| Team | 1st Qtr | 2nd Qtr | 3rd Qtr | 4th Qtr | FINAL |
| Providence Friars | 26 | 28 | 17 | 27 | 98 |
| Catalonia All-Stars | 10 | 16 | 9 | 15 | 50 |
The Friars concluded their 3-game pre-season Spain trip with just about as convincing of a win that you could have, beating the Catalonia All-Stars by 48 points, nearing doubling them up to the tune of a 98-50 win. The Friars had a decent game from three-point land (9/25 – 36%) in this one after two games with high variants of outcomes, 14/31 (45.2%) against Madrid & 7/34 (20.6%) against Valencia. Over the three game stretch, the Friars shot a combined 30/90 (30%) from deep, averaging 10 three-point makes per contest. They’re going to need to shoot much better than that in Kim English’s system, especially if they’re attempting 30 threes per game. Just as an FYI, 30% would have placed them 338th in the country last year.
They did continue to dominate in efficiency on their 2-pt field goals however, converting on 26/42 (61.9%) inside the arc, which was surprisingly their lowest conversion percentage of the three games. They shot 62.2% against Madrid and 69.2% against Valencia, so they’ve been more than capable of making things happen around the basket. I’d be interested to check out the heights of the players for the three Spain teams as Providence once again dominated on the boards, out-rebounding their opponent in this one 54-20. Their huge advantage on the glass each game definitely helped ease any shooting struggles that the team was dealing with at any point.
Bryce Hopkins once again led the team in scoring (twice in three games), finishing with 15 points and 7 rebounds. Hop continued to make his bread at the free throw line, going 4/8, 4/6, & 6/7, making it 14 points out his total 44 points (31.8%) that came from the charity stripe. Last season, Hopkins scored 145 of his 521 total points at the line, good for 27.8% of his total scoring output and ranking 48th in the country in free throw attempts last season. I expect him to be more efficient shooting the ball this upcoming season but with an uptick in the amount of threes he’s expected to take this year, I’m hoping he doesn’t slow down on his trips to the line.
The two players that I was most impressed with (from stat lines and highlight videos only) were Jayden Pierre and Rafael Castro. It looks like the game has noticeably slowed down for Jayden and he’s able to finish drives at the rim better with his added muscle. Still, his 3-point shot looks as sweet as ever (6/11) and the dual (see what I did there) guard line-ups of him and Garwey are going to be frightening. They were both dishing out dimes and protecting the ball at the same time. Garwey recorded 5 assists in every single game and finished with just 4 turnover. Jayden only turned the ball over twice in three games, handing out 11 assists. The two point guards combined for 26 assists and just 6 turnovers, good for a 4.33:1 assist to turnover ratio. They did this while also combining to go 9/17 from three (52.9%). Oh, and they can fucking defend too.
Castro has been flying all over the court, exploding from off-screen throughout the highlights for put-backs and dunks. I don’t love the turnover issues that have started to boil to the surface where he either led of tied for the lead in TOs in each game (10 total) but I’m psyched to see him playing at the 4.
Just a couple more quick thoughts:
- I’m predicting Josh Oduro, not Byrce Hopkins, will lead the team in double-doubles this year. Oduro had 2 on the trip and averaged 11.0 ppg and 7.7 rpg. Arguably more impressively, he averaged 3.3 assists per game, recording at least 3 in each, while turning the ball over just twice over the 3 contests.
- Corey Floyd Jr.’s shooting cooled off after the scorching hot start but I could not be less worried about it. Plus, he can do sick stuff like this…
- Don’t think for a second I didn’t see you ballin’ out there Kieran. They may not have gotten your name spelled right in any of the three score sheets but maybe that gave you that chip on your shoulder for the Catalonia game…just maybe. Hey, 5 points, 2 rebounds, and an assist in just 7 minutes is nothing to sneeze at.
- Will McNair Jr. is going to be an unsung hero this year but there will be a game where Oduro gets in a foul trouble and McNair shows out. I just know it. McNair averaged 9.3 ppg & 8.0 rpg while shooting over 50% in every game (12/22 overall). It looks like we may try out a twin tower lineup with McNair and Oduro, shifting Hopkins to the three, and I’m at the very least intrigued by it.
- I still love Ticket Gains. The end.
- It looks like Santoro got some extended minutes in this one but I don’t think I caught more than a glimpse of him in the highlights.
Post-Game:
Here’s some pics from the game…
Los Friars head back to Providence after very successful business trip and continue to get ready for the season. Speaking of getting ready for the season…
And here’s a preview of the Friars from John Fanta and Rob Dauster from The Field of 68. There’s no Jeff Goodman so it’s actually fun to watch…
The Morning Hangover 