The Friars Added Peteris Pinnis, plus Thomas Sorber Sticks with the Draft, a Look at Cole Hargrove in the CAA Tournament, and News and Notes

1. The Friars added depth to their frontcourt this week with the addition of Peteris Pinnis, a seven-foot, 21-year-old center from Latvia. He played as a backup center for VEF Riga in the Latvian League last season — a team that featured former Friar Vincent Council at one point.

Kevin Stacom of GoLocalProv was the first to report it.

Pinnis was primarily an interior scorer last season, shooting 4-14 on jump shots, while taking over 80 shot attempts on either hook shots or at the rim. His scoring attempts were mainly split between post-ups (27% of his possessions), as a roll man (22%), cuts (17%), and offensive rebounds (12%).

In the 140+ possessions I found, he shot 59% from inside the arc, 59% at the free throw line, 1-9 from three, and had four assists to 23 turnovers. Pinnis had more steals (11) than blocks (6) in these 22 games.

Here’s a look at about 40 of his possessions from games I was able to watch over the past few days:

2. Georgetown received a significant blow this week when Thomas Sorber confirmed he’ll stay in the 2025 NBA Draft.

The Hoyas got off to a surprising 3-0 start in Big East play last season behind the emergence of the freshman center Sorber and Micah Peavy (a revelation as perhaps the best two-way wing in the league last season). They went 2-6 over the next eight games following their 3-0 start, then saw Sorber go down for the season in late January.

Georgetown went 3-6 without Sorber for the remainder of the regular season, before falling to DePaul in their first Big East Tournament game.

Ed Cooley had high praise for Sorber after being eliminated by the Demons in March, “In my opinion — in my humble opinion — he should have, at minimum, been the rookie of the year in this league. The fact that these coaches didn’t recognize that, I pray that that kid comes back. I pray he comes back.”

“He will be the Big East Player of the Year, he will be a 1st Team All American, he will be a lottery pick, and we will be cutting the nets down in this building, at this time come next Saturday… I’m praying my big boy comes back because if he does, this room will look blue and gray.”

Obviously, losing Sorber is a crushing blow, but it’s compounded by the Hoyas’ potential inexperience at the center spot. They welcomed St. John’s transfer Vincent Iwuchuckwu this spring and hope for a return to health of sophomore-to-be Julius Halaifonua. After also losing Drew Fielder this spring, Georgetown will likely lean on 6’7 sophomore Caleb Williams and 6’7 UConn transfer Isaiah Abraham at the four. Cooley added two potentially good pieces in Langston Love (Baylor) and KJ Lewis (Arizona), as well as DeShawn Harris-Smith (Maryland) to a backcourt that also saw the departure of Jayden Epps this spring.

The loss of Sorber combined with a lack of proven depth upfront leaves a glaring hole heading into next season.

3. I recently watched Drexel versus Towson in the CAA conference tournament last season to get another look at incoming PC transfer big Cole Hargrove.

This was the third matchup between Drexel and the top-seed Towson, and all three games were close ones. In their first two matchups, Towson won in overtime and by a single point in the other matchup.

This one wasn’t any different, with Towson taking an 82-76 win after the two teams were separated by just a point with under a minute left.

Dylan Williamson went off for Towson, making his first nine shots of the second half, a game-deciding three late, and finishing with 32 points.

Drexel cut a 15-point deficit to one (77-76) with under a minute left, but Williamson buried his seventh 3-pointer of the game with 25 seconds remaining to push Towson ahead by four.

Hargrove was quiet in the first half before picking it up in the second — ending his Drexel career with an eight-point, eight-rebound, four-block, three-assist effort.

Hargrove didn’t do much through the game’s first ten minutes — missing a pair of layup attempts, before throwing an impressive lefthand pass for an open three.

Friar fans will notice early that Hargrove does a lot with his left hand, including blocking shots and flipping passes to shooters and drivers. He flashes a soft touch inside with either hand.

Hargrove was more of a force on the interior in the second half. Drexel switched to a 3-2 zone for long stretches, and while Towson hurt them on the offensive glass (17 offensive boards), Hargrove was more of a rebounding presence in the second — a half in which he threw a pretty backdoor pass for a score and came up with a pair of critical blocks in the final four minutes.

He looks willing to do the dirty work inside, despite not getting many touches (3-6 from the field, 2-2 FTs).

Here are some highlights of Hargrove and the game:

More news and notes from around Providence and college basketball…

The Friars will play Penn State in the Hall of Fame Showcase at Mohegan Sun on Nov. 22. The two programs have met just once in the regular season, per PC athletics. That came on Nov. 17, 2012 when PC had only six players available in a 55-52 loss in Puerto Rico. Providence was down all three of its point guards (Vincent Council, Kris Dunn, and Bryce Cotton) and played Josh Fortune, LaDontae Henton, and Ted Bancroft 40+ minutes each.

Providence and Colorado will also begin a home-and-home series this year, with PC heading to Boulder in November.

Brendan McGair spent some time recently with the parents of Bryce Hopkins.

The Three Man Weave recently recapped the 2024-25 Big East season.