Midway through the second half of Providence’s 88-82 loss to Villanova on Tuesday, the Friars (and their fans) offered one final burst of energy in a game in which they’d been playing uphill all night.
Kevin. What is the buyout clause on kim English contract? I would assume it will be re-negotiated at some point. This has to end. Friar fans deserve better. Also - why doesn’t the team have a GM to oversee the NIL dollars?
The buyout isn't public knowledge. The GM role is an increasingly important one in college basketball, IMO. There's already so much to juggle as a HC or assistant and scouting the rest of the country definitely feels like a full time gig. Will be interesting to see if PC goes that route at some point.
Things that stood out for me yesterday: The inability to fix the defense is shocking. Edwards, a key acquisition by the staff, was a healthy scratch. Oswin played tentatively and looked lost. More turnovers than assists, again! Another home loss…. I could go on…WWND, What will Nap do ……
so, what now. another loss, more excuses. dumpster fire. it's ok to win guys. i think the real question is what team will jones be on next year. the rest can walk because they are allergic to defense.
So....still a KenPom 68. How much of this is bad luck, a decently competitive schedule, and Friars losing to a few teams in a row (Uconn, Nova, Xavier on the road) who are better than us anyway--and over 30 games it all evens out and they finish in the 15-16 win range? I sill have patience and even though I hate credentialism - I will resort to it and mention that I've been on and around so many teams that I really do need to give things a full season, a full run at things, before I cast a strong judgement.
But luck aside, there's no denying that from the Uconn collapse till now, the tide is pulling English out to sea and he might drown. Momentum comes from moments and that was incredibly deflating--and it is the type of thing that I could see a team not recover from, because "here-we-go-again-ism" is a real thing. It's impossible to not see this.
What I struggle with - and where I have a hard time defending KE - is the specific flavor of troubles on defense that have hallmarked his tenure. I don't care about points per game, that's all pace stuff. But it's the fouls down low and the offensive rebounds given up that I find simply remarkable. For example:
*Hargrove has 16 fouls in his last 40 minutes of court time!!
*Oswin simply cannot stop committing the same inane fouls over and over in the most predictable manner.
*We fouled one single player on St. Johns - Ejifor - 15 times in one game in just 34 min of his playing time. I don't have the time or tools to figure out exactly how bad and rare that is as a % of games played in D1, but in recent memory, I can't think of a similar situation.
*It's hard for me to unsee our guys consistently not boxing out and at first I thought it was scheme - we wanted to keep spacing and fly down the court in transition. But the more I watch, the more I just see people not boxing out when they should. Am I imagining this?
This has been going on for the entirely of English's run here, from season one where we had to hold our breath on Oduro's second foul because there was nothing behind him, till now the moment that Oswin inevitably commits the no-brainer #2. Why is English constantly putting this sword of Damacles over the team's head? I don't accept the Hopkins was hurt excuse for 23-24 because Hopkins isn't a big, and he wouldn't have solved that problem anyway. Why all the misfires and misjudgments at the 4 and 5 spots? Hargrove's hands are so slow - he only gets blocks and rebounds by accident. He has D1 size, and maybe feet, but not hands. This should have been apparent with any real scouting efforts. Same with Essandoko last year - how did his challenges not show up on any real in depth scouting?
Is he just unlucky two years in a row, or do they not know what to look for in bigs? Because the defense he is running requires competency and depth in the lane defensively. They are trying to funnel things away from quality 3s (and yea, I know they aren't doing this well) into low quality contested 2s. So why isn't this position deep and competent?
The other challenges I kinda get. Low assists, high turnovers...all of the things that wreck the math of what he's trying to do because it's wrecking with our possession count vis a vis the opponents. They probably banked on Edward's quickness lending itself to distribution more than it has, they probably thought Floyd as a fully matured senior could create a bit better than he can, and that Davis would be available for those stretches when they needed a true PG on the floor. I can kinda see where those things--which have not panned out--were reasonable assumptions and bets. But I don't get the bigs....Hargrove had these fouling tendencies and slow hands his whole career. Essandoko was slow at St. Joes and neither was getting rebounds or blocks to based on battling opponents - look at their film. The were just benefiting from size alone and that doesn't work in the BE.
I once bought a book called "The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows" that made up words for complicated feelings that there was no existing word for. Not sure what the word is for what I am feeling right now. What word would capture the feeling that "I am curious, but not expectant"?
