friarblog.com

Watch PC-Bucknell

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 18:29:01 -0500

I am so done with CSTV. I am trying to GIVE THEM MY MONEY, yet as every year, I can’t get into their stupid system.

Go Friars.

I’ll be here, and on the Twitter.

Bryant Game Round-Up [Game Recaps]

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 12:54:52 -0500

Just because talking about a 43 point victory will never get old. Anyway, if you happen to be new to the blog this year, after the games I usually try to do a complete roundup around the web along with a closer look at some advanced stats.

LETS TAKE A CLOSER LOOK AT ‘THE FOUR FACTORS’

"This game I was hyped. Today, I got lucky. Eight-for-eight? I didn’t miss a shot."

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 12:04:24 -0500

“This game I was hyped. Today, I got lucky. Eight-for-eight? I didn’t miss a shot.”

- Bilal Dixon via Projo.com

Lacy3 Pretty awesome pic on Johnnie’s Friar debut! I know...

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:21:00 -0500

Lacy3

Pretty awesome pic on Johnnie’s Friar debut! I know he’ll take good care of Ryan Gomes’ old number.

via Facebook

Friars Bulldoze Bulldogs 96-53 in Season Opener

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:42:00 -0500

Well, due to the lovely All-Access site not allowing me to register, and the “other” feed not working for me, I didn’t get to watch our Friars debut this season. Apparently I missed a good old fashioned arse beating, because PC completely dominated the Bryant Bulldogs in a 96-53 victory at the Dunk on Friday night. Judging by the stats, our defense was superb, getting 30 points off turnovers — the Friars also had 13 steals and 12 blocks. The scoring attack was balanced, and PC really got things done down low with 46 points in the paint.

Bilal Dixon had a double-double in his Friars debut, scoring 16 points and pulling down 11 boards. Greedy Peterson led the scoring charge with 18 points.

Weak opponent or not, the Friars came out blazing tonight. They will take on Bucknell tomorrow at 6:30.

Some Stat Tidbits

* 5 Friars finished in double figures (McKenzie 11, Brooks 10, Peterson 18, Curry 12, Dixon 16)

* For awhile, the Friars were outscoring Bryant on points off turnovers. Bryant pulled away with about 7 mins left.

* Sharaud Curry had the most minutes played, with 22.

* 5 Friars played over 20 minutes (Curry 22, Peterson, Dixon, Kyle Wright 21, Mondy 20)

* 12 Friars played overall, including walk-on Chris Carter.

* Kadeem Batts did not play, so he might be a red shirt candidate.

Quick Links

ESPN Boxscore

Friars.com Gamecast

StatSheet Boxscore

Pics

Picture courtesy of TheRoundtable on Twitter

Full recap to come tomorrow!

PC-Bryant Thread

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:39:51 -0500

For all you out of town folks, I am not aware of any, ahem, “free” ways to watch or listen to the game tonight (7:30 start). If anyone finds anything, give a post in the comments.

Otherwise, you can discuss the game below, or join the conversation on Twitter (use #Friars hashtag) while I hopefully watch online (hitting up the train home in a few!).

Here are some links to help you follow online.

Friars.com Gametracker

ESPN Mobile Gamecast for yer cellphone - Gotta be a company man, ya know?

The game is also on WEEI 103.7, but not sure if they offer any online streams.

Friartown Pulse as the Season Start Looms [Predictions]

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:00:00 -0500

So we’ve read all the prognosis from across the web, from those crazy cats at SportingNews to numerous other bloggers. As expected, no one is giving PC a shot to do anything this season due to inexperience. Fair enough. But how does Friartown feel about what lies ahead this year? I think it’s safe to say that we all expect growing pains, and will be willing to deal with losses as long as the team improves as the season progresses. Nevertheless, I thought it would be interesting to poll some PC experts and fans for some simple predictions.

