Friar Basketball Newsletter: Ed Cooley Named Naismith Coach of the Year, Catching Up with Quante Berry, How Providence’s Offense Vaulted Ahead This Year, Our Year-end Fan Survey, and More
The season may be over, but our plan is to continue to produce a weekly newsletter throughout the offseason.
It was announced on Sunday that Ed Cooley won the Naismith National Coach of the Year Award. Here we delve into how this honor has been bestowed on a who’s who of college coaches, and how winning it puts Cooley in elite company. He is just the fifth Big East head coach to win the award. He and the Friars rebounded from a down season a year ago with an emphatic response over the past six months.
A big reason why Providence was able to reach the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament was an improved offense. Subscribers can read this article, which details areas in which the Friars improved offensively this season, with data from Synergy Sports and NCAA Live Stats included. This article also looks into trends in regard to certain play types dating back to the 2014 season.
Quante Berry joined Billy Ricci and me on the Friar Podcast recently. Berry is a 2022 combo guard commit, who shared his experience being recruited by Ed Cooley and his staff, what it was like being on campus when the Friars clinched the Big East regular season title, how his relationships with fellow 2022 commits Christ Essandoko and Jayden Pierre have grown, and more.
Also included this week are season highlight reels of Noah Horchler and Al Durham. Both players were such terrific spring additions to the program, and the coaching staff will hope to have similar success in identifying talent this spring.
Craig Leighton returned this week, and shared his thoughts on why this season was so special, and how it could pay dividends down the road.
Finally, as we wrap up the 2021-22 season, we want to hear from you. We surveyed our readers in the fall and shared your thoughts at the time, and now we are hoping you will give us your feedback on a variety of topics surrounding the program. This survey is ten questions and should take no more than five minutes to complete.
It should be a very intriguing spring signing period. The coaching staff is looking for ways to replace the graduating talent, and business should really start to pick up soon in that regard.