Friar Basketball

5 Things to Watch For: Friars Open 2012-13 with NJIT

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1. Providence opens their season with what could be their two lightest opponents in NJIT on Saturday afternoon, followed up by Bryant on Monday night.

Short-handed or not, this is a game in which Providence should roll.  The Highlanders played three Big East teams a season ago, losing by an average of over 30 points per game in those contests, coming no closer than 24 in a loss to Rutgers.  Factor in the loss of all-conference guard Isaiah Wilkerson, and the Friars should be a heavy favorite, despite playing with limited numbers.  NJIT finished last season ranked #306 in the RPI.

The Friars’ depth concerns have been talked about ad nauseam and the season has yet to begin.  With two of their three freshman out (Kris Dunn coming off shoulder surgery, Ricky Ledo academically ineligible) and injuries hampering juniors Kadeem Batts (bruised shoulder) and Bryce Cotton (sprained thumb), it will be a discussion point early, but it shouldn’t be a factor in this one.  What will be a factor?

2. Vincent Council should be able to dictate the pace.  He’s perhaps the best open court lead guard in the country, and with a relatively shallow group around him it will be worth monitoring how he balances playing the distributor versus looking for his own shot.

Council opened the season aggressively last year, taking 19 shots in the opener against a similar opponent in Fairleigh Dickinson, and scoring over 20 points in three of Providence’s first six games.  He hoisted 15 shots or more in four of those games, twice taking 19 and topping out at 22 in a loss to Northern Iowa.

The faster the game, the better for Providence on Saturday, and it will be on Council to up the pace.

3. LaDontae Henton started quietly as a freshman before emerging when the level of competition rose. Henton shot only 16-50 (32%) in the Friars’ first five games last year before taking off after Thanksgiving, when he averaged 15 points and nearly 10 rebounds per game in December.

The production will be there for Henton this year, but with higher expectations will come expectations for big numbers from the jump.

4. In swapping freshman Josh Fortune for transfer Gerard Coleman in the starting lineup, Providence can now surround Council more shooters than they had on opening day a year ago.

Let’s not forget, Bryce Cotton was a bit player as a freshman before turning into one of the best three point shooters in the Big East last season, while Henton’s three point accuracy jumped when conference play started (nearly 40% from deep in BE play) as well.

Like Cotton, Fortune is a player capable of swinging the momentum of a game quickly, which he showed in scoring 16 points in just over three minutes in PC’s final exhibition game against Rhode Island College.

Providence also didn’t have Kadeem Batts for the opener a year ago.  Batts is a more capable face-up shooter than back to the basket big, which he showed in the exhibition opener versus Assumption.  His 18 point afternoon came largely on jump shots, as I detailed here after the game.  A confident Batts would give Council four shooters to pick and choose from, making the Friars a more dangerous offensive club than a year ago.

5. Saturday will be a bit of a homecoming for NJIT’s Chris Flores, who grew up an hour away in Dorchester, MA.  The 6’2 guard is a 1,500 point scorer and an all-conference performer from a season ago.

Local prep and high school basketball fans may remember him from a successful postgraduate season at Marianapolis Prep, where he averaged 17 points per game and a NEPSAC Class B finals appearance.  He’s a graduate of John D. O’Bryant School of Mathematics & Science, the same high school that 2013 super-recruit Wayne Selden (a Kansas commit) attended prior to transferring to the Tilton School in New Hampshire as a junior.

 

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