The First Practice: A Tale of New & Old

Billy Ricci shares his excitement as the Friars return to practice

June 12th. For any sports fan this wouldn’t be the time to be thinking about college basketball would it? Well if you haven’t realized yet - Kevin and I (I didn’t clear this line with Kev prior to submitting this article…) are not necessarily normal media members/Providence fans. Our text exchange about the energy of the first practice from a less than a minute Instagram reel, tells you all you need to know about us. But frankly this isn’t about us! It’s about the official dawn of a new season, the first “English class” practice. 

I couldn’t help but compare the first practice for these 2023-2024 Providence Friars to that of a Mighty Ducks movie, Space Jam or any sports movie franchise where a group of new players show up to their first practice looking to make a statement! Imagine for a second Bryce Hopkins, Devin Carter, Corey Floyd Jr., Jayden Pierre getting some shots up on one side of the gym, and Josh Oduro, Justyn Fernandez, Ticket Gaines, Richard Barron walking into the gym. Truly as unique a situation in a college basketball offseason as you will find with four players returning who all played last year, and now adding four guys to the roster who played/were recruited by your new coach. It is something only a movie could script, or maybe the college basketball NIL/Transfer Portal could.

Putting my Stephen Spielberg aside, there is no doubt there is a new energy and a “pop” within the basketball practice facility at Providence College these days. Sometimes no matter how great things are going, some new faces can really change a vibe. And to me, the two new faces I am keeping an eye on are going to be Garwey Dual and Josh Oduro.

Dual seems to have an aura around him, as I have written before, he basically can tell the story without needing to say a word that he is a special talent. His size, his length, his feel for the game – all imposing, rather than intimidated as a true freshman. His aura doesn’t stop there either, the fact that he chose PC again when Kayvaun Mulready and Drew Fielder didn’t just adds a little bit more fire to what I’m sure is going to be a roaring flame from Friar fans this season. This begs the question: How much are we going to see of Dual to start the season? My guess is as good as yours, but if I had to put a PC tuition-sized bet on it – I would say he will be hard to keep out of the starting lineup.

Then there is Josh Oduro. From a production perspective, Friar fans should be excited that Oduro followed Coach English here to Friartown. For a player who averaged 16 and a half points and seven and half rebounds a game in his last two seasons, I think an upgrade in competition will be an achievable challenge for JO. They say it’s never easy being a big man in the Big East, especially with some great returning big men like Eric Dixon, Donovan Clingan, and Joel Soriano, for example, but to stabilize the production opposite Ed Croswell’s departure from the Friars cannot be understated. I am looking forward to seeing Oduro create some shots creatively out of the high post, as well as improve on his assist totals with a really talented supporting cast around him. Playing for a coach he is already familiar with, in a system he is familiar with, with a talented roster around him – the cards have been dealt well for Oduro to have a banner final year of college basketball in Friartown.

Even before I got my Lasik surgery done in the fall I could clearly see that Hopkins and Carter are in a sense co-captaining these 2023-24 Friars. I love the situation for both of them. Both coming in as transfers last year, with a long-standing system in-place, has now presented an intriguing fresh start coupled with a coach who wants to see them play an outside NBA-esque offensive style. One would think either returning was never a guarantee, but hearing how they are excited to welcome in the new guys made it sure sound like it could have been. 

If I am Bryce Hopkins I am coming into this year saying to myself my game has been revitalized, but this is the year I get the NBA buzz and a Big East Player of the Year trophy I should end up deserving. English has mentioned he is looking forward to seeing Hopkins shoot more threes and play out on the perimeter. With another year of being the go-to-guy ahead, seeing Hopkins’ name mentioned as a potential first-round pick trending into Big East play would not surprise me. There is truly nothing he cannot do on the floor. 

And let’s not forget DC people! Slept on by the media when it came to defensive honors last year, we saw a decent jump in production from his freshman to sophomore year, but what is stopping #22 from getting over 15 points a game this year? Again, more threes and more perimeter play seem to be intriguing for Carter opposite his already strong slashing abilities. He has embraced being a Providence Friar has been up there with some of the greats, from his Dunkin partnership to his community work to just embracing the brand on Twitter – I think his want to be one of the all-time greats here is going to lead him to a very big season.

I hope Friartown I am as Friar’d up as I am today as I will be for tip-off come November. And it can’t be understated how much of a large part of all of this is due to our fans not wavering for a second with the coaching change. Selling out of season tickets in the heart of the off-season? Only in Friartown baby…