Friar Basketball Newsletter: Breaking down the Friar frosh, a look at the passing ability of Josh Oduro, a Ticket Gaines feature, notes and video from George Mason's six-game winning streak, and more
The season is inching ever closer, and Providence celebrated Late Night Madness over the weekend in front of a packed Amica Mutual Pavilion. Both point guard Daquan Davis and wing Ryan Mela, PC’s two commitments to date in the class of 2024, were in attendance, along with a number of other recruiting targets.
Of course, the night was notable because it was Kim English’s first as Providence’s head coach, and ABC6’s Ian Steele captured English’s comments as he addressed the AMP crowd.
Friartown is more than ready for this season to start.
Here at Friar Basketball, we continue to get you primed for the season with a number of articles this week. Included in this week’s newsletter is a breakdown of Providence’s freshmen Rich Barron, Donovan Santoro, and Eli DeLaurier. This is a detailed breakdown of what to expect from these freshmen, both this season and in the long term.
An underrated aspect of Providence’s attack heading into the season is the potential playmaking of their bigs. In particular, George Mason transfer Josh Oduro was a terrific passer at Mason, and should help get open looks for his teammates at PC this season. From the article:
Oduro’s progression as a passer has been impressive. His assists totals went from 10 as a freshman, to 27 as a sophomore, to 46 his junior year, and then 86 last season. It isn’t just his assist totals that were impressive, but his ability to pass out of double teams, the timing, and his ability to lead shooters into great looks that makes him a threat.
The Oduro article includes a four-minute reel of his best passes from last season.
We also have a feature article on Davonte “Ticket” Gaines, who Kim English has had high praise for since his commitment. “He’s just a great defender and great shooter,” English said. “He’s a guy you really want to have on the court. We can put some really good defensive groups out there (with him), so I’m really excited.”
The article includes shot charts, statistical breakdowns of Gaines’ game, and video from the past two seasons at George Mason.
The third part of our series looking back at George Mason’s games from last season digs into their six-game winning streak to close out the regular season last year. You can read about how Mason got hot behind a terrific defense, and despite the loss of their second-leading scorer and best shooter. There is plenty of video in this one for you to enjoy.
There is also a look back at when Providence won on a last-second layup at Villanova in 1993, in a game that featured seven NBA players:
Finally, the Mal Brown scrimmage returns to the AMP on October 14 (4pm). Proceeds from the game will go to the Rhode Island Food Bank.
Thank you for reading Friar Basketball!