Ricardo Ledo is on his way to Providence

Name: Ricardo Ledo

Position: Shooting Guard

Height: 6’6”

Weight: 180 lbs.

Hometown: Providence, RI

ESPN Overall Ranking: 13

ESPN Position Ranking: 3

It’s always nice when Providence and head coach Keno Davis somehow grab a recruit over schools like UConn, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisville, Pittsburgh, and Syracuse, among others.  It is just a little nicer when the recruit that Keno Davis managed to get a commitment from is considered by some to be the best shooting guard in the country.

On Christmas day, Keno Davis and many of us Friar Faithful received some of the best news that I have heard in years, Ledo was committing to Providence.  As a Providence native, a person unfamiliar with college basketball would assume that his hometown school would be his number one choice.  In many instances, recruits actually are more prone to go away from their hometown for school for many reasons.  Some realize that the northeast isn’t the best region in the country for basketball (although that can be disputed), others want to get away from their family and friends for college, and some are chasing the dream to play professional basketball and realize that they need to go away to achieve their goals.  Whatever the reason, recruits rarely make the move that Ledo pulled just a few short days ago.
Amid speculation that Keno Davis would be fired as head coach of the Providence College Friars over the summer, I encouraged you all to be confident in Keno’s ability to install his system, improve players’ performances on the court, and bring in big time recruits.  As of December 29, 2010 it looks like Keno Davis is doing all three of those things.  I’m not going to get ahead of myself and say that PC should give Keno a nice new contract to keep him in town for many years to come, but as a Friar fan, you have to be encouraged by what you see.  Gerard Coleman, 2010’s biggest recruit, was the highest ranked recruit to ever commit to PC.  The benefit of bringing in big-time talent similarly to Coleman can be seen already.  He is producing as a freshman, which is a rarity in the Big East, and he has shown flashes of an unstoppable offensive arsenal.  The commitment of Ricardo Ledo obviously tops Coleman in terms of national prominence and ranking, but the move is just another stepping stone in the right direction.

Aside from Ledo, there are even more reasons to be enthralled with the possible future of the Providence College Friars.  The 2011 recruiting class seems to be locked up.  The Friars will lose only two seniors this season (again, not counting walk-on Chris Carter) in Marshon Brooks and Ray Hall, and already have two ESPN 90 grade recruits lined up to come in an fill those scholarship spots, PG Kyan Anderson and SF Markus Crider.  I’m actually amazed that Keno was able to lure such talented recruits to fill those spots considering the current youth of the team, which would lead one to believe that there will be little playing time available for a true freshman next season.

As for 2012, that recruiting class has the chance to be a program changer.  We already know about Ledo, who as previously mentioned is one of the country’s top recruits.  Also committed for 2012 is 6’5” SF Joshua Fortune (#34 SF according to ESPN).  Just those two recruits alone would provide some promise for Friar fans, but it doesn’t seem that Keno is stopping there.  Among recruits currently considering PC are 6’11” center Andre Drummond (ESPN 98 grade, #1 overall prospect, #1 position prospect), 7’0” center Kaleb Tarczewski (ESPN 97 grade, #24 overall prospect, #7 position prospect), 6’8” power forward Shaq Goodwin (ESPN 96 grade, #44 overall prospect, #9 position prospect), 6’8” power forward Anthony J.P. Cortesia (ESPN 92 grade, #100 overall prospect, #25 position prospect), 6’3” shooting guard Melvin Johnson (ESPN 88 grade, #44 position prospect), 6’8” power forward Evan Cummins (ESPN 87 grade, #57 position prospect), and 6’8” power forward Kamari Murphy (ESPN 85 grade, #69 position prospect).  Drummond, Tarczewski, Goodwin, Cummins, and Murphy are all in the ESPN U Super 60 for 2012, which is reserved for the 60 best high school juniors in the country.  If Davis could land just one of those guys this program would have one of the better recruiting classes in the country and looking to finally crack the top eight perennially in the Big East.

Have faith Friar fans, have faith…

Big East Game 1: Syracuse 81 – Providence 74

-I think that it is important for me to preface my critique of this game by presenting my expectations for Tuesday night’s Syracuse-PC match up.  Providence had played only one true road game before last night, which resulted in a loss at Boston College.  Other than that game, they played two games on a neutral court in Cancun and their remaining ten games all took place at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Providence.  So, how did you expect a team that is comprised thirteen freshmen and sophomores to only three seniors to play on the road in their first Big East game against the #5 team in the country in Syracuse?  Well, to be blunt, I didn’t expect much.

