Friar Basketball

Here and There Around Friartown

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Here are some random thoughts about the Friars and other basketball related topics while waiting for July Live Period to start later this week.

  •  I wonder if Josh Fortune thought when he decided to transfer back in May that he was going to wind up at the Univerity of Colorado. My guess is they weren’t in his top 50 list of schools to go to, let alone top two or three. Colorado is not a bad program, however, and Josh has a year to sit out and improve so it still may work out for him.
  • Speaking of Josh, I think the biggest problem most Friar fans had with him transferring was that in announcing it so late he severely limited the Friars’ options in finding a replacement. Unfortunately for Josh, he found out that by waiting so long to announce  his transfer his own options were also severely limited.
  • The second summer session has started at PC and it looks like the whole team will be back on campus so look for some progress reports leaking out from Alumni Hall fairly soon.
  • Word is that LaDontae Henton has been practicing during the offseason at the shooting guard position, as he will need to play at the two if he hopes to make it to the next level. Although I expect LaDontae to see minutes at the two, I am thinking that the shooting guard position will be filled by committee with Henton, Jalen Lindsey, Tyler Harris, Junior Lomomba, Ted Bancroft, and Kris Dunn all seeing some minutes there.
  • Will the Friars add another guard for this season? Maybe, but he would need to be solid enough to play 10-15 minutes a game at the expense of one of the players listed above.
  • There is some must see TV coming up later this week as the Las Vegas Summer League starts on Friday. Friar fans will find a lot of interesting games to watch as Bryce Cotton (San Antonio), Ricky Ledo (Dallas) and Kiwi Gardner (Golden State) will be participating. None of the three are matched up against each other on the regular schedule but hopefully they will play against each other if there is a playoff.
  • Speaking of the NBA Summer Leagues, Kadeem Batts more than held is own is his first game for the Orlando Magic in the Orlando Summer League. He will definitely get his shot (either in the NBA or Europe) if he keeps up the good work.
  • Sherwyn Cooper of Ballas TV @BallasTV has come up with a great idea. Instead of these recruiting services like ESPN ranking high school players according to their class, they should be ranked according to their age. I am getting tired of seeing 17 years olds being compared to 19 and 20 year olds just because they are in the same class. Or, to put it another way, how many people realize that Gerard Coleman is only two years younger than Kevin Durant?
  • One matchup that I am really looking forward to seeing in practice this summer is Carson Desrosiers going up against Paschal Chukwu, I think these two guys are going to wind up making each other much better.
  • When all is said and done in four years look for this incoming freshman class to be regarded as the class that brought PC to the next level. Lindsey, Chukwu, Ben Bentil and Kyron Cartwright are going to form a really solid foundation over the next few years.
  • Look for the 2015 class to be more of a supplemental class as it will be very tough for a program like PC to bring in four or five Top 100 players in 2015 with this much talent immediately in front of them on the roster. That being said I see the Friars being able to land a top shooting guard (Donovan Mitchell?) and a really solid big man to go along with Ryan Fazekas. They could also bring in another point guard depending on what happens this season. On the other hand the 2016 class could wind up being very special if they land a couple of the players they are heavily involved with.
  • It used to be that the smart thinking was that if an undergraduate player would be drafted in the lottery he should declare for the NBA draft. Then a few years ago it changed to an undergraduate should declare for the draft if their was a good chance he would be drafted in the first round. Now it seems players are declaring if they feel they have a chance to be drafted in the second round. How else do you explain so many undergrads going in the second round or being undrafted altogether?
  • Let’s see, the out of conference schedule this year includes Kentucky, Miami, Notre Dame, Florida State, UMass, URI, and Boston College? Sounds tough enough for me!
  • And I don’t want to hear about PC not scheduling Bryant this year. Come back to me when UConn starts scheduling Fairfield, Quinnipiac, and Central Conn. State every year.

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