How: TNT (Marv Albert, Steve Kerr, Craig Sager) /WEEI 103.7 FM (John Rooke and Joe Hassett)/Westwood One (Brad Sham and Will Perdue)
Game Notes
The Friars and the Tar Heels have met only 3 times all time with UNC leading the series 2-1. The two teams have never met in the NCAA Tournament but their first meeting was in the NIT in 1971 with the Tar Heels taking the game at Madison Square Garden, 86-79. The next time the team’s would meet would be the famous “Blizzard Game” in 1978 (click here for a great story from Craig Leighton of FriarBasketball.com on his recollections as a student and RI resident in ’78) which PC took. The following year, PC traveled down to Tobacco Road for the 2nd half of that home and home and fell to UNC 89-58.
The Friars are 14-16 all-time in the NCAA Tournament and this will be their 16th appearance in the Big Dance. Their last win was in 1997 over UT-Chattanooga in the Sweet 16. Their first ever NCAA Tournament appearance was in 1964 when they fell against Villanova, 77-66. Their first ever win came the following year when they thumped West Virginia, 91-67.
This season, PC had a 3-6 record against other NCAA Tournament teams with the 3 wins coming against Creighton (2) and Xavier and the losses coming against Villanova (2), Kentucky, UMass, Creighton and Xavier.
Bryce Cotton is currently averaging 21.4 ppg and 5.8 rpg. He is trying to become 5th player from a major conference to average 20 or more points and 5 or more assists in a season since 2002. The 4 guys that have accomplished that feat: Jason Williams (Duke – 21.3 ppg, 5.3 apg ’01-’02); Tyrese Rice (Boston College – 21.0 ppg, 5.0 apg ’07-’08); Evan Turner (Ohio State – 20.4 ppg, 5.0 apg ’09-’10); Nolan Smith (Duke – 20.6 ppg, 5.1 apg ’10-’11).
PC’s last Big East Championship before 2014 was 1994. The ’94 Friars went on to lose in the first round to Alabama, 76-70. Cotton was the MOP player while LaDontae Henton was named the the All-Tournament Team. The MOP trophy is named after Dave Gavitt. Cotton is the 2nd Friar to ever win the trophy with the first being Michael Smith in 1994.
Coach Ed Cooley has never appeared in the NCAA Tournament as a head coach. He has been to the Big Dance 5 times as an assistant coach under Al Skinner. If the Friars win Friday night, Cooley will have more wins NCAA Tournament wins as a Providence head coach than Tim Welsh and Rick Barnes combined in their 5 appearances in the NCAA Tournament as the head man at PC.
Cooley is looking for his 58th career win as the head coach at Providence which would tie him for 8th all time with Edward Crotty who reached that mark after 111 games in 7 seasons from 1938-1946 (no team in ’43-’44 – WW2). A win Friday would also be the 150th career win for Cooley in his 8 seasons as a head coach.
Providence will be looking for win number 24 Friday night. They haven’t won 24 games since they went 24-12 in 1997.
The Friars have never faced a 6 seed before in the NCAA Tournament. They are 4-2 in 6 games against teams with an 8 seed or better (both stats since the field expanded to 64 in 1985).
With 4 or more days between games this season, PC is 7-3.
Now that the conference tournaments are over and the dust has settled after the NCAA Tournament selections have been made, the coaching carousel has begun. There have already been a few guys that got the axe including Steve Donohue at Boston College. But one particular coaching change of interest to PC in terms of recruiting is Max Good being let go by Loyola Marymout University. Because of this, a 2014 PG has returned to the market after getting a full release.
Kyron Cartwright is a 5’11 165 lb left handed lead guard from Compton, CA. When he decided on a school in November, he picked LMU over Grand Canyon, a for-profit school where Dan Majerle is the head coach in their first season going from Division II to Divison I this season. Cartwight’s brother, Bryce, played his last 2 years at Iowa after transferring in from a JC. According to Scout.com’s Evan Daniels, KC has early interest from Providence after getting his full release on Tuesday. He wants to make a pretty quick decision and is hoping to get away from home this time:
The NEPSAC playoffs finished up last weekend and Providence targets played major roles in taking home trophies for their respective schools. Jalen Adams put the knife through the heart of the St. Andrew’s faithful for the 2nd year in a row when he put home this rebound to win the semifinal matchup:
Cushing was able to take down Abdul Malik Abu and Kimball Union in the championship game behind Kaleb Joseph and Adams’ stellar play. Adams took home playoff MVP.
For Brewster, Donovan Mitchell and Devonte Graham, both PC targets, were impressive during the playoffs and especially in clutch moments. Mitchell calmly nailed 4 consecutive free throws at the end of the championship game to defeat New Hampton and Graham was able to answer every time New Hampton appeared to be pulling away in the first half.