Record wise, nothing terrible shocking (aside from the scarily similar picks between myself and alum Ryan Holt). I thought it was fun and interesting to see what people thought about possible good/bad wins, and what players would lead in various stat categories. However, I should have known better to ask “The Voice of the Friars” John Rooke about good and bad wins, because I got his “all wins are good, all losses are bad!” response. Touche, Mr. Rooke.

Anyway, here are the results. Feel free to leave your picks in the comments.

PC Experts
	Kevin McNamara Providence Journal Sportswriter	John Rooke Friars Play-by-play announcer	Steve Hartnett Editor, ScoutFriars.com, PC ‘92
Overall Record	14-17	15-15	16-14
BIG EAST Record	6-12	6-12	6-12
BIG EAST Finish	12th	12th	12th
Postseason	None	CBI or NIT	CBI
-
Best Home Win	BC	-	Louisville
Worst Home Loss	USF	-	Rutgers
Best Road Win	USF	-	Pittsburgh
Worst Road Loss	Northeastern	-	Northeastern
-
Scoring Leader	Marshon Brooks	Marshon Brooks	Marshon Brooks
Rebounding Leader	Greedy Peterson	Greedy Peterson	Greedy Peterson
Assists Leader	Sharaud Curry	Sharaud Curry	Sharaud Curry
Blocks Leader	Bilal Dixon	Greedy Peterson	Greedy Peterson
Steals Leader	Marshon Brooks	Sharaud Curry	Vincent Council
FG% Leader	Bilal Dixon	Bilal or Greedy	Marshon Brooks
3FG Leader	Sharaud Curry	Sharaud Curry	Sharaud Curry
-
Team MVP	Sharaud Curry	Sharaud Curry	Marshon Brooks
Best Newcomer	Bilal Dixon	Bilal or Council	Vincent Council

PC Fans
	Friarblog Blogger dude	Ryan Holt Alumni, PC ‘09	Sean McCarthy PC Blogger & Student, PC ‘11
Overall Record	17-13	17-13	15-15
BIG EAST Record	7-11	7-11	5-13
BIG EAST Finish	11th	11th	13th
Postseason	NIT	NIT	CBI
-
Best Home Win	Syracuse	UCONN	UCONN
Worst Home Loss	Rutgers	Rutgers	Rutgers
Best Road Win	St. John’s	Cincinnati	USF/DePaul
Worst Road Loss	Northeastern	USF	Northeastern
-
Scoring Leader	Sharaud Curry	Sharaud Curry	Marshon Brooks
Rebounding Leader	Greedy Peterson	Greedy Peterson	Bilal Dixon
Assists Leader	Vincent Council	Sharaud Curry	Sharaud Curry
Blocks Leader	Bilal Dixon	Greedy Peterson	James Still
Steals Leader	Sharaud Curry	Marshon Brooks	Vincent Council
FG% Leader	Marshon Brooks	Bilal Dixon	Russ Permenter
3FG Leader	Sharaud Curry	Brian McKenzie	Brian McKenzie
-
Team MVP	Sharaud Curry	Marshon Brooks	Sharaud Curry
Best Newcomer	Vincent Council	Vincent Council	Vincent Council

Thanks everyone for participating!

For more thoughts about Sean of “The Truth About PC Basketball“‘s predictions, check out their post with more commentary behind the picks.

You can also read KMac’s previews here and here.

Brian McKenzie Interview on BIG EAST Media Day [Video]

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:40:00 -0500

It’s a few weeks old, but this comes from the PC Preview on bigeast.org — but I figured if I featured the preview, reader dherr07 would have a brain embolism :P.

H/T CoxSports Twitter Post

SportingNews Predicts Friars To Finish Dead Last in the BIG EAST

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:58:34 -0500

Forecasting the Big East: Mountaineers will finish on top

Not much substance here other than a few player predictions and the predicted finish of the teams — other than the BOLD prediction “West Virginia will win the Big East”. Wow, that is extremely bold. I haven’t seen anyone predict WVU to do well this year! But PC finishing 16th out of 16? I guess it’s not a crazy stretch given the inexperience of our team, but this guy does know that DePaul and Rutgers still plays in the BIG EAST, right?

