Current Friar Group Conjuring Memories of Another

Through the first month of the season the 2012-2013 Providence College Friars have had to use all the grit and determination they can muster in order to achieve their current 5-2 record.  This newest version of the Friars has had to overcome losing much of a top recruiting class, going with next-to-no bench, relying on a walk-on to play a key role, and just basically having to hang on until many of their core players are healthy or eligible.

The key word for the Friars is to survive, survive until the cavalry arrives. It reminds me so much of the 1976-1977 Friars who had to deal with many of the adversities during their first month of the season as they tried to survive until their own cavalry arrived.

The similarities?

1. Losing the “franchise recruit” to start the season

At the start of the season the 2012-2013 Friars found out the fate of their star recruit Ricky Ledo. He was deemed to be a “partial qualifier” meaning Ledo could practice, but he could not play this season.  Expectations of all Friar fans were drastically downgraded at that point. Suddenly, having the sixth best recruiting class in the country only meant that Friars most likely have to “wait until next season” to completely turn their fortunes around.

The 1976-1977 Friars also lost their “franchise recruit” at the beginning of their school year. The Friars had a nucleus of very good players returning including Joe Hassett and Bruce Campbell,  but their prize recruit and high school All American Sylvester “Sly” Williams was supposed to bring them to the next level, elevating a very good team into potentially one of the top teams in the country.

However, on the first day of classes Sly Williams showed up at URI instead of PC, forever adding a new dimension to the in-state rivalry — bringing it to another level. As a result of Williams’ decision, PC fans in 1976 also had to temper their expectations somewhat for the season.

During the mid-70s PC did not believe in making a player sign a National Letter of Intent. That quickly changed after the Sly Williams fiasco.

Bruce Campbell (23), Sly Williams (35), and Bob Misevicius (31)

2. Holding on until the cavalry arrives

The current PC team is eagerly awaiting the arrival of three key players who should be  available some time in mid-to-late-December. The Friars need to hang on for a few more games until Sidiki Johnson, Vincent Council, and Kris Dunn are back on the floor.

The 1976-1977 Friars were in a similar position, needing to hang on until two of their major players became eligible after the first semester. Bob Misevicius and Billy Eason, two key contributors, were ruled academically ineligible and were not able to play until the end of December. Until these two key players could take to the court the 1976 Friars, like this year’s Friars, just had to hang on.

3. The Walk-on factor

The importance of walk-on Ted Bancroft during the start of this season cannot be emphasized enough. Without him as part of PC’s rotation the Friars may not be 5-2 at this point. When was the last time that a walk-on played such an important role you may wonder?

Well, it turns out that the 1976-1977 Friars had to rely on a walk-on to play a major role during the first month of their season. As a matter of fact, two walk-ons, Paul Oristaglio and Pat Kehoe, were part of PC’s rotation during that first month with Oristaglio actually starting on a few occasions.

4. The Iron Men

With only six scholarship players, and seven players in total, the current edition of the Friars has had to rely on Bryce Cotton, Josh Fortune, and LaDontae Henton to play just about the entire game.  There is basically no one else.

Although the 1976 the Friars did have players on their bench, they also had to rely on a core group of ironmen to play all of the meaningful minutes. The bench consisted of walk-ons and inexperienced players (Paul Aiello, David Frye, John Nolan, Peter Petropolous, Mark Heissenbuttel, Ken Woodson, and Joe Mullaney Jr.) who were not ready to contribute meaningful minutes for long stretches of time. Joe Hassett, Bob Cooper, Soup Campbell, and Dwight Williams had to be on the court for PC to be effective.

5. What Happens Next? 

At the end of the first semester in 1976, both Bob Misevicius and Billy Eason returned to the team. A couple of games later Misevicius made a 12 foot bank shot in double overtime to beat number 1 ranked Michigan in the greatest game of any sport I ever saw in person (but that is a story for another time).  The 1976-1977 Friars went on to win 24 games and were invited to the NCAA tournament, thanks in large part to the team surviving that first month.

What will this year’s Friars do when Council, Dunn, and Johnson are able to play? Only time will tell, but this certainly doesn’t look like a team that will finish last in the Big East at the end of the season, as Big East coaches predicted in October. As a matter of fact I feel very confident that this year’s Friars will be playing some meaningful basketball games in March.

Email Craig at craig.leighton@friarbasketball.com

7 Comments

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   Mike

   November 30, 2012 at 5:25 pm

   Love learning more nuggets of history about the program. Great stuff, Craig.
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