Hello and welcome to another episode of the Friartown Fan Voice podcast. I’m Mike Hopkins, the founder of pcbb1917.com and I want to thank you for joining me again. This is episode 2 of the 2016-17 podcast season for me and I’m happy to be back with you so soon after the Big East media day edition of the podcast went online almost two weeks ago. This episode will focus largely on some news and notes, including Ed Cooley and staff’s recruiting efforts, and I’ll try to give some preview of Providence’s exhibition game on Saturday against Canadian school Carleton University.
Recruiting News
Focus shift to 2018 and 2019.
New names in 2018 mostly via Brian Blaney with PC interest plus offer to Jeenathan Williams.
2019 offer out to Isaiah Stewart.
Offered 8 players in 247Sports’ Top 125 in class of 2019 already, including players ranked 23rd, 24th and 37th.
Biggest news Khavon Moore, currently ranked in the 9th in the class of 2018 by 247Sports Composite National Ranking.
Moore is a 6’8 wing player from Georgia with excellent ball skills and ability to make plays. Needs to add strength and become a more consistent jump shooter, especially from beyond the arc. Holds offers from Auburn, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Louisville, LSU, Maryland, Memphis, NC State, Oklahoma, Providence, St. John’s, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, UConn and Wake Forest. He lived in Syracuse for a few years early on before moving to Macon, GA and he still has family ties to Syracuse and the NYC area. Getting him to travel 1,000 miles to take in a PC practice and see the campus is a big-time for Cooley and Providence.
Building a program.
Other top-20 offer to Immanuel Quickley.
Chasing anacondas.
Talent up and down roster. Last time there weren’t a few kids PC fans would write off as players who could be pushed off the roster, or “brizzed” as the term has been coined.
Carleton Preview
Doing research for Carleton to prepare for this podcast proved more difficult than expected. Part of the reason is there just isn’t a lot of media coverage of the Carleton Ravens in Canada. It might be hard to believe that a program that has won 12 of the last 14 national championships, including the last 6 in a row, would have little to nothing written about them but that speaks to the level of interest in Canadian college basketball.
So gathering intel in the form of stats wasn’t exactly as easy as clicking on Sports-Reference.com.
One interesting thing I had forgotten about Carleton is that former PC recruiting target Eddie Ekiyor is on their roster. Ekiyor was on PC’s radar in the summer of 2014 when he came to the US to attend the NEPSAC school New Hampton in NH. He ran into some trouble in August of 2015 when he was charged in a hit and run of a byciclist in his hometown and didn’t return to New Hampton. He enrolled at Xavier for the second semester last season as a redshirt only to leave there to enroll at Carleton in August. Ekiyor is a bouncy athlete who plays hard-nosed basketball at 6’9. He’s a player that would be getting some minutes on a Big East team this season but he hasn’t played a ton for Carleton, which could be an indication of their skill. Here are the NCAA Division 1 teams that played Carleton during Canadian tours this summer and the result of those games:
Stetson, W 85-76
Wichita State, W 100-75
Arkansas-Pine Bluff, W 117-74
Morgan State, W 113-62
Carleton also hosted Division 2 St. Thomas Aquinas College for two games on back to back days in late August with the results being wins, 86-63 and then 84-69.
The Ravens are 12-0 so far this season.
Players who PC fans should keep an eye on Saturday night at the Dunk are:
6’4 sharpshooter Connor Wood who recently went for 28 points on 8 for 8. Yes 8 for 8. from beyond the arc in their most recent non-closed scrimmage game. His shooting motion is a little odd-looking, but he’s been hot from deep of late.
6’7 forward Ryan (E-JIM) Ejim has long arms and reminds me a little bit of a slightly smaller Kadeem Batts.
AND
6’1 play-making guard (KAY-ZA) Kaza (KAYGEM-E) Kajami-Keane. He’s fearless driving into the lane.
The Ravens are very well coached and fundamentally sound. They run tight offensive sets and some high screen and roll action.
I mentioned that Carleton had some closed scrimmages recently. They played a closed scrimmage against Boston University on October 22nd, a closed scrimmage against Northeastern on October 23rd and they’ll play a closed scrimmage against UMass on October 28th, the afternoon before they take on Providence out in the open at the Dunk on the 29th.
Here’s my prediction on Providence’s starting lineup on Saturday night:
PG – Kyron Cartwright
SG – Isaiah Jackson
SF – Jalen Lindsey
PF – Rodney Bullock
C – Emmitt Holt
Ed Cooley said during a radio show earlier this month that the Friars could easily lose this game and after researching the Carleton Ravens I would agree. I would brace yourselves on the message boards to deal with a loss Saturday night. The game is not on TV so for those not able to attend the game you can listen on WEEI 103.7FM with that stream also being available on Friars.com for subscribers.
Couple things to remember heading into this game:
Providence probably didn’t do any scouting or prep specifically for Carleton
The Friars haven’t played against anyone but themselves yet this season with their closed door scrimmage happening against Northeastern next week, after this game Saturday night.
I’m hoping to have a recap of this game early next week and do at least one separate podcast before the first game on November 14th to preview the season and that game against Vermont. Thanks again for listening to this episode of the Friartown Fan Voice podcast. As I said these should become a more regular occurrence this season so I encourage you to subscribe on iTunes or wherever you are getting your podcasts. You can also follow me on Twitter and Instagram @pcbb1917, like the Facebook page and continue to read the site. The season is just around the corner now. As always, stay classy Friartown.
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