The Providence staff was down in Nashville on Tuesday night, along with a few other high majors, to check in on Braxton Blackwell (2016) who plays for CPA which is Jalen Lindsey’s old squad. CPA won the game PC attended, the region semifinals, and Blackwell scored 31 points. On Wednesday night, they played the 6-AA region finals and won to improve to 32-2 on the season. Blackwell scored 15 points in the win and was named the All-Region MVP. The 6’8 215 lbs (SF) 17th ranked player in the class of 2016 according to ESPN holds offers from Auburn, Cincinnati, Florida, Indiana (attended Hoosier Hysteria this year), LSU, Memphis, Mississippi St, N.C. State, Providence, Tennessee, Vanderbilt (his HS coach played there), Virginia and Virginia Tech. He also has interest from Kentucky, Michigan State and North Carolina. This would be the most impressive get if Cooley could somehow pull this off. He is a consensus top 30 player in the class of 2016 and has no ties to Rhode Island like Jalen Lindsey so getting him from Nashville to Providence would be a huge coup. So far he has visited Louisville (1/2/13 coincidentally when they played PC), Vanderbilt (9/4/13, 2/5/14), Memphis (9/20/13), Indiana (10/4/13 for Hoosier Hysteria) and Auburn (11/30/13).
The NEPSAC playoffs started on Wednesday and there are a lot of PC recruiting targets taking part in the action. Click here to see the names from Wednesday’s post. For results of Wednesday’s game click this link to the NERR.
Paschal Chukwu and the Fairfield Prep Stags finished the regular season undefeated (20-0) after winning at home against Hamden last Saturday night. It was Senior Night for Prep and Chuwku went for 21 points in the win. The next step will be the playoffs starting tomorrow morning 11am at Branford HS against Notre Dame-West Haven. Fairfield Prep handled ND-WH both times they met during the regular season by 15 and 16 points respectively. In national recruiting news, ESPN’s Adam Finkelstein lists Chukwu as one of his “Five Prospects Who Project Long Term”. He had this to say:
PC made an offer over the weekend to 2015 PG Justin Robinson of St. James School in DC. The southpaw transferred there after playing his first 2 seasons of high school ball at Montrose Christian. He also plays for famed AAU squad, Boo Williams, current PC Sophomore Josh Fortune’s former AAU team. Robinson has seen his stock rise from mid-major to possibly high major. PC is his first high major offer and it seems that Cooley and staff have had a way of finding these kinds of players just before their recruitment’s take off. For now, Robinson is likely a backup plan at PG for the 2015 class but he could wind up being a very solid plan B if things don’t work out with Jalen Adams.
Providence has offered 2015 @SaintJamesHoops PG Justin Robinson.
Scout Friars posted a great article by Kevin San on the push to land guards in 2014. The article, titled PC’S Full Court Press for a Guard, can be found here but a subscription is required.
Paschal Chukwu and the Fairfield Prep Stags remained undefeated (19-0) after winning at home against Career last night. Chuwku poured in 21 points in the win and added 11 rebounds and 8 blocked shots despite sitting for nearly 5 minutes in the 2nd half after he picked up his 4th foul. Prep is now 1 win away from a perfect regular season.
2014 PG recruit Tarin Smith and the St. Anthony Friars won a close game earlier this week as they traveled to Long Island Lutheran who features 2016 PG Devonte Green. Green, the St. Mary’s transfer, had 22 points in the loss. Green is the younger brother of former UNC player and current NBA player, Danny Green. Tarin Smith led St. Anthony in scoring with 14 points and was the only Friar in double figures.
The National Prep School Invitational was last weekend at Rhode Island College. It was unfortunate timing for PC to hit the road as this is always a great event with elite talent and many PC targets played. The PC staff did make it on Sunday after returning home from Chicago and they reportedly watched Brewster Academy (Devonte Graham ’14, Donovan Mitchell ’15, Jarred Reuter ’15) take on Vermont Academy (Christian Vital ’16). For a great recap of the event, here is FriarBasketball.com’s article from Monday. This is a great recap with highlights by Cox Sports.
Here’s a great highlight tape of Jalen Adams via @CoreyPorterTV:
I’ll continue to beat the drum for Tarin Smith (2014). This team needs guards and they will undoubtedly take at least 2 more for 2014. I think Smith is the exact kind of guy that would fit in at PC. He just keeps getting better and seems like a very high character kid. He is #1 in his class academically at St. Anthony and has drawn praise from his legendary coach, Bob Hurley.This is also a great read from the Hudson Reporter on Smith.
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