Blame the Friars, not Keno

If you haven't seen, or at least heard about, the complete and utter collapse the Providence College men's basketball team suffered against visiting South Florida last Saturday, take a look. But I warn you, it's painful to watch.

The Friars led by 12 with less than two minutes remaining, nine with 45 seconds to go and five with 10 ticks left. And they still managed a way to blow that lead and lose in overtime. Give the Bulls credit, they knocked down the shots and put the pressure on the Friars, but the PC players are to blame. Missed free throws, turnovers and shots when the shot clock isn't even at single digits were a big contributing factor to this loss.

After the game, second-year Friars coach Keno Davis was unforgiving when speaking about his team, which fell to 3-4 in the Big East and faces its toughest stretch of the season.

"The team that we have right now is not good enough," he said in his postgame press conference. "It’s not good enough to fight through some miscues offensively or missed free throws or missed defensive assignments. We’re not as talented as we need to be in this league."

He's 100 percent correct. Providence has never been known as a tough team, but this squad takes that to a new level. USF came into the game averaging about 65 points against Big East competition this season, and they left the Dunkin' Donuts Center after scoring 109.

Some in the blogosphere were critical of Davis, saying he threw his team under the bus and that he should go. Are you nuts? Keno Davis is the best Providence College is going to do, and he hasn't had time to bring in too many recruits. He's still using Tim Welsh's softies.

Likely being pressured to do so, Davis is backing off his comments, telling the Providence Journal, "If anybody thought I was throwing our team under the bus, they're wrong. I take responsibility for happened at the end of the game."

Really? I don't see how Davis can take responsibility when he can't shoot the free throws and he can't run the offense. Sure, he could have called a timeout to calm down the players, but the bottom line is that a team with a senior point guard and two good scorers should be able to protect a nine-point lead with a minute to go.

Not only that, but a good public tongue lashing will be good for these kids. Our society tends to coddle today's athletes (everybody gets a medal!) and that's not right. They're all on scholarship and need to perform. I'm sure there's plenty of players waiting in the wings for that free ride through school.

The Friars host UConn - which beat then top-ranked Texas last weekend Saturday - tonight and if they don't get a little tougher, it's going to be long, long season.