PROVIDENCE — Sometimes coaches wonder if their players are hearing or actually listening when they heap praise on a team from a lesser athletic stratosphere. Thanks to Big East partner Rutgers, Keno Davis doesn’t have to worry about that problem.

Davis’ Providence Friars are hosting the Vermont Catamounts Tuesday night at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center. Basketball insiders know that Vermont is good. Anyone will a rudimentary knowledge of college hoops in New England appreciates that star senior Marqus Blakely is one of the best players in the country, no matter the league.

But until Vermont went into the Rutgers Athletic Center on Sunday and pinned a 77-71 defeat on the Scarlet Knights, Davis wasn’t exactly positive that his Friars were indeed listening to his scouting reports. Now he has their attention.

“I knew that Vermont was very capable, but sometimes it’s tough to get a team to believe how good another team is if they’re from a smaller conference,” said Davis. “They know all about Vermont now.”

Vermont lost three starters off last year’s 24-9 team but Blakely is back and he’s the player coach Mike Lonergan has built everything around. A 6-foot-5, 225-pound forward, Blakely has already won two America East Player of the Year awards. He’s a strong rebounder, handles the ball on the fastbreak and makes shots from everywhere. He missed 15 minutes of the Rutgers game with dizzy spells, yet still stuffed the stat sheet with 17 points, 9 rebounds, 5 blocks, 4 steals and 2 assists. As the final seconds ticked off the clock at Rutgers, his hometown friends from nearby Metuchen, N.J., were heard chanting “Mar-qus Blake-ly, Mar-qus Blake-ly!”

“Marqus is better this year because he’s a better passer and he’s handling the ball more and just doing a lot of things,” said UVM’s Lonergan. “We’re off to a pretty good start and we really haven’t shot well yet. We’ll need to do that to beat a team like Providence.”

The Catamounts (2-1) are in the midst of a staggering 10-game road swing to start the season. They lost at Loyola (Md.) before beating Buffalo by a point and then stunning Rutgers. It was Vermont’s second-ever win over a Big East foe, joining the school’s historic, T.J. Sorrentine-led upset of Syracuse in the 2005 NCAA Tournament.

Lonergan said the emergence of junior Evan Fjeld (19 points vs. Rutgers) and a strong start by Michigan State transfer Maurice Joseph has stabilized the Catamount attack. The team is also helped by a hearty push of players with local connections. Shooter Joey Accaoui (Lincoln) is the first guard off the bench; 6-10 Ben Crenca (Exeter) provides needed size; and former St. Andrew’s star Garrett Kissel is providing much needed muscle in the lane.

“We want to play 10 guys if we can so all of those guys are very important for us,” said Lonergan.

PC’s Davis is hoping a return home can help his team take its next steps on the young season. He said that despite a 84-75 loss at Alabama, it was clear that the team met the challenge of playing a strong, athletic team on the road head-on. PC led the Tide with 90 seconds remaining but was outscored, 10-0, to end the contest.

“You have to look back after a loss and see where you are and it’s clear to me that we’ve really improved in the last two, three weeks,” said Davis. “Now we have to keep moving forward and that’s the challenge and we have to do it against two good teams this week in Vermont and Boston College.”

Seeing improved 3-point shooting would be a nice upgrade for the Friars. Davis emphasizes the trifecta even though his team is shooting 27 percent from behind the line. That number is largely drawn down by the struggling Sharaud Curry, who is shooting 6-for-32 from the line. The senior guard is a 37 percent 3-point shooter for his career. Curry did not score a field goal (0-for-9) for the first time in his collegiate career.

“I have a lot of confidence in Sharaud,” Davis said. “He missed a couple of days of practice last week and that could have hurt his timing a little. That can snowball on you, but he can bounce back quickly. Sharaud will work so hard that he’ll improve, for sure.”