Here and There in Friartown

By Craig Leighton
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Updated: July 7, 2015

News, notes, and opinions on Friar basketball (and other topics) while waiting for the start of the first Jully Live recruiting period.

It should not come as a surprise to anyone that Former Friar commit Alex Owens will not be attending Providence College this year. Between his academic difficulties, some maturity issues, and an injured knee it was going to be a long shot that he would be a member of the team. This past weekend Owens announced that he would be attending Tallahassee Community College in the fall. This is a good opportunity for him and there is still plenty of time for him to get his act together but the clock is now ticking.
It is going to be a very big two weeks for former Friar and current Utah Jazz point guard Bryce Cotton. He is going head to head against former Boston College guard Olivier Hanlan for what could be the third and final point guard spot on Utah’s roster. If he can separate himself from Hanlan over the next two weeks during the NBA Summer Leagues in Utah and Las Vegas it would go a long way towards Cotton securing himself a spot on Utah’s opening day roster.
The USA U19 National Team, with Ed Cooley as assistant coach, won the U19 World Championships this past weekend in Crete. The final two games against Greece and Croatia were close and very entertaining to watch. Many Friar fans questioned the wisdom of Cooley taking time away from recruiting in order to coach the team, but who could have predicted that the Friars would still be searching for 2015 recruits at this late date? Meanwhile Cooley was able to foster long term relationships with programs and players while he was in Greece that could provide benefits for years to come. In addition, it doesn’t hurt that he has been coaching some of the top young talent in the United States, particularly when there are over 700 transfers in division one basketball each year.
Just about the whole team is back on the PC campus for the start of the second summer session. This will be the time when the coaching staff starts to find out what kind of team they will have for next season.
If you had told me three years ago that Kris Dunn and Georges Niang would one day be vying for pre-season national player of the year in college basketball I would have said that you were crazy but that is what these two former New England high school standouts may be doing. My money will be on Kris Dunn.
The word out of PC is that both Ryan Fazekas and Ricky Council have looked good in workouts. Having these two be able to hit from the outside on a consistent basis could really open up the floor for Dunn this season. PC may not be as tall this season as many Friar fans were expecting but they could be a lot of fun to watch.
The first July Live Recruiting Period starts on Wednesday at 5:00 pm. Friar fans should pay attention to three New England AAU teams in particular as each of these teams has multiple Friar recruits on their roster. BABC plays in the Peach Jam EYBL Finals starting on Thursday while both the Mass Rivals and the New England Playaz play in the Adidas Gauntlet Championships in Atlanta starting tomorrow night. Friarbasketball.com will have much more on the July Live Period in the coming days.

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