot too though and dropped a game-high 25 points, helped out by going 8/10 from the line.
- As far as the post-game victory photo, I’m going with a tie between Noah and Nate as they both are hamming up on completely different ends of the spectrum.
- Damn that must feel good.
Next Up, the Friars return to The Dunk to take on UNH on Thursday at 6:30 PM on FS1.
The Morning Hangover 
Pingback: Game Recap: Croswell Essentially Wills A Friars Comeback and Al Durham Finishes Off Texas Tech 72-68 | The Morning Hangover