Friar Basketball Newsletter: Donovan Santoro Commits to Providence, Bryce Hopkins Goes for 29 at Mal Brown, a Clifton Moore Feature, How Bryce Cotton was Nearly a Boston College Eagle, and much more
If it weren’t for a pair of really bad decisions from Boston College, the state of Providence College basketball would look dramatically different today.
A year before Ed Cooley was hired at Providence, he was a finalist for the BC job. Despite having Cooley on campus for years as an assistant, they chose to hire Steve Donahue, who had taken Cornell to the Sweet 16 in 2010.
Donahue lasted just four seasons at BC, and in that time he had a chance to bring in one of the all-time great Friars, but passed. As Bryce Cotton told us during a recent conversation for the podcast series on the 2013-14 Friars, he attended BC’s Elite Camp when he was in high school, Donahue’s assistants were all-in on offering Cotton, but Donahue told Cotton he didn’t think he was a fit for his system. Oops.
You can hear more about Cotton’s unbelievable journey to Providence, as well as from Carson Desrosiers on the preparation for Creighton in the 2014 Big East Championship game, in the clip we posted this week. Interviews are now complete for the podcast and we are in the process of producing it.
This was a busy week in Friartown, as Providence played its annual Mal Brown Scrimmage, and they also picked up their third commitment in the class of 2023 on Friday night.
It was hard not to be encouraged by the play of Kentucky transfer Bryce Hopkins, who finished with 29 points and nine rebounds, despite not scoring for the first 12 minutes of the game. Our full breakdown of Mal Brown can be found here, and it includes notes on how redshirt freshman big man Rafael Castro popped early, Noah Locke had it going from deep, freshman point guard Jayden Pierre turned it on over the final five minutes, and how the experience of Jared Bynum and Ed Croswell eventually led their team to an 87-84 victory.
The latest high school recruit to pledge to PC is small forward Donovan Santoro, who becomes not only the third member of the class of 2023 to commit to Providence, but the third player from Southern California Academy. Santoro is an upside play, standing at 6’8 with the ability to stretch the floor. He played high school ball in Texas last year, and now will suit up alongside fellow PC commits Garwey Dual and Drew Fielder.
Big East Media Day is set to be held on Tuesday, and with it there is always bellyaching from fanbases who claim their schools are annually short-changed when the conference announces its preseason all-league teams, and the predicted finishes of the eleven schools. So, if you want to see which fanbases actually have a right to claim that their team is traditionally undervalued, you can look here. This article breaks down how every Big East team was predicted to finish and how they actually fared since the league realigned in 2013.
“There’s a guy I need you to get.” That is what Al Durham told Providence assistant coach Ivan Thomas last spring when his former Indiana teammate, Clifton Moore, hit the transfer portal. Thomas was effusive in his praise of Moore when he appeared on The Ed Cooley Show with John Rooke on Thursday night, while Durham was equally as high on him when he was on with Billy Ricci on The Friar Podcast over the summer.
Finally, we have an extended look back at the 2021-22 season in this video, which features virtually every highlight you’d want to see from the memorable season.
Business is definitely picking up in Providence with the season just three weeks away. We hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter. Please feel free to pass it along to any Friar fans you think might enjoy it!