Friar Basketball

Here and There in Friartown

dunnhenton

News, notes, and opinions while waiting for the Midshipmen to sail into town tonight:

  • After watching the University of Kentucky dismantle Kansas the other night I can safely say that Kentucky has more talent than I have seen on any one team in at least the last ten years. However, I am still not buying into Calipari’s platoon system and am betting he will have to switch off of it at some point during the season. It prevents a player from getting really hot as Cal is changing squads every four minutes. It also hampers the development of a legitimate go to guy down the stretch.
  • I am also not buying the notion that playing ten guys in two squads is the ultimate in sacrifices for the team by these players. All of these guys want to be in the NBA next year so they are stuck and have to do whatever the coach wants in order for them to get playing time and exposure. They can’t afford to be stuck on the bench at this point. Trust me, every single one of them would rather be playing 30 plus minutes a game.
  • This is probably the last time that Calipari will have this much talent. Recruits learn very fast. Isaiah Briscoe recently gave Kentucky a verbal but did not sign a letter of intent, preferring instead to wait and see who is coming back before he signs. Other recruits that are waiting until the Spring and are considering Kentucky will do exactly the same.
  • There are probably only two teams in the country with more length than PC. What are the odds that the Friars would be facing both teams in an eight day stretch? On Saturday, PC takes on a Florida State team that has three seven footers (7’0 Kiel Turpin, 7’3 Boris Bojanovsky, and 7’1 Michael Ojo). Eight days later the Friars travel to Lexington to take on Kentucky and we all know how tall they are. It is definitely time for our big guys to step up and shine.
  • Friar fans can rest easy as all three 2015 recruits have returned their signed letters of intent to Providence College. I see a lot of chatter on social media lately about why any player would sign a letter of intent. Too many things can go wrong between now and the start of school. Why not just commit without signing and leave your options open? Unfortunately that goes both ways as schools will look at other options for your position as well. Other schools will continue to recruit unsigned players so a player’s original school has no guarantee that the player will honor a verbal commitment. In addition a player could get injured or his play on the court could tail off and the original school may lose interest. A letter of intent is a form of security that works both ways.
  • Navy gave Michigan State a really good game the other night eventually losing to the Spartans 64-59. Unfortunately the Midshipmen lost starting forward Worth Smith with a dislocated kneecap. He is expected to miss up to six weeks. Worth was Navy’s most experienced player and led the Midshipmen in both scoring and rebounding last season.
  • PC is expected to have two visitors in the house tonight as 2015 shooting guard Eli Cain and 2017 combo guard Trevon Duval will be attending the Navy game. Both players are from St. Benedict’s Prep in New Jersey. Cain is a 6’5 sharpshooter that the Friars desperately need and Duval is an ESPN five star player who is ranked 14th nationally in the 2017 class.

email Craig at Craig.Leighton@friarbasketball.com

follow Craig on twitter: @CraigL78

Follow Friarbasketball.com on Facebook

You must be logged in to post a comment Login