As we approach a new year in Friartown, my boss at pcbb1917.com enterprises, Mike Hopkins, invited me to a dinner meeting in the executive dining room. It was an exquisite event, where Mike had roast prime rib of beef, medium-rare, with fresh horseradish sauce, herb-encrusted potatoes and a Caesar’s salad. I was treated to off-brand ramen noodles with no flavor packet. We discussed our growing reach in the Friar basketball community, with the pcbb1917 Discord channel (free and paid options available, click here), the rapidly growing Friarcast, and this website. I asked Mike how I could help improve our products and continue to grow. “Try to suck less” was Mike’s reply. So here we are.
The Friars season kicks into high gear with games this week against the iron of the Big East, Marquette and Connecticut. The team’s hopes of turning the season around and getting back on track to a potential NCAA tournament bid would likely require at least one victory in these two games. This is no easy task but is far from impossible. Four of the six losses this season have come down to the final minute and could have gone either way. Additionally, three of these four losses were without Bryce Hopkins, which gives us hope if Bryce is available going forward. Despite all that has been written about the Big East being down this year, it is still a top 4 conference, and the bottom of the league is much stronger this year, which will help on Selection Sunday. The big issue is how the Friars will adjust going forward.
The biggest question is about the availability of Bryce Hopkins for the rest of the season. He came back for three games and looked close to being his old self, which gave hope to the fan base. Then, he missed the next two games and his availability going forward is uncertain. This could be a game-to-game issue for the rest of the season, but no one knows for certain. This week is the anniversary of Bryce’s injury, and it is not uncommon for ACL injuries of this nature to take a year or more to fully heal. While I am hopeful that Bryce is fully ready to contribute for the remainder of the season, I believe this week is key for him. If he is unable to play in these two games, he needs to consider the possibility of a medical redshirt andcontinue his rehabilitation on his own timeline. I have seen comments about how a redshirt makes no sense given that he is22 and the NBA generally looks younger when drafting players. My counter to that is that he is not likely to be drafted if he is in and out of the lineup anyway, where a big year next year will help him and his future regardless of draft position. The best-case scenario is that he is able to play, and this is unnecessary, but as a Friar fan, I am putting Bryce’s interests first. He has shown himself to being committed to the team and has been a great representative of the team and the school and deserves this consideration.
Another issue for the Friars in the second half of the season is the manner in which the offense operates. I recognize that the staff has a much better understanding of their personnel and their strengths and weaknesses than I do, but I still have opinions on the state of the team. One issue I have mentioned repeatedly is the way the staff has utilized Wesley Cardet. After watching innumerable videos and games of Cardet at Chicago St., I am convinced that he can be much more effective than he has on offense to date. My support of Cardet has been unwavering, and I honestly believe he has been the best Friar player overall this season due to his defense. The concern is the way his offensive skills have not been used. In Kevin Farrahar’s Substack article over the weekend, he notes how Cardet was highly effective in transition and in pick and roll situations last year, but has not this season. The good news is that Wesley has started to take the ball up the court himself after getting rebounds in his last two games with positive results. Hopefully, this trend will continue. His three-point shooting has been solid on limited attempts, which should increase with more versatility in his usage.
Another concern is the lack of player movement on offense. In a post-game interview after the St. Bonaventure game, Coach English talked about how his offense was built on movement. This resulted in the posting of numerous videos showing players standing around for most of the thirty-second clock, leading to a rushed shot or an off-balanced late drive by Bensley Joseph in an attempt to salvage the play. Seeing increased cutting and driving to the basket by Cardet, Joseph, Corey Floyd and (hopefully) Bryce Hopkins will lead for better opportunities for them and more open deep shots for Jayden Pierre. Again, I trust the staff to make adjustments, but as someone who has followed and avidly watched college basketball for almost my entire life, these appear to be salient points.
The last point that might sound like a broken record is that I would love to see increased minutes for Corey Floyd, Ryan Mela, and Oswin Erhunmwunse. Floyd, along with Wesley Cardet, is our best defender and impacts the game more than his numbers. In the last two games, he held Chance Moore and Simeon Wilcher in check while on the floor. The way that Floyd and Cardet shut down Wilcher and Kadary Richmond helped keep the Friars in the game. Mela received his first extended minutes in the past two games, and while he had some struggleson both sides of the ball, his positive contributions far outweighed and negatives. The more he plays, the more comfortable he will get. His rebounding and ball-handling abilities make him a threat from wherever he is on the floor.Oswin is also getting more minutes in the past three games and is getting increasingly comfortable on the court. In the past seven games, he has had an 11 rebound game and two 8 rebound games. He’s also had two games with 3 blocks and two more with 2 blocks over this period. His offense is clearly a work in progress, but given his youth and inexperience, the best way for him to get more comfortable is with more gametime experience.
I am personally looking forward to the resumption of BigEast play, and look forward to the Friars reasserting themselves in conference play. There will be no easy games ahead, but there are also no games that we cannot win. As noted at the beginning of this column, the Big East is still a top conference and will provide many opportunities for quality wins over the next two plus months. Using the current NCAA Net data, the Friars 18 remaining games are as follows: nine Quad 1 games, five Quad 2 games, three Quad 3 games, and one Quad 4 game. The opportunities are there for the Friars.
On a personal note, in my preview of the URI game I referred to the URI campus as “a donkey pasture.” This upset many people, and my boss received many emails and comments calling this comment rude, insulting, and revolting. That was never my intention, as it was supposed to be a harmless joke about our in-state opponents. Therefore, I would like to deeply apologize to all of the donkeys I offended by comparing your beautiful grazing areas to the Kington landfill.
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