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Rodney Bullock’s Day Approaching

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Ed Cooley’s love of “position-less” players, Rodney Bullock’s long road back to the court, and thoughts from associate head coach Andre Lafleur are all included in our latest “15 in 40” season preview article featuring a key returnee for the Friars.

Just how long has it been since Rodney Bullock made his first, and only, appearance in a Friar uniform?

Bullock came off of the bench in the exhibition opener against Rhode Island College two seasons ago — a bench that included Kadeem Batts, Tyler Harris, Josh Fortune and Bullock backing up Kris Dunn, Bryce Cotton, Carson Desrosiers, Brandon Austin and LaDontae Henton.

If that lineup has PC fans wondering what could have been, imagine what the last two years have felt like for Bullock.

The Virginia native came to Providence fresh off of a dominant senior season in high school, winning the Daily Press Player of the Year over the likes of McDonald’s All American Anthony Barber and star wing Troy Williams, who will likely hear his named called among the top 20 picks in next June’s NBA Draft.

During his senior year Bullock averaged over 21 points and 16 rebounds per game, including 39 points over rival Bethel (Allen Iverson’s alma mater) on 15-21 shooting, and had a 31-rebound game later that year.

He finished his career scoring over 1,700 points at Kecoughtan, maxing out the potential he flashed when he began practicing with the varsity team in 8th grade.

Bullock missed his entire freshman season at PC due to suspension and then tore his ACL in October 2014, forcing him to miss all of last year as well.

Now fully cleared for contact, and on a team lacking in experienced interior players, the Providence coaching staff is looking at Bullock as a key cog inside. “Rodney is a scoring forward,” Providence Associate Head Coach Andre Lafleur told Friarbasketball.com. “He can shoot the ball, but more than anything he’s shown us that he has the ability to rebound the ball for his position. He’s a pretty physical player and he has a nose for the ball.”

Prior to Bullock’s arrival at Providence Ed Cooley told the Daily Press that he values Bullock’s versatility, explaining that the Friars don’t recruit by position, but skill. Cooley said, “I don’t identify guys by position, I identify them as players. That’s one reason why he reminds me of (Jared) Dudley and (Ryan) Gomes, because those guys were players. I like position-less guys.”

For a smaller Providence team, positional versatility and forcing mismatches will likely become themes heard early and often from the staff this season.

Cooley explained that players with Bullock’s ability to play multiple positions with a high IQ are the types he’s drawn to, and Lafleur shared how the Friars will look to exploit match-ups with Bullock: “We think that we can isolate him in a lot of different places on the court because of his ability to score, and with his size he will create a lot of mismatches depending on where we play him on the court.”

But after sitting out for two seasons, how long will it take before he rounds into form? Bullock was recently cleared for contact and could have participated in contact scrimmages earlier this summer, but the staff took a similar approach to the one they had with Kris Dunn’s return from shoulder surgery last year — slow, but steady (“He could have gone full contact this summer, but why?” Lafleur said).

Lafleur explained that Bullock learned from watching Dunn’s return a season ago and noted that his biggest adjustments will be shaking off the mental and physical rust, while transitioning from rehabbing to working on individual skill and spending time in the film room game planning.

So, what does a healthy Bullock look like? When asked, Lafleur noted that he was among the best players on the team’s 2014 summer trip to Italy, albeit against inferior competition. Still, those were critical minutes for Bullock as he simply needed time on the floor after a year away.

Early minutes will be even more critical this season, but with Harvard and Illinois awaiting in the first two games of the season the Friars will need him to play important minutes from the jump.

When he returns to form, Bullock will provide the Friars with a very good shooter out to 18 feet and a much-needed rebounder following the departure of LaDontae Henton.

Another year away means another year of adjustments, but a healthy and productive Bullock is a must. “He’s one of the players that we expect a lot from this year,” said Lafleur.

Twitter: @Kevin_Farrahar

Email: kevin.farrahar@friarbasketball.com

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Read previous “15 in 40” season preview articles:

#15: Finding the Range from Deep

#14: Where Are They Now? 

 

6 Comments

  1. Derec Lamendola

    September 12, 2015 at 1:30 pm

    CIACH COOOOLEY DUS NOT LOVE LESS PLERYS Coach Cooley LOVES ALOT HIS PLERYS YOU KNOW HE Relae DUS Aomsest PROVIDENCE COLLEGE MENS BASKETBALLL WHOS REDEY AND DEREC LAMENDOLA IS DOING ALOT PLERYS CRIAG LEUGHTON IM DOING PLAYRS FOR COACH WOLRD YOU THINK IM REDEY

  2. David Levesque

    September 12, 2015 at 2:14 pm

    Not sure about that position-less player theory!

  3. Mike Baffaro

    September 12, 2015 at 5:10 pm

    Pro ball is pretty much already position less so to bring that to the college game makes sense. Can only help with recruits as well.

  4. Jeff Rathbun

    September 12, 2015 at 6:28 pm

    Jalen Rose says that positions are still around so novices can understand easier. I think there is some truth to that, as you said Mike the pro’s went this way a while ago.

  5. Pauline Gage

    September 12, 2015 at 10:00 pm

    GO Friars!!!!

  6. Nathan Sellwood

    September 13, 2015 at 8:49 am

    Love my Friars. Can we get a comment on Andre LaFleur about his career in Australia??

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