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Here and There in Friartown

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News, notes, and opinions on Friar basketball (and other topics) while waiting to see if the Friars make one more addition to the class of 2015.

  • Jeff Battle – Ed Cooley seemingly hit a home run when he was able to convince good friend Jeff Battle to join his staff. It is rare for Providence to lose an assistant coach the caliber of Bob Simon and replace him with someone with Battle’s resume. Battle’s ability as both a recruiter and a player developer is going to be invaluable to the program in the years to come.
  • 5th Year Seniors – I still think there is a chance PC brings in a fifth year senior, but it has to be the right type of player. A mid-major big man looking to establish himself as a high-major player would be ideal — a player that would be satisfied with being part of a rotation and not necessarily looking for 30 minutes or 20 shots a game.
  • The 30 second shot clock proposal – I was originally a fan of the proposal to lower the shot clock in college to 30 seconds, but I am having second thoughts after reading this interesting article from the Sporting News’ Mike DeCourcey.  The goal for lowering the shot clock is to bring more offense back into college basketball. DeCourcey points out that by lowering the clock to 30 seconds it could have the opposite effect. The shot clock is a defensive weapon. When the clock falls below ten seconds the offense often goes into panic mode and winds up taking a poor shot. With the shot clock being lowered to 30 seconds more and more teams will apply passive full court pressure to chew up seconds on the clock resulting in more situations where the offense is forced to take a bad shot. The result of a lower shot clock could wind up being a decrease in offense which is the last thing that college basketball needs.
  • It is the start of the silly season in Friartown – It seems that just about this time every year Friar fans start to panic when the team misses out on certain recruits they have been linked to. PC is involved with a lot of players. A recruit that many fans may think is a top recruit may be one that they have actually moved on from weeks ago. The Friar staff will most likely wind up with a very good recruiting class for 2016 to complement the solid 2014 and ’15 classes. There is more talent in the program right now than there has been in a long, long time.
  • The Providence Jamfest – This is also the time of year that staffs narrow down the list of players they are recruiting for the upcoming season. It is also the time of year that I come up with my one or two favorite players that I would love to see in a Friar uniform. I found my number one target this past weekend at the Providence Jamfest. Wenyen Gabriel, a 6’9 power forward from Wilbraham and Monson and the Mass Rivals is that guy this year. He has all the tools and is going to blow up fast this summer.
  • A semi-pro team for one-and-dones in Las Vegas? – Did you see where a Las Vegas businessman is talking of starting a team where high school players can go instead of college… and earn a substantial salary in the meantime. The Sporting News dug deeper and it seems that the proposed owner of this team, Cerrutti Brown, has a lot of ideas but very few answers on how to actually pull this off. If a player is inclined to go pro after high school he is much better off going to Europe for a year to play for a team that has a solid reputation.
  • College Transfers – A tweet yesterday proposed that any player transferring from his current college not by his own choice should be immediately eligible without having to sit out a year. At first glance this seemed like a decent idea, but how could it possibly be enforced? Players who actually want to transfer would try to convince their coaches to say it was not the player’s decision. Imagine the pressure that would be put on college coaches by the player’s AAU or high school program? Before you know it, no one would be transferring because it was their own choice and everyone would be immediately eligible.
  • God Shammgod – It will be interesting to see if Shammgod does indeed wind up on the PC coaching staff in some capacity. I am sure it is every Friar fan’s dream to have him out on the road recruiting high school All Americans who grew up looking up to him, but where Shammgod may have the greatest impact, however, is in the gym working with Providence’s young guards.

Email Craig Leighton at craig.leighton@friarbasketball.com

3 Comments

  1. Ed Paluch

    May 13, 2015 at 1:22 am

    I always look forward to your articles Craig, I really hope the NCAA doesn’t mess with the show clock.

  2. Craig Leighton

    May 13, 2015 at 2:03 am

    thanks Ed. I think they need to leave it where it is also

  3. James Adams

    May 13, 2015 at 2:56 am

    Shamgod on the staff is a must!

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