Guard Sharaud Curry may be a key to the Friars’ fortunes.

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The Journal / Kathy Borchers

PROVIDENCE — It isn’t often that a team sporting six four-year veterans is still searching for its identity a dozen games into a season, but that’s just where guard Sharaud Curry and the Providence College Friars sit with the opening of Big East play at hand.

The Friars open conference action this afternoon against St. John’s (4 p.m.). They haven’t played since a Dec. 22 romp over Bryant and spent the last several days focused squarely on the Red Storm, even dressing their scout team in red jerseys. Even so, as Curry says, he’s not sure what his team will look like against Big East foes over the next 10 weeks.

“We don’t really know what to expect,” said Curry. “We came into the year with really high expectations and we’re disappointed that we didn’t get off to a great start. But we know we have the talent to compete. We just have to put it together.”

Curry said that there is nothing like the anticipation of Big East play. These games are what drew players like the junior point guard from Atlanta to Providence. “Everyone is excited. It’s like a new season,” said Curry.

PC (8-4) is not picked to finish in the top 10 in the Big East but Curry shrugs off such talk. He pointed to Georgetown’s upset of unbeaten, No. 2-ranked Connecticut in the league opener on Monday night as evidence that predictions don’t mean much in the Big East.

“In the Big East we don’t care about the rankings,” said Curry. “We got UConn twice last year when they were ranked and we weren’t playing well. It happens.”

That feeling is clearly subscribed to by Keno Davis, who’ll coach his first Big East home game today. Davis says his team has already proven it can play with anyone in the league through its play over the last few seasons. That the Friars aren’t ranked or thought of in the same class as the league’s elite programs simply does not matter.

“The difference between St. John’s and Providence or DePaul versus the teams that are number two, three in the country, I think it’s very slight,” said Davis. “Now there is a difference. There is a difference between UConn and Georgetown and Providence and DePaul and St. John’s. That’s where we’re trying to get but it’s not that great.”

Asked about the low expectations attached to this PC team, Davis laughed. “It’s all relative,” he said. “I see a lot of similarities of what we’re going into here and what our teams did at Drake the last five years. Not many people around Providence, let alone around the country, are talking about Providence College as being one to watch in the league. But we know that had we knocked down a couple shots in the non-conference [season], that would’ve changed everything. That doesn’t mean we’d be a better team but it would’ve meant we were able to get a few good bounces of the ball.”

Those fortunate bounces always seem to separate winning and losing in Big East games. That was certainly the case last year when PC dropped a 64-62 heartbreaker at St. John’s. PC led 57-50 with seven minutes to play but missed its next seven shots and was outscored 12-0 to lose control of the game. The Friars’ only field goal over the final 8:21 came when Dwain Williams nailed a desperation 3-pointer in the final seconds.

Avoiding those offensive skids will be a major concern again, especially without Williams’ 3-point shooting. The Friars are shooting 28 percent from the 3-point line, 15th in the 16-team Big East. That number must improve if the guard-heavy Friars hope to enjoy much success the rest of the way.

The good news is St. John’s comes to town struggling as well. A season-ending foot injury to Anthony Mason, Jr. and a thumb injury that will keep point guard Malik Boothe out of today’s game make the Red Storm painfully young yet again. Freshman Quincy Roberts will start at the point and fellow frosh TyShawn Edmondson will see a lot of time, too. All eight players in coach Norm Roberts’ rotation are either freshmen or sophomores. But that same youthful scouting report was in place a year ago when SJU upended the Friars.

“They’re scrappy and tough, so we have to be prepared to play a game like that,” PC’s Curry said of the Storm. “We play two teams right away (SJU and DePaul) that we think we can beat. They’re good teams but we have to set the tone for the rest of the season right away.” Today

St. John’s at PC

4 p.m.

kmcnamar@projo.com