A Down Year for the Providence Friars - Transfers or Injuries?

Check out Billy Ricci's latest for Friar Basketball.

Friar Family,

Now that we are rounding out the Big East schedule with two games to go, I sit here reflective on what has been a season filled with more questions than answers. And the more I think about it, the more I look at college basketball as a whole and realize we are not alone in having all these questions to answer heading into the final games of the regular season.

The state of our beloved sport is just different (not necessarily better or worse, depending how you look at it) with conference realignment, NIL, and no-sit transfers. Now, years later since all three of these topics have been put in full effect, we are really starting to see the landscape changing.

Our Friars are not unique when it comes to the four transfers they brought in this year. It is also not unique to PC that they didn’t go 100% when it comes adding guys who have been able to improve on their personal bests here. Because of this I think we may see transfers take a little bit of a dip in the coming years, because I think players and their families are starting to see there are just as many failed transfers as wildly successful ones in this new era of college basketball.

With that being said, it is harder than ever for high school recruits to land at the schools they want to be at with transfers taking up more spots on rosters. Whereas it used to be four-to-five high school players joining a college basketball roster, many teams are filling in with four or so transfers and one or two high school recruits.

With fewer three-to-four year building-type players and more programs trying to build on the fly, I believe this is where programs are dramatically changing from year-to-year because of not building that foundation. Luckily for the Friars, Oswin Erhunmwunse and Ryan Mela are two foundational players they can build around. One or two more young foundation players (one big and one point guard) would be nice to have on the roster right about now.

But on the other hand, if you look at the step forward Jabri Abdur-Rahim and Wesley Cardet took in Big East play before their injuries, you would probably say it would be worth it to have them on the roster instead of a true freshman.

As we learned with the 2019-20 Friars, even adding just one starting transfer in Luwane Pipkins — it can throw off your team dynamic completely to start, but he can be your X-factor and a reason for success as the season runs its course. It seemed like Pipkins, who had a large role at UMass and then had to learn how to play a contributing role for the Friars, could have had a similar arc to Wesley Cardet, if Cardet hadn’t gotten hurt this year.

So, for the fans who were reasonably upset with PC’s performance in the Bahamas, looking back, it’s almost surprising with Bryce Hopkins out, and so many new guys in the fold, that they were able to compete at the level they did against Oklahoma. Davidson and Indiana… that seemed to be more where PC was at as a team in that moment of the season — which is, again, not uncommon.

UConn was, fortunately for us and unfortunately for the Big East, the perfect case study of not being ready to perform up to their standard in a non-conference tournament — and they didn’t really have the same transfer dynamic to deal with this season.

So Friartown, the early season struggles — without Hopkins and that lack of a go-to guy with a lot of new joiners in the mix — their depth couldn’t mask what a team lacks from a cohesion, connection, and talent perceptive once the ball is tipped.

Then came the injuries. Hopkins (again), Cardet, Rich Barron, Christ Essandoko, Eli DeLaurier, Abdur-Rahim and most recently Corey Floyd Jr. Any chance the Friars had of deciding what the season could be, seemed to go down the drain as the injuries piled up.

To look at this season as lost is fair, but to look at it as a place to blame the staff I just don’t know if that is fair when you look at it from a macro perspective.

The offense has improved since the start of the season, seeing plenty of recent games in the 40% from three as a team and 50% from the field. The defense has never really gotten into gear, but without Hopkins and the recent injuries — size and length were simply not where thy needed to be to cause problems on the defensive side of the ball consistently.

What I hope can improve next year is simple:

Return ready to lock teams down defensively again, while Erhunmwunse and Mela continue to take steps forward as those building blocks, and incorporating freshmen Jamier Jones and Jaylen Harrell into roles that make sense for their long-term growth and the team’s more immediate success.