I woke up at the crack of dawn on Sunday after attending (and re-watching at home) the Friars’ fourth win of the season in four games, a 79-65 victory over Green Bay. The Phoenix had a few stories of local interest, including Fox Radio host Doug Gottlieb being their new coach, former Friar Donovan Santoro and Rhode Island native Isaiah Miranda transferring there, plus having the hottest three point shooter in the country in Anthony Roy on their roster. As I was enjoying my morning homemade cold brew and watching the replay of Creighton’s victory over the Kansas City Roos, I received a call from my boss, Mike Hopkins.
MIKE: Good morning, how’s your Sunday going?
ME: Great, I’ve got big plans, including…
MIKE: Nobody cares about your plans! I’m not paying you 60% of the federal minimum wage to have a life. I need an article ready to be published first thing in the morning, and it better not suck like your last 30 submissions.
ME: Thank you, sir. May I have another.
MIKE: Shut up and get to work. And this conversation had better not be mentioned in your article.
ME: I understand, sir.
(Narrator: he did not understand.)
As I have done previously, I will highlight certain players and try to explain their importance beyond the box score. For this article, I have chosen Jayden Pierre, Wesley Cardet, and Corey Floyd, Jr.
Jayden Pierre has been the Friars top scorer for the past two games and is 9-17 from three so far. Those are the obvious things to notice, but his improvement has been much more than that. This is especially true as he has gotten healthier and more accustomed to playing with his teammates after a preseason leg injury limited his early participation. His high level three point shooting should not be a surprise, as I have believed he has been the team’s best shooter since he arrived on campus. In the past two games he has been more assertive offensively by driving to the basket and not allowing opposing defenses to overplay him. After shooting 38% from inside the arc as a freshman and 45% last year, he’s at 60% (6-10) this year, including 5-7 in the past two games. It is obviously a small sample, but I believe it is indicative of what we can expect from a healthy Jayden. There are also other positive signs in the past two games too. Jayden has 5 assists and zero turnovers in these two games, plus several other passes that led to foul shots and open attempts for his teammates.
The final point I want to note for Pierre is his improved defense since being healthy. I have found his defense to be the weakest part of his game since he has been here but was hoping for improvement this season. After struggling early, which was likely caused by rust, health, and difficult matchups, he looked much better over the last game and a half. He has a steal in each game and has been willing to be a playmaker on both sides of the ball. At the end of the season I wouldn’t be surprised if we look at this week as the point where Jayden took his game to a new level.
Wesley Cardet was probably the most anticipated of the four portal recruits that committed to Friartown. A former top 100 recruit who passed up offers from most of the SEC schools to play for his uncle at Samford and Chicago State, Cardet averaged 17 and 19 points per game over the past two years, with a number of big games against high level teams. Because I watch very little besides college basketball in the winter, I had seen him play several times, then went back and watched a few more games after he committed here (thank you ESPN+ and YouTube TV). While I have been extremely high on Cardet, I also recognized that he needed to adjust his game from last year to this year more than anyone else. He was the primary and sometimes only option as Chicago St who played a number of high-major opponents, and he was now going to a team where he was one of many options on the floor at all times. In the exhibition against UMass, Cardet had 5 turnovers and 3 more in his first 8 minutes against CCSU in our season opener. Since then, he has only had 2 turnovers in his last 98 minutes of floor time, including zero in 30 minutes last night. He is getting more assertive each game, and his track record shows that this will lead to good things for the Friars on offense.
There was a lot of speculation that Cardet would be a good defensive player with his size, length, and speed, but he has far exceeded all expectations on that side of the ball so far. In both the CCSU and Hampton games, the defense kept the Friars in the games until the offense came alive late and Cardet and Floyd were the two main cogs on defense. On Saturday against the Phoenix of Green Bay they faced their biggest challenge against Anthony Roy, who came into the game averaging 29 points per game and hitting 6 three pointers per game at a 56% clip. After scoring 13 points with 3 threes (two well-contested by Corey Floyd) in the first seven minutes, it looked like it might be a long night in Friartown. It was then that Coach English had Floyd and Cardet going back and forth on Roy, and he didn’t get a good luck from deep for the rest of the game. All he got in the final 33 minutes was a layup off a switch, two free throws after a questionable call, and a lot of misses. Roy ended up going 3-13 from three, and Cardet deserves a lot of credit for that.
Following up on that is the play of Corey Floyd, Jr. I have made no bones about the fact that Corey is my favorite player on a team in which I love all the players. I watched highlights and game videos of him from high school and AAU and was thrilled when he committed to Friartown after entering the portal. As mentioned above, his defense was excellent last year and has elevated to a new level this season. After the Hampton game, I tweeted that fact that in 31 minutes of playing time in that game, players he was guarding scored zero points. One of my fellow members of the pcbb1917 Discord platform who shall not be mentioned (Narrator: Adam Furtado) thought I was “cooking the books” so he checked every basket of the game to verify that Corey had played a perfect defensive game.
His offense has been much better this season as well, except for his three-point shooting. Since I’m convinced that he is a legitimate threat from deep, I was thrilled to see him nail two important threes on his way to 12 points last night. This was the second straight game that he showed his improved ability to get into the lane and to elevate on alley-oop passes. The other thing that has impressed me is the completeness of his games so far. His statistics aren’t earth shattering but are very consistent. In every game, in addition to his outstanding defense, he has had at least two assists and at least three rebounds. His shooting and scoring have improved from the beginning of the year as the players appear to be getting more comfortable with each other. There have been several times in the last two games where we can see the comfort level and familiarity Floyd and Pierre have with each other. I expect more improvement to come as the rest of the team comes together and all-America candidate Bryce Hopkins returns.
While the start of the season has been far from perfect, the Friars have shown that they have the tenacity and wherewithal to fight through adversity. There were a number of times in the CCSU, Hampton, and Green Bay games where they could’ve panicked and folded but they didn’t. It is easy to point out that their schedule is weak, but that was a smart move for a team with a significantly different roster than last year, and helped even more with the rough preseason the Friars had health wise. I would rather be in the Friars position than a team with two or three losses against marginally better competition. The ideal scenario now would be to take care of business against Delaware St, hopefully with an appearance in the game from Mr. Hopkins, then have a week to work and improve before taking on Oklahoma and possibly Arizona and Gonzaga in the Bahamas. Go Friars!