Tag Archives: UMass basketball

Schedule

Providence Releases 2015-16 Non-Conference Schedule

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Providence has released their non-conference schedule for the 2015-16 season. The Friars should have another very strong strength of schedule in the non-conference with road games at Rhode Island and Massachusetts, home games against Harvard and Illinois and a potential neutral site matchup against Arizona in the Wooden Legacy tournament. Here’s a brief description of each of the games on Providence’s non=conference slate this upcoming season.

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Game Previews & Recaps

Providence Blows Out UMass at the Dunk, 85-65

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With a week layoff for both teams for semester final exams the game got off to a bit of a slow start offensively but eventually Providence raced out to a 14 point lead at the 7:44 mark of the first half. The Minutemen would fight back and get the lead down to 4 points at the 5:16 mark but then Providence kicked it back in gear and pulled away again, this time for good, taking a 13 point lead into the locker room at halftime. Freshman Ben Bentil got his first career start in favor of redshirt junior Tyler Harris. He finished with 5 point and 5 rebounds in 19 minutes of action.

It will be interesting to hear from Ed Cooley after the game on what his rationale was for making the move and whether it will be something that continues moving forward. Ed Cooley did say after the Big East Championship game that going into the 2013-14 season the plan prior to the suspensions and injuries was to have Harris be the 6th man coming off the bench to provide scoring. Perhaps that’s something he and his staff are going back to now that they have the bodies to have a bench.

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Recruiting News

Naadir Tharpe to Play in the D-League

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Naadir Tharpe announced his intention to transfer from Kansas on May 1st. In the press release following his decision, Tharpe said “my daughter has current medical issues that require weekly visits to her physician, as well as with a specialist. At this juncture, I feel it is best to be closer to home where I can assist and support in any way.”

I don’t believe Providence was ever seriously in play as a landing spot for Tharpe. There were rumors that PC was concerned with the photo that was released of Tharpe and a topless 38 year old married woman right after the Jayhawks were bounced from the NCAA tournament. Another concern was rumored to be the fact that Tharpe was not guaranteed to be eligible immediately at his new school and that ruling would likely not come until he was enrolled at his new school for a month or more. With Ed Cooley and the Friars needing guard help for the 2014-15 season, it was likely too much of a risk to take a flyer on Tharpe.

Tharpe’s other local option was reportedly UMass. Joining Tharpe in the UMass backcourt next season would have been West Virginia transfer Jabarie Hinds (sat out last season per NCAA transfer rules) and returning players Trey Davis and Derrick Gordon. If Tharpe didn’t receive the waiver to play next season all 3 of those players can return plus Derrick Kellog has a pledge from 3 star 2015 point guard, Luwane Pipkins. So aside from the UMass backcourt being crowded, the scholarship situation in Amherst would have meant that Tharpe would have had to pay his own way at UMass.

Tharpe told CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein that he intends to give it a go in the D-league.

Tharpe told Rothstein, “I didn’t want to sit out…At this point, I’d rather just try the D-League instead of sitting out a year to play a year [in college].”