KMac's PC Preview

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:33:43 -0500

Providence College basketball preview: Davis is hoping patience, hard work pay off

His team may not be ready for prime time now, but the goal is to get there by the first week of January, or the start of the Big East season. Even more important is to be a tough out by the time March and the postseason comes into view.

"With such a young team there’s going to be ups and downs. I try and be patient with them as far as..."

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:22:27 -0500

“With such a young team there’s going to be ups and downs. I try and be patient with them as far as not getting on them for mistakes. The only thing that bothers me is a lack of effort.”

- Keno Davis, via the Pawtucket Times

Pawtucket Times: Lots to learn about this Friar squad

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:21:12 -0500

Lots to learn about this Friar squad

The question becomes how to gauge improvement, particularly when referencing this winter. The obvious barometer is wins, but say Providence fights tooth-and-nail only to come up short against the UConns and Villanovas of the world? Is that called progress, the belief that the rough patches that unquestionably lie ahead will harden their collective resolve by the time they reach their junior and senior seasons?
It was a similar tale we once heard when Efejuku and McDermott were novices, back when they teased us with their potential, back when we hoped they would pick the program up and make it a factor in the Big East, a 16-team behemoth that offers few layups. That group of Friars never lived up to the billing, now passing the baton off to a new generation that will attempt to chart a different course.
That is what makes this season fascinating, watching a team mesh together, the hope that the Friars can keep their heads above water in one of the nation’s toughest conferences.

It's Now Official: 3 Letters of Intent Signed Today

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:29:00 -0500

We knew it was coming, but now it is official — check out the latest info on PC’s new recruits for next year on Friars.com

Gerard Coleman, Ron Giplaye and Joe Young will enter PC in September 2010.

Providence College men’s basketball coach Keno Davis announced on November 11that student-athletes Gerard Coleman (West Roxbury, Mass.), Ron Giplaye (Lowell, Mass.) and Joe Young (Houston, Texas) each have signed a National Letter of Intent to attend Providence College beginning in September 2010.

Gerard Coleman

He is rated the 30th-best prospect in the class of 2010 by Slam Magazine, the 51st-best prospect by Rivals.com, 66th overall by Scout.com and 72nd overall by ESPNU. Coleman is the 11th-ranked shooting guard according to Rivals.com and he is rated No. 16 by Scout.com

Love these phrases from ESPN: “The long lefty is a pure scorer”, ” He has great confidence in his shot and is not afraid to take the big one”, and especially “He’s a very disruptive full court defender, at his best in passing lanes, and capable of being a good on-the-ball defender”

Joseph Young

“Son of NBA player Michael Young”

Gotta love son’s of NBA players! #58 Shooting Guard according to ESPN. Also love the first line about him: “Young is the ultimate shooter.”

Ron Giplaye

Giplaye is a very physical player who uses his strength to rebound and score down low.

We need some bruisers in the BEAST! Well, he’ll fit in perfectly, because his profile says he is: “An absolute beast physically” #104 Power Forward according to ESPN. Oh, and apparently he “dunks with both hands”, which I am a huge fan of. Not that single hand nancy shit.

Welcome to Friartown boys!

MaxPreps: PC #23 Recruiting Class in 2010

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:57:00 -0500

As the early signing period arrives, MaxPreps re-ranked the top recruiting classes in the nation for 2010. Guess who made this list?

Top 25 college basketball recruiting classes

23. Providence
Top 100: No. 69 Joseph Young (6-2, 175, G), No. 87 Gerard Coleman (6-4, 175, G)
Supporting Cast: Ron Giplaye (6-5, 200, F)
Analysis: Young drew some big crowds (comprised of college coaches) during Las Vegas’ AAU extravaganza with his scoring exploits.

