The Friars Don't Know Who They Are Yet... And That's Okay

Billy Ricci returns with his latest article for Friar Basketball on the team's early season struggles, and why history has proven that Ed Cooley teams recover from slow starts.

As Ed Cooley wished the collective media a Happy Thanksgiving after the Friars uneventful 71-57 win against Merrimack on Wednesday night, he acknowledged the elephant in the room:  the team doesn’t quite know who they are yet a handful of games into the 2022-2023 season. 

An even better description of the state of the team came from Kris Craig, a photographer who has been with the Providence Journal and shooting the Friars for over 35 years. As he was looking to capture that perfect moment, he repeated the same phrase to me a few times: “There is a lot of indecisiveness going on out there.”

Kevin Farrahar and I chatted during the game that with Jared Bynum headlining the top of everyone’s scouting report this season, the rest of the starting lineup is trying to figure things out on the fly. And with last year’s success, comes expectations and being circled on the calendar anytime the Friars lace ‘em up. As Cooley also mentioned at the post game presser, “In today’s culture of kids — understand this — nobody wants to be the bad guy, everybody’s the good guy. ‘It’s okay having nine turnovers. It’s okay they just scored 30 points on you. Don’t worry about it.’ Leadership is about leading the right way even when you have to be the bad guy. Leadership is lonely.” 

And between making sure everyone gets involved in what has been a ten-man rotation, and no one wanting to be the bad guy with so many new faces in the fold, it’s okay that the Friars haven’t quite figured out who they are yet.

Back in 2019-20 we saw our beloved Friars lose to Penn, Long Beach State, and the College of Charleston right around this same time. Then they floored Texas and won five games against ranked opponents in a month’s time during Big East play. Remember Luwane Pipkins? Yeah, no one wanted to be the bad guy when Pip was launching threes in some of those less-than-stellar early season losses. Finding minutes for Jimmy Nichols, Greg Gantt and Emmitt Holt (coming back from his health scare) in the rotation at the time was quite challenging. These ‘22-23 Friars face similar challenges, but truthfully, between the talent Providence has brought in, and being one continuation call in the final moments of the St. Louis game from being 5-1, we need to have some faith here.

Let’s start with the play from PC’s big men thus far. Ed Croswell has hovered around a double more often than not this season (11.1 points, 7.2 rebounds), and his ability to finish at the rim and consistently get in position to rebound at a high clip should result in some big games ahead in Big East play for the big man from Philly. When it comes to Clif Moore, I have effectively renamed him until further notice “The Big Fundamental.” Clif is sound and looks experienced in just about anything he does on the floor. Three early fouls sent him to the bench in the first half on Wednesday night, but Moore is shooting over 54% from the field, 87% at the free throw line, and putting up 8.8 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 2.2 blocks per game in under 18 minutes a night.  

Croswell isn’t the only Friar hovering around a double double so far in this young season. That other Friar is none other than Bryce Hopkins. Against the heightened competition of Miami and St. Louis at Mohegan Sun, it was pretty clear who the Friars’ go-to guy was. Hopkins finished with 36 points and 17 rebounds against Miami and St. Louis last weekend, and has 26 boards over his last three games. As the season goes on, I know I am not alone in my excitement to see Hopkins take on that leadership role with this team, specifically on the offensive end. 

Devin Carter continues to be the guy opponents see in the lineup and hope they are not matched up against. Having had a steal in each game, and the motor to finish out games, Carter could emerge into a presence on both ends late in games. 

Noah Locke and Jared Bynum have struggled at points, and it will be interesting to see if either guard is paired with Jayden Pierre or Alyn Breed for longer stretches rather than each other, considering their similar abilities to make and create long range shots. 

Overall, at 4-2 there are certainly more questions than answers, and truthfully, we may have to wait until Big East play begins Dec. 17 to start answering them, especially after having seen PC’s most notable remaining non-conference opponent, TCU, drop a buy game against New Mexico State and barely clear the Golden Lions of Arkansas-Pine Bluff.

Either way, Cooley has made it clear a lighter non-conference isn’t a bad thing for a Friar team looking to build some chemistry. Either way, I think we can all be thankful as we fight the Thanksgiving hangovers that this team has the talent to make noise once they figure out their identity — as so many Cooley-led teams have done as the season moves along.