@Providence, Sat., Jan. 6, 12 Noon, FS-1

Nice writeup re: Cooley & Providence (includes Pitino mention) -

"Providence men's basketball program has over the years been led by some incredibly accomplished coaches — among them Rick Pitino, Rick Barnes and Pete Gillen. None of them ever won a conference title at the school -- but Ed Cooley did it last season largely with a starting lineup of Al Durham, AJ Reeves, Justin Minaya, Noah Horchler and Nate Watson.

It was an awesome achievement.

But none of those players -- literally zero starters -- returned to the Friars this season, which is why Providence was picked to finish fifth in the Big East behind Creighton, Xavier, Villanova and UConn. Obviously, there's still a lot left in this season; things could go many different ways. But let the record show that, as of Thursday morning, Providence is alone atop the Big East standings with a 5-0 league mark after Wednesday night's 73-61 victory over a UConn team that received 20 first-place votes in last week's Associated Press Top 25 poll.

Amazing.

Providence is now 13-3 and on an eight-game winning streak heading into Saturday's game with St. John's.The Friars are being led by Bryce Hopkins — a 6-foot-7 wing whom John Calipari only played 6.4 minutes per game last season at Kentucky. Hopkins is now averaging 16.4 points and 9.2 rebounds in 33.1 minutes per game at Providence and has established himself as a candidate for Big East Player of the Year.

What did Cooley see that Calipari didn't?

Not sure.

But Hopkins' emergence as one of college basketball's best players is among the reasons Providence has jumped to No. 20 in Thursday morning's updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings."

www.cbssports.com

College basketball rankings: Providence joins Top 25 And 1 after beating UConn for eighth consecutive victory

The Huskies dropped to No. 5 in the CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 after losing to the Friars
www.cbssports.com www.cbssports.com
 
NCJohnnie said:
Cooley is an excellent coach, but he's a Providence guy; he's not leaving there to come to NYC.
Click to expand...
I wasn’t suggesting Cooley as a Possible Coach here . He would never come . If I mislead you in my post , it wasn’t intentional . But , I think Fr Shanley has gone through the wars before in seeking new Coaches . He probably is more experienced at it than Cragg .
 
Hey all. I’ve got 1 ticket available for the game tomorrow (my dad had to bail). Pretty good seat, a few rows behind St. John’s bench (I think. Haven’t been to a game in Providence.) I have it on sale on Seat Geek for $125 but willing to accept something much lower from a johnnies fan that wants to go. PM me if interested.
 
A Tale of Two Coaches: During halftime of the SJU - Xavier game, the difference between coaches, IMO, was never more glaring. Sean Miller talked strategy with his players, came across as objective and dispassionate in his delivery, and most of his players appeared to be listening to him. Anderson on the other hand rasped out a lot of words, none of which sounded particularly strategic. And some of his players looked like they could care less.
 
RyGuyRedStorm said:
Hey all. I’ve got 1 ticket available for the game tomorrow (my dad had to bail). Pretty good seat, a few rows behind St. John’s bench (I think. Haven’t been to a game in Providence.) I have it on sale on Seat Geek for $125 but willing to accept something much lower from a johnnies fan that wants to go. PM me if interested.
Click to expand...
Ignore. Ticket was purchased on seat geek. Would delete but can't find how.

Let's go St. Johns!
 
While viewing PC’s success on a yearly basis, one has to laugh at all the Anderson apologists who played the “player turnover” card, among other excuses way too often. PC with almost an entire new starting lineup has won 8 straight games while the Johnnies, once again, underachieve. While the NBA is all about the players, the college game is all about the head coach and his staff.
 
Johnny Rapper said:
While viewing PC’s success on a yearly basis, one has to laugh at all the Anderson apologists who played the “player turnover” card, among other excuses way too often. PC with almost an entire new starting lineup has won 8 straight games while the Johnnies, once again, underachieve. While the NBA is all about the players, the college game is all about the head coach and his staff.
Click to expand...
It is super impressive what Cooley is doing. And yes, flies in the face of idea of needing time to get new guys incorporated. I was in that camp that said it would take time to get the nearly whole new team playing well together (obviously better coaches could get that done) but was also heavily in the camp that thought our transfer class joining the 3 returnees was highly overrated by most fans.

I certainly wouldn’t have predicted providence to duplicate the success they had last year. Looks like they might.
 
SJU61982 said:
Zach B reporting that Curbelo made the trip, and is practicing with the team.
Click to expand...
I am truly shocked. Not as shocked as you all will be when we win, which I'm predicting for some strange reason.

Still don't think he plays though. The only way he sees the court is if we have the least social media-savvy staff ever.
 
L J S A said:
I am truly shocked. Not as shocked as you all will be when we win, which I'm predicting for some strange reason.

Still don't think he plays though. The only way he sees the court is if we have the least social media-savvy staff ever.
Click to expand...
The last prediction you made in the Nova thread was beating Nova by 8. I understand that PC may have a letdown after defeating a legit team in UConn but it would take a pretty big letdown to lose to the Johnnies at this point. Perhaps you should re consider being in the prediction business? 🤪
 
Johnny Rapper said:
The last prediction you made in the Nova thread was beating Nova by 8. I understand that PC may have a letdown after defeating a legit team in UConn but it would take a pretty big letdown to lose to the Johnnies at this point. Perhaps you should re consider being in the prediction business? 🤪
Click to expand...
I guess we could also mention the time I predicted a win over Nova a while back that no one believed and it was correct if we are going to bring up past predictions, right?
 
Going by the numbers. If the Johnnies lose to PC, going by the numbers, we may be looking at a 6 to 7 win season at best judging by future competition. Unless there is a miraculous turn around. Is a 6-14 or 7-13 season acceptable in anyones mind?
 
Johnny Rapper said:
Going by the numbers. If the Johnnies lose to PC, going by the numbers, we may be looking at a 6 to 7 win season at best judging by future competition. Unless there is a miraculous turn around. Is a 6-14 or 7-13 season acceptable in anyones mind?
Click to expand...
It's not acceptable to any SJU fan that I know of, but still may not be enough for Cragg to show CMA the door. If that's what you're getting at.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top