God Bless Keno Davis. I can’t remember the last time we made a list like this (I’m guessing the Brown/Brew class?). It’s great to see the recognition from all the hard work coach and his staff have been doing since they arrived. As all you Friar Fanatics already know, the future of Friartown is looking brighter and brighter each day.

H/T: ChiFriar

"Sports to Live By" Providence Preview

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:28:29 -0500

Here is a good Providence Preview on a blog that breaks down the schedule real nice, and gives some best and worst case scenarios of how the season could turn out

Providence Friars Basketball Preview

This season is going to swing on development. If that happens fast, the Friars might be able to creep up the Big East standings. If it doesn’t, this could be a mess. Curry and Brooks are going to be solid but the rest will need to pull together quickly if anything is to be made of the season. The good news is that even if the year ends with a terrible record the experience will be invaluable to the young guys. Taking their lumps now may lead to real success in the future.

He goes with a prediction of 14-16 overall (5-13 BE), which seems to be the general area where most people have them finishing this year.

Read on for the rest of his take on the Friars.

"The East Coast Bias" Big East Preview

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:29:00 -0500

I’ll probably end up putting together a big list of BIG EAST previews from around those interwebs, but I’ll continue to post up things as they come in. Here is a good preview from our friend at the St. John’s blog “The East Coas Bias”

Big East 2009-2010 Preview

Here is what he has to say about the Friars.

Providence: The Friars return Marson Brooks and Sharaud Curry, along with Brian McKenzie, Jamine “Greedy” Peterson and Bilal Dixon. And then there are a number of guys who are new – from junior college and high schools – that don’t come with great publicity. I expect to see someone in the returning group logging iron man minutes, but Coach Davis got the Friar players to play his system in a few months… I think this team will improve a good amount during the year barring injury. But can all those newcomers stop the scoring of Big East players? Last year’s team was not effective at stopping opponent scoring, no reason to think this year’s team will; can they continue to defend without sending opponents to the line as well? Prognosis: No postseason

I wonder how Pico would feel if he realized that Peterson and Dixon were red shirted last year! Anyways, head on over to the site to check out his thoughts on the rest of the teams.

Is It Appropriate To Use Gambling Odds as Bulletin Board Material? [Gambling is Fun]

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:45:01 -0500

Before the season starts, I like to check out the NCAA Futures on gambling sites to get a feel for what Vegas thinks of the Friars. It’s always fun to see what outrageous money line they have us at to win the National Championship. Last year, BetUS had us at +50,000, meaning for every $100 bones you put down on PC to win it all you would win $50,000.

Looking at the futures for this season, we’ve been upgraded to a nice +20,000! This time, PC is not the lowest BIG EAST team on the list — Marquette comes in with a hefty +25,000. However, they don’t even list Rutgers this time around (they inexplicably had the same odds as us last year).

OK, so far nothing too crazy — we are most likely not going to win the National Championship, so who cares what the odds are. However, there seems to be a new futures bet that they didn’t have last year. Here are the odds to win the BIG EAST Championship.

Cincinnati +3000

Connecticut +350

Georgetown +800

Louisville +350

Marquette +4000

Notre Dame +500

Pittsburgh +1200

Rutgers +4000

St Johns + 2500

Seton Hall +3000

Syracuse + 1000

Villanova + 275

West Virginia +350

Field +2000

Notice anything odd about this list? Really BetUS? Lumping us in with South Florida and DePaul in the “Field” odds? Did you really have to leave out listing Providence College (and show RUTGERS!?!) individually to save TWO LINES of your precious internet page? Those of us on 2400 baud modems are extremely thankful. Give us our own bet!

Court Visions: Preseason Picks

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:31:00 -0500

Brandon (fellow Friar fan!) over at SNY put together a great predictions article for all the major conferences and a few mid-majors. Here is what he had to say about PC.