Kevin. What is the buyout clause on kim English contract? I would assume it will be re-negotiated at some point. This has to end. Friar fans deserve better. Also - why doesn’t the team have a GM to oversee the NIL dollars?
The buyout isn't public knowledge. The GM role is an increasingly important one in college basketball, IMO. There's already so much to juggle as a HC or assistant and scouting the rest of the country definitely feels like a full time gig. Will be interesting to see if PC goes that route at some point.
Things that stood out for me yesterday: The inability to fix the defense is shocking. Edwards, a key acquisition by the staff, was a healthy scratch. Oswin played tentatively and looked lost. More turnovers than assists, again! Another home loss…. I could go on…WWND, What will Nap do ……
I thought Edwards had a foot problem.
so, what now. another loss, more excuses. dumpster fire. it's ok to win guys. i think the real question is what team will jones be on next year. the rest can walk because they are allergic to defense.
I agree. I can't imagine Jones sticking around with this gang. At least he isn't faking an injury ala Hopkins last year.
So....still a KenPom 68. How much of this is bad luck, a decently competitive schedule, and Friars losing to a few teams in a row (Uconn, Nova, Xavier on the road) who are better than us anyway--and over 30 games it all evens out and they finish in the 15-16 win range? I sill have patience and even though I hate credentialism - I will resort to it and mention that I've been on and around so many teams that I really do need to give things a full season, a full run at things, before I cast a strong judgement.
But luck aside, there's no denying that from the Uconn collapse till now, the tide is pulling English out to sea and he might drown. Momentum comes from moments and that was incredibly deflating--and it is the type of thing that I could see a team not recover from, because "here-we-go-again-ism" is a real thing. It's impossible to not see this.
What I struggle with - and where I have a hard time defending KE - is the specific flavor of troubles on defense that have hallmarked his tenure. I don't care about points per game, that's all pace stuff. But it's the fouls down low and the offensive rebounds given up that I find simply remarkable. For example:
*Hargrove has 16 fouls in his last 40 minutes of court time!!
*Oswin simply cannot stop committing the same inane fouls over and over in the most predictable manner.
*We fouled one single player on St. Johns - Ejifor - 15 times in one game in just 34 min of his playing time. I don't have the time or tools to figure out exactly how bad and rare that is as a % of games played in D1, but in recent memory, I can't think of a similar situation.
*It's hard for me to unsee our guys consistently not boxing out and at first I thought it was scheme - we wanted to keep spacing and fly down the court in transition. But the more I watch, the more I just see people not boxing out when they should. Am I imagining this?
This has been going on for the entirely of English's run here, from season one where we had to hold our breath on Oduro's second foul because there was nothing behind him, till now the moment that Oswin inevitably commits the no-brainer #2. Why is English constantly putting this sword of Damacles over the team's head? I don't accept the Hopkins was hurt excuse for 23-24 because Hopkins isn't a big, and he wouldn't have solved that problem anyway. Why all the misfires and misjudgments at the 4 and 5 spots? Hargrove's hands are so slow - he only gets blocks and rebounds by accident. He has D1 size, and maybe feet, but not hands. This should have been apparent with any real scouting efforts. Same with Essandoko last year - how did his challenges not show up on any real in depth scouting?
Is he just unlucky two years in a row, or do they not know what to look for in bigs? Because the defense he is running requires competency and depth in the lane defensively. They are trying to funnel things away from quality 3s (and yea, I know they aren't doing this well) into low quality contested 2s. So why isn't this position deep and competent?
The other challenges I kinda get. Low assists, high turnovers...all of the things that wreck the math of what he's trying to do because it's wrecking with our possession count vis a vis the opponents. They probably banked on Edward's quickness lending itself to distribution more than it has, they probably thought Floyd as a fully matured senior could create a bit better than he can, and that Davis would be available for those stretches when they needed a true PG on the floor. I can kinda see where those things--which have not panned out--were reasonable assumptions and bets. But I don't get the bigs....Hargrove had these fouling tendencies and slow hands his whole career. Essandoko was slow at St. Joes and neither was getting rebounds or blocks to based on battling opponents - look at their film. The were just benefiting from size alone and that doesn't work in the BE.
I once bought a book called "The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows" that made up words for complicated feelings that there was no existing word for. Not sure what the word is for what I am feeling right now. What word would capture the feeling that "I am curious, but not expectant"?