Friar Basketball
Home / General News / Takeaways After Two Weeks of BE Play

Takeaways After Two Weeks of BE Play

McDermottcover

Craig Leighton’s takeaways after two full weeks of conference play.

Fox Sports 1: The Big East coverage on Fox Sports 1 has been nothing short of phenomenal. This week alone Fox Sports 1 has seven Big East games (with the other games being on CBS Sports Network). Everything about the telecasts feels big time, including having Gus Johnson and Bill Rafferty doing games, studio shows centering on the Big East teams, and locker room camera shots during pre-game and at halftime. It is as if the Big East has its very own national channel, complete with all of the bells and whistles.

The New Big East: The new conference is fantastic. Ten teams is a perfect number, as all teams get to play each other home and away. The three new teams (Creighton, Butler, and Xavier) are great additions and bring a lot of energy and enthusiasm to the new conference. I have to admit last year at this time at night I would check to see what the best college basketball games were on TV. This year, I check to see what Big East games are on. I have never seen so many Big East games as I have this year.

Austin Croshere: It is great to see him as the studio host for Fox Sports 1. He does a very good job, has great insight on both Big East and national games, and always seems to get in a favorable PC reference in whenever he can.

Doug McDermott: I know there are a lot of great freshmen out there this year, but McDermott has to be Player of the Year in College Basketball. I think he has a great future in the NBA and would not be surprised to see him sneak into the lottery. It is a huge boost to the Big East Conference to have such a special player for their inaugural season. Friar fans can get a chance to see him in person this Saturday at the Dunk. If you don’t have your tickets yet you can get them here.

A Sure Sign You are Getting Old: I keep on wanting to call Doug McDermott Geoff McDermott. Oh well, I suppose by the end of the season I will try and call Markel Starks “Harold” as well. It happens to all us sooner or later I guess.

Gerard Coleman: When Friar guard Gerard Coleman decided to transfer after his sophomore year most PC fans felt that a key reason must be that Coleman was worried about decreased playing time with the arrival of high school All Americans Ricky Ledo and Kris Dunn. His last year at PC Coleman averaged 13.2 points and played 34 minutes a game. This year at Gonzaga he is averaging 7.9 points and is playing 13 minutes a game. Sometimes things don’t work out the way you planned them.

Big East Video Chat with Bryce Cotton and Kadeem Batts: In case you missed it, Croshere held of video chat with Bryce Cotton and Kadeem Batts this week. Lots of fun information, but I have to admit I couldn’t answer those Western Civ questions either (sorry Dr. Sickinger). Here is a replay of the chat for those who missed it:

Villanova: Did anyone see this coming? The Wildcats are currently 15-1 and ranked sixth in the country (AP). It is nice to see a team pull it all together and play great team basketball without having to rely on “one and done” players.

Tarin Smith: According to a recent article in Zags Blog 6’2 PG Tarin Smith from St. Anthony’s in New Jersey is very interested in PC and may very well commit if the Friars were to offer him. The PC staff is going to see Smith play on Monday, so we may have news fairly soon. If Smith does commit, look for the Friars to still pursue other PG options. Ed Cooley has often said that he would like to play more than one point guard on the floor at a time and a couple of the other players they are pursuing (Devonte Graham from Brewster Academy and Jaquan Lyle from Huntington Prep) can play either guard spot effectively.

New England Recruiting Report: The NERR has always been a great source of recruiting information for Friar fans. Recently they have added Top 10 lists for both the 2016 and 2017 classes you can check out their rankings here. Notice that the top player in the 2017 class is Rhode Island’s own Tomas Murphy.

Email Craig at craig.leighton@friarbasketball.com

You must be logged in to post a comment Login