Report: Kyron Cartwright to Return to the Providence Coaching Staff
"He was a total gammer, it was as if he got better when the stage got bigger. The knowledge and experience he will bring to this PC team, and teams to come, will be a huge value add for the program."
Over the weekend, news broke that Kyron Cartwright would be returning to Providence as a Special Assistant to head coach Ed Cooley. This move comes on the heels of LaDontae Henton being promoted to Associate Director of Player Development, Scouting, and Recruiting Coordination last week.
Cooley has been vocal about Cartwright being one of (if not the) most intelligent players he has ever coached. Cartwright went from a late signee to an All Big East performer, the league’s Most Improved Player, and a Big East All-Academic Team member from 2016-18.
The Compton, CA native is probably most fondly remembered for an electric run through the 2018 Big East Tournament in which he led Providence through three consecutive overtime contests, including taking out a top-five team in Xavier in the semifinals, before falling in the extra session to eventual national champion Villanova.
While so many of the great “what-if” scenarios in Friar history revolve around players who nearly came to Providence, but headed elsewhere (see: Tim Duncan, Jason Williams), it took a coaching change at Loyola-Marymount and short-sightedness elsewhere for Cartwright to come 3,000 miles to Friartown.
Cartwright was originally slated to take over for another terrific, undersized point guard in Anthony Ireland (a Waterbury, CT native and former NEPSAC star) at Loyola-Marymount, but re-opened his recruitment after Max Good was terminated.
He then almost committed to Grand Canyon University in the spring of his senior year. Cartwright called head coach Dan Majerle, ready to commit to him, but Majerle rescinded the scholarship offer after deeming Cartwright to be too quiet to lead the program after his visit.
“When I went on my visit to Providence, I was a really shy kid. I really didn’t say much to anybody. I was only speaking to people when spoken to, but I was just observing a lot, and I don’t think Dan Majerle wanted that. He wanted a very vocal point guard to lead his team – which I am a vocal point guard, I was just shy,” Cartwright told The Friar Podcast in the spring of 2021.
The Friars were in the market for a point guard to back up Kris Dunn in the spring of 2014. PC assistant coach Andre Lafleur was close to Cartwright’s high school coach, Tony Thomas, at Compton High School, and the rest is history.
Few would have guessed, upon his signing with Providence, that Cartwright would develop into an all-league point guard. He was an overlooked member of a highly regarded recruiting haul that included Jalen Lindsey, Ben Bentil, Paschal Chukwu, and Tyree Chambers.
It didn’t take Cartwright long, however, to gain the trust of Cooley and his staff. Instead of backing up Dunn, Cartwright started alongside him the first eight games of his career.
By mid-December, he had the first double double of his PC tenure, with 10 points and 10 assists against Stony Brook.
The trio of Cartwright, Lindsey, and Rodney Bullock will be remembered in Providence for reaching the NCAA Tournament in all four of their years at the school.
Cartwright was a sponge at Providence, and reflected on his growth when talking to Billy Ricci of the Friar Podcast: “I think Coach Battle played a huge role in my development,” he said.
“He has coached a lot of great guys. He has a lot of knowledge, but you have to be willing and open to listening to him to get there. I spent a lot of time — every day almost — before practice watching film with him. I think I was defensive my first two years, not really open to a lot of criticism. Once I sat down, talked to Coach Cooley and Coach Battle, and was more open, it allowed my game to kind of flourish.”
He certainly flourished over his final two seasons in black and white, leading the Big East in assists as a junior and senior. He played with an edge and fearlessness that endeared him to Friar fans, and he had so much trust from Cooley that his head coach would allow him to change play calls even in the most critical moments of games.
After graduating from PC, Cartwright played professionally in England, Hungary, and Germany before returning to the states to coach at Saint Thomas Academy in Mendota Heights, Minnesota under former UConn great Khalid El-Amin. He then joined the staff at the University of Minnesota Crookson, before coming back to Providence.
Former Providence teammate Drew Fonts told Friar Basketball that he believes Cartwright will be a natural fit on the staff: “Kyron was a great teammate and one of the most intelligent players I have played with. He could see a play developing before anyone else could, and not to mention, he was probably one of the fastest players with the ball in his hands I have ever seen.”
He continued, “He was a total gamer, it was as if he got better when the stage got bigger. The knowledge and experience he will bring to this PC team, and teams to come, will be a huge value add for the program — similar to LaDontae Henton because of the way they both can connect with players.”
Kyron was an absolute jet with the ball