Friar Basketball

Brycen Goodine Commits to Providence

Brycen Goodine II Cuse.com

The Providence Journal’s Kevin McNamara reported on Monday morning that Syracuse freshman Brycen Goodine is transferring to Providence.

The news comes just three days after Goodine announced his decision to transfer from Syracuse following a season in which he did not see much playing time. He saw eight minutes a game, as fellow freshman Joe Girard and sophomore Buddy Boeheim both played over 33 minutes a night in Jim Boeheim’s backcourt. Goodine missed time in January with a broken nose and saw sporadic minutes upon returning.

He is one of three Syracuse guards to announce they are transferring.

Make no mistake, Goodine can play. The lean, 6’3 guard is an explosive leaper with a pure jump shot. If eligible next season, Goodine will bolster a Providence backcourt featuring juniors-to-be David Duke and AJ Reeves — both of whom should be among the best guards in the Big East next season. The Friars will also welcome point guard Jared Bynum, who sat out last season after transferring in from St. Joe’s. Bynum averaged over 11 points, four assists, and three rebounds a game as a freshman.

This foursome would provide Ed Cooley with solid shooting. Duke shot 42% from 3-point range last season, AJ Reeves finished over 40% in Big East games, while Bynum made 34% as a freshman.

Goodine comes from a basketball family. New England hoops fans will be familiar with his father, Jonathan DePina. DePina was a terrific high school player at South Boston and looked to be part of a recruiting haul that would have elevated Boston College basketball to another level.

The Eagles were fresh off of an Elite Eight run in 1994, then won the Big East Tournament in 1997. The Eagles were expected to add DePina, as well as local stars Michael Bradley, Elton Tyler, and Sean Connolly. The BC admissions department did not accept members of the recruiting haul, despite them meeting NCAA academic standards. The fallout was the departure of head coach Jim O’Brien, and star point guard Scoonie Penn, to Ohio State.

DePina ended up at UMass, where he played alongside fellow Massachusetts stars Monty Mack and Shannon Crooks.

Bradley ended up a 1st round pick after playing at both Kentucky and Villanova, while Tyler played in four NCAA tournaments at Miami.

There are some Friar ties to this story as well. Sean Connolly played at PC as a freshman before transferring to Ohio State, while Ed Cooley was part of the staff that replaced O’Brien at BC.

Goodine’s mother is also a coach and former player.

As noted here yesterday, Goodine prepped at St. Andrew’s in Rhode Island where he won the NEPSAC Class AA Player of the Year in 2019. The Saints also took home the AA title with Goodine scoring 25 points with 11 rebounds and seven assists in the finals. The year prior, Goodine teamed with current Villanova forward Cole Swider on a team that reached the Class AA finals before falling to Tilton and their star, Marcus Zegarowski. Goodine scored 27 points in the finals loss to Tilton.

Goodine is very familiar with both David Duke and AJ Reeves, fellow NEPSAC AA products. As McNamara noted in his article, Goodine and Duke were AAU teammates in middle school with Expressions. Duke later moved on to Mass Rivals, while Goodine played for BABC.

As a senior, Goodine averaged 21.5 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 5.5 assists per game at St. Andrew’s. He also won a Massachusetts Division III state championship at Bishop Stang before enrolling at St. Andrew’s.

He was extremely productive on the Nike EYBL Circuit, averaging over 19 points per game while shooting over 36% from 3-point range and 80% at the foul line. He had a five game stretch in which he went for 21, 28, 31, 24, and 28 points in the ultra-competitive EYBL. This included games in which he made six and four 3-point field goals. He was one of the top 15 scorers in a loaded field.

4 Comments

  1. John b

    March 16, 2020 at 5:19 pm

    As someone who lives in upstate New York and follows the Syracuse program very closely I can tell you that PC is getting a very talented player with significant upside. Brycen Goodine simply never had a chance with Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim deciding to give virtually all the playing time to his son Buddy and Joe Girard. I hope it works out for Brycen as he seems like a real nice kid who just needs a chance to prove himself.

  2. Irish Spectre

    March 16, 2020 at 6:41 pm

    As a BC grad but Friars hoops fan who unequivocally roots for the latter over the former, don’t remind me that BC Admissions vs. Sports dept. debacle that precipitated O’Brien’s departure. That began to kick in, as it basked in the post-Flutie years that put the university very much on the map in pretty much every respect. That in itself was not a bad thing, but they could’ve thrived without was arguably the era in which BC’s institutional arrogance REALLY becoming so damn arrogant about it, and today it seems that the university is perfectly content sports-wise as an also-ran in a prestigious conference. Hell, anyone can show up and lose games!

    A notable exception to it all is the erstwhile hockey coach, Jerry York, the best college hockey coach ever, who again this year had his team poised to make a legitimate run for all the marbles, which would’ve been his 5th at BC (the university’s 6th) plus 1 at Bowling Green. Anyway, between that and the zone that the basketball Friars were in, this cancellation mode is exceptionally unfortunate!

  3. Irish Spectre

    March 16, 2020 at 6:45 pm

    …first para. edited to actually make sense.

    As a BC grad but Friars hoops fan who unequivocally roots for the latter over the former, don’t remind me that BC Admissions vs. Sports dept. debacle that precipitated O’Brien’s departure. That was arguably the era in which BC’s institutional arrogance REALLY began to kick in, as it basked in the post-Flutie years that put the university very much on the map in pretty much every respect. That in itself was not a bad thing, but they could’ve thrived without becoming so damn arrogant about it, and today it seems that the university is perfectly content sports-wise as an also-ran in a prestigious conference. Hell, anyone can show up and lose games!

  4. B Hall

    March 16, 2020 at 9:42 pm

    This is great news, hope the Mitchell twins are next.

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