Providence v #23 Creighton - Game Guide

How to Watch, Stream, Listen, Follow

Game Time: 8:00pm CT

Location: CenturyLink Center, Omaha, NE

TV: FSN

Radio: 1620AM the Zone & 101.9FM the Keg in Omaha / 103.7FM WEEI in Providence

Other Blogs: White & Blue Review - Creighton / PCBB 1917 - Providence

Tweeters:

Creighton - Rob Anderson / Creighton MBB / Tom Nemitz / “Patrick Marshall” / Matt DeMarinis / Corey Lathrop / Jon Nyatawa

Providence - Mike Hopkins / Chris Grenham / Kevin McNamara / Brendan McGair/ Friar Faithful / Daniel James

Odds & Ends

Creighton opened as a 9 point favorite, yet the line has moved to 8 according to Odds Shark.

Over/Under set at 149.5.

If you have a problem gambling on sports may I suggest putting money on whether or not your future child will go to summer camp in the year 2023? Even I’d like to place a hefty wager on that and I’ve never gambled with anything more than one dollar.

Previous Meeting

#10 Creighton 78 Providence 64 - 1/07/17

Creighton managed to put a wallop on the Friars at the Dunk, scoring inside seemingly at will while doing just enough defensively to stymie the Providence offense long enough to get out to a sizable and seemingly unbeatable lead.

Granted, Kyron Cartwright got injured in the opening minutes, effectively ending his time on the court just twelve minutes into the game. This allowed Maurice Watson Jr to do what he did best: pass the ball. He ended up with 14 assists on the snowy day in Rhode Island, picking Patton, Marcus Foster, and Khyri Thomas as his favorite targets.

The Bluejays also managed to shoot 56% from the field that day, which is practically unbeatable regardless of who the opponent is.

Emmitt Holt and Jalen Lindsay combined for 28 points, but the rest of the Friars were unable to get anything going and failed to stymie the Bluejay momentum.

Verba de Ludis

Since that fateful day in January, Providence has managed to play themselves onto the bubble. This ‘bubble’ is a device that’s used to propel under performing teams to play at their highest level, knowing that if they do not win every single game from here on out that their destiny hangs in the balance.

Perhaps Providence is a team that belongs in the tournament. Perhaps there are more deserving teams that deserve the chance to dance. In their previous two games they’ve managed to match wits and better the Bulldogs of Butler and the Bluiett-less Musketeers of Xavier, making them one of the most surprising teams in the latter half of the conference schedule, shimmying and shaking their way to the upper half of the BIG EAST.

Creighton, meanwhile, has been good - if not great - since losing their star point guard. The first two games afterwards were placed on a learning curve rather than being taken completely at face-value, leading to a demise of the national narrative that the Jays were broken and could potentially be a tournament bust.

Turning narratives on their head is sort of the Bluejay way, yet a win against a team like Providence with Villanova looming on Saturday would bode well for the overall confidence in this team. A game of mistake free basketball against a team with the best coach in conference will allow their focus and drive to manifest into something great.

If Cooley sends out a guard to offer full-court pressure, disrupting the seminal flow of their offense, then Davion Mintz or Tyler Clement may panic a bit with the pressure. Teams have tried this in the past - most recently, Seton Hall - and have had swaths of success.

A loss for either team would be devastating. That’s why you ought to grab your remote, sit back, and watch the rock fight as it happens on regional fox sports television. We’re certainly in for a good one tonight.

Song of the Day - ‘Since I Left You’ - The Avalanches