Here and There in Friartown

By Craig Leighton
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Updated: August 30, 2015

News, notes, and opinions on Friar basketball (and other topics) while wondering what is on the menu for this year’s Season Ticket Holder Party.

This is definitely the quiet period for college basketball. Expect things to really pick up in the next couple of weeks as kids get back to school, in home visits start, and programs start having open runs. The next contact period starts on September 9th and it will be interesting to see where the coaching staff goes first for in home visits and for open gyms.
The annual season ticket holder party will be taking place on Friday September 11th on the Slavin Center lawn from 5:00-8:00 pm. The speaking portion of the program will begin at 6:15 pm. There will also be a taping of the Ed Cooley radio show in the Slavin Center Atrium between 5:00-6:00 pm. I would like to encourage as many people as possible to attend the radio show. The food will still be there when the show is over and the festivities don’t start until 6:15 so no excuses for not attending.
Don Orsillo was let go as the TV voice of the Red Sox in order to re-energize the broadcast? Memo to the Red Sox: If you want to re-energize the broadcast try putting a better product out on the field.
When an interviewer asks a high school player which college is recruiting him the hardest or which school is he hearing from the most what he is really asking is who are his favorite schools at this point in his recruitment. This gives the player the chance to answer the question without offending any of the other schools that are recruiting him.
Kris Dunn was recently named to the Blue Ribbon Magazine pre season All American first team. This is just going to be the tip of the iceberg for the pre season honors that Dunn will get, as he is widely considered the top returning basketball player in college basketball.
ESPN recently updated their class of 2017 top 60 rankings and four New England players have made the cut. All four of these players (Hamidou Diallo, Makai Ashton-Langford, Tremont Waters, and Jermaine Samuels) are all being recruited by Providence.
Noticeably absent from this list is Tomas Murphy. I think this is more of a case of Murphy having to wait for his turn to shine both at Northfield Mount Hermon and for the New England Playaz. His time will come very shortly.
I for one am hoping that either Wenyen Gabriel (Wilbraham & Monson), Sedee Keita (Putnam Science Academy), or Kevin Marfo (Worcester Academy) winds up picking the Friars as it has been a few years since Friar fans have had a NEPSAC player to follow during the course of the season. Incidently, all three of these players will be playing in the National Prep School Invitational this February at Rhode Island College.
Ludacris is going to be the special guest at Late Nite Madness this year. Kudos to the athletic department for once again stepping up and realizing that Late Nite Madness is a great recruiting opportunity for PC, particularly with so much prep school talent in New England.
Four years from now I have a feeling that PC fans are going to look upon this year’s freshmen class as being vastly underrated. These guys are all solid Big East level players and will hopefully all make major contributions to the program before they graduate.