Three Wishes for the Providence Offseason

The late transfer of Josh Fortune a year ago left Ed Cooley reeling to find some guard help for the 2014-15 Friars. The announcement coming on the Friday before Memorial Day put Cooley in a difficult spot to try and lure anyone that would be eligible immediately. Tyler Harris already announced his intentions to finish his career elsewhere after he graduates from Providence in mid-May. The other outstanding decision is one that needs to be made by Kris Dunn. Dunn has until April 26th to declare for the NBA Draft.

The offseason will get into full swing once the NCAA Tournament concludes on April 6th. The first live evaluation period for recruiting begins on April 10th and the Spring period begins on April 13th. Cooley and his staff won’t be resting on their laurels and once the offseason gets underway they will be looking to upgrade their roster, whether that is the 2015-16 roster or a future roster.

Here are some things that Providence fans want Santa Cooley to put on their wish list:

A 5th Year Graduate Transfer (or two)

Graduate transfers have become the free agents of college basketball. I’m tracking a list of them here and the list is already nearing 50 players that will be immediately eligible after graduating from their previous school. There are certainly some intriguing names on the current list and there are currently two positions that Providence could use help with from the free agent market: a shooter and a big man.

Jalen Lindsey showed signs of being a sharpshooter, especially in the final 2 games of his freshman season when he went 7/13 from deep. But bringing in an experienced player like Adam Smith or Damion Lee for a season could be just what the doctor ordered. Incoming freshmen Drew Edwards, Ricky Council and Ryan Fazekas can all shoot but relying on freshmen to come in be consistent contributors isn’t a great model unless you are John Calipari or Mike Krzyzewski. I wouldn’t hate to see a free agent come in for a year and possibly redshirt one of these freshman. The freshman and sophomore classes are going to be the bulk of Providence’s scholarships next season so adding a 5th year player and redshirting a freshman would help balance out the classes a little bit.

In terms of a big man, Providence currently only has rising sophomores Ben Bentil and Paschal Chukwu as healthy returnees from last year’s frontcourt. Rodney Bullock will be returning from ACL surgery and two years off the court and incoming freshman Alex Owens is in the early stages of rehab for his own ACL tear suffered February 2015. Bentil showed the ability to play solid minutes but Chukwu likely isn’t ready for a big minutes jump from the 11.7 minutes/game he averaged during Big East play. Some names that are interesting to me for a free agent big man are Mike Thorne, Jr., Rafael Maia and JP Kambola.

Eric Paschall

The Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year obtained permission to contact more than a dozen schools after Fordham’s head coach Tom Pecora was fired on March 18th. While he hasn’t applied for a release from Fordham he will take visits to schools with the first visit scheduled for April 1st to Villanova. A visit to Providence has been rumored to be in the works for the following week. Other schools that have reportedly expressed interest are Florida, Kansas and UConn.

Paschall is the kind of versatile player that has thrived under Ed Cooley. He is young for his grade and will only turn 19 in November 2015 so a season off due to NCAA transfer rules is likely to only help the 6’6 wing guard. Paschall will be an impact player wherever he ends up. The possibility exists that he will remain at Fordham but with all the high-level interest the timing may be right for the freshman to move up.

Kris Dunn’s Return

I saved the most important wish for last. Friar fans will be on the edge of their seat awaiting a Dunn decision on whether or not he will return to Providence for his junior season. The NCAA deadline is April 12th and fairly meaningless as long as you don’t declare before that. The actual deadline for early entry is the NBA one, which is 11:59pm on April 26th. The plan is for Cooley and staff to sit down with Dunn and family sometime after the NCAA season is finished and they will go through all the options together. Dunn technically has 2 more years of eligibility due to being granted a medical hardship waiver that gave him back the eligibility for the 2013-14 season.

Should Dunn declare for the NBA Draft he is being projected anywhere from 14-the mid-20’s by various mock drafts. As I have stated before, I wouldn’t go unless I felt very comfortable that I was being projected in the first 15 or so picks. Once you get to the 20’s it can be a crapshoot with international players and teams looking for money-saving draft and stash types. We’ll see what kind of information Dunn gets from Cooley and the NBA Undergraduate Advisory Committee, which could take until April 11th.

Should Dunn return to Providence for the 2015-16 season he will likely be the Big East Preseason Player of the Year, a Preseason All-American and one of the faces of the Big East conference. I’m sure Cooley and his staff will be selling Dunn on the fact that he will get increased publicity from Fox Sports, as well as the school. Dunn’s return means the Providence team has a chance to be fairly good. They will be even younger than the 2014-15 team but Dunn is so talented that he has the ability to carry the entire team for stretches.

This decision by Dunn will shape the course of the Providence program over the next 12 months. Without him this team is in rebuilding mode as they will be playing almost exclusively freshmen and sophomores. With him this team has a chance to get to the postseason for the 4th straight year under Cooley. Its really that simple.

What are you wishes for the Providence offseason? Leave them in the comments below or let me know on Twitter.

Follow me on Twitter @pcbb1917

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Mike Hopkins

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