Providence (6-12; 34.5): The Friars enter the season with only three players who saw any action last season, and all are guards. That leaves large problems on the backboards, but at least the dynamic combination of Sharaud Curry and Marshon Brooks should excite the Friar faithful in Year 2 of the Keno Davis Era. No postseason.

Check out the full article here

Katz Ranks the Conferences: BIG EAST Falls to 4th

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:55:09 -0500

In league rankings, power shifts to the Midwest

4. Big East: The league may not have a top-seeded team in 2010 after getting three last season (Louisville, UConn, Pitt), but the strength of the league from 1-16 has gotten better. The bottom of the league has risen up with Seton Hall and St. John’s having a real shot at an NCAA bid. West Virginia should be the favorite, despite Villanova’s high ranking. But the Wildcats, Connecticut, Georgetown, Syracuse and possibly Louisville will be in play for bids. So, too, should Notre Dame, with the possible player of the year in Luke Harangody, Cincinnati, with maybe the freshman of the year in Lance Stephenson, and Seton Hall are sleeper teams to rise up into the top four in the league. And never discount Pitt under Jamie Dixon. Toss in the Red Storm as the only team that returns all five starters and the Big East has 11 of its 16 teams thinking NCAAs.

No PC talk yet folks. Under. The. Radar.

Connecticut College Paper - "We should all set our sights on the Providence College Friars as our most hated rival"

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:40:00 -0500

So The Daily Campus (a college newspaper in the state of Connecticut that employs more than 120 students during the academic year) has an article this morning basically bitching about our beloved Providence College sports teams. The PC-UCONN rivalry to me always seemed pretty one way — They are clearly our biggest rivarly in basketball, but UCONN always had a handful of other teams to worry about (especially Syracuse and Georgetown).

Well, we seem to be getting under their fans’ skin as of late.

Apparently our men’s soccer team beat the no 8. Huskies in the BIG EAST tournament last weekend to advance to the Semi-finals (way to go Men’s Soccer team!). However, something completely unheard of happened. The Friars CELEBRATED and STORMED the FIELD “as if they’d just won the national championship instead of staying alive in the hunt for a bid in the NCAA tournament”! Hmm, maybe because it was a big upset victory with TWO MINUTES left in OVERTIME! According to the paper PC didn’t deserve to win anyway, since:

It was luck that got them the ball io the Husky side of the field for the first time in over 50 minutes and a freak bounce of Matt Marcin’s left foot put the shot in literally the only spot where Husky keeper Josh Ford had no chance

I really don’t know much about soccer, but I’m glad we can cause UCONN fans some grief. Anyways, these celebration shenanigans brought back memories of AJ Price complaining about the Friars basketball team being disrespectful a few years ago in their win at Stoors. The dunking! The smiling! The HORROR!

Since we ruined their little soccer run and beat them a bunch of times in basketball recently (well, not last year), PC should now be considered UCONN’s most hated rival. Here are some great tidbits.

I thought about it and realized there is one team that is roundly hated by most sports on campus and that was made even more clear Saturday night. Providence College has been the bane of almost all sports, except for football, for quite some time and I think we should all set our sights on the Providence College Friars as our most hated rival.

Outrageous celebrations are not new to the Friars

They don’t know how to win because, aside from playing us apparently, they don’t. Providence seemingly has an endless history of downing the men’s basketball team - regardless of how good they are.

Providence has been a thorn in the side of UConn for far too long - follow the lead of Price and Linstad and grow to hate Providence.

“I think A.J. Price said it best in the Hartford Courant,” Linstad said on the eve of the Huskies match-up with Providence in the Hockey East tournament. “If you lose to them they don’t let you forget it. They don’t know how to win the right way.”

Geez, is November too early to whip out the GodFather “Why We Hate UCONN” post? Well, looks like I just did!

Full Article: When it comes to finding UConn’s top rival, look no further than Providence