-As I mentioned in a previous post, Marshon Brooks may be the most frustrating player that I have ever watched play basketball (besides Charlie Burch of course).  Marshon looked to be scoring at will in the first half, posting 17 of PC’s 32 points.  Brooks was the sole reason why the Friars were still in the game.  I was encouraged that Brooks was getting to the rim instead of making his living on the perimeter.  After halftime, Marshon looked like a completely different player.  He was stagnant offensively, not getting open of creating for others.  Marshon made a critical fast-break three pointer to put the Friars within five late in the second half, but the shot that he took was terrible.  On the break, there were two Friars cutting to the hoop for easy buckets, but Brooks pulled up at the hash mark and launched a three.  These are the exact instances where Brooks frustrates the hell out of me.  He passes when he should shoot, and he shoots when he should pass.  I’m said to say that Marshon just doesn’t get it.

-The Friars are not going to win many games when they shoot under forty percent from the field (39.7%) and under thirty percent from beyond the arc (26.7%).  Keno Davis has notoriously struggled to find a way to crack the Syracuse 2-3 zone, and last night was a perfect indicator of those struggles.  On countless possessions down the stretch, the ball was passed from the point to the wing, back to the point and to the other wing.  Working the ball around the three point line is not helpful in breaking a 2-3 zone, especially when your team can not hit a three.  Council split the top two defenders a few times which led to easy dump-down buckets for Bilal Dixon and Brooks, but it didn’t occur at a high enough frequency for my liking.

-Aside from PC’s offensive woes, the Orangemen, who are not known for their three point shooting (many believe that is the weakest part of their game), shot over forty percent from beyond the arc.  Forward Kris Jospeh was 4-6 from three, and when he is hot like that, there are few teams in the country who could compete with Syracuse.

-Looking back on the game, I can honestly say that I was happy with what I saw on Tuesday night at the Carrier Dome.  Many of the young Friars did a lot of growing up against the Orangemen.  After a dreadful first half, Gerard Coleman showed the skills that made him a top 50 recruit nationally, when he scored points on three straight possessions for the Friars to get them back into the game.  Vincent Council looks like he is ready to lead this team alongside Marshon Brooks is Brooks takes a little side step to let Council blossom.  Duke Mondy played “starter minutes” off of the bench for Keno Davis and hit a big three towards the end of the game to keep it close.  Kadeem Batts is slowly learning what Bilal Dixon was taught last season, being undersized in the Big East is not fun but it is necessary that foul trouble is avoided in order for your team to be successful.

-Keno Davis used only a seven man rotation in the loss to Syracuse (eight players actually saw game time, but Dre Evans played just one minute so I’m not counting him).  In my opinion, one of the biggest strengths for this Friars team is their depth.  I’m well aware that unlike Syracuse, Keno can’t pull three or four 6’9” guys off of his bench and throw them into the game, but keeping guys like Council, Coleman, and Brooks fresh is what is going to lead this Friars team to some big wins.  Even squeezing just a few minutes out of a guy like Dre Evans, Ron Giplaye, and Lee Goldsbrough will be huge in terms of the starters’ effectiveness.

NEXT GAME: Saturday January 1^st vs. St. John’s (7pm)

Week 16 – The Mattyoshow Review

In this segment I will provide a weekly review for the previous weekend’s Patriots game, as well as my prediction for next weekend’s game.

-Let me begin by apologizing for the tardiness of this segment.  Shortly after I began celebrating the 13^th win of the season for the New England Patriots (I can’t get enough Guinness lately) on Sunday my computer’s hard drive decided to go, leaving me with no visible evidence that I have been in college for the past 3 ½ years.  Anyways, the Patriots claimed their 13^th victory of the 2010 season on Sunday, which clinched them the number one seed in the AFC and home field advantage throughout the playoffs.  Home field advantage is huge for the Pats, as we all know how good they are at home, but for some reason I can’t get last season’s home playoff beat down against the Ravens out of my head…

-Many people’s initial reaction to the score line (34-3) has them praising the Patriots defense to no end.  To a certain degree, I agree.  The Patriots defense has had a knack of being opportunistic this season, creating turnovers and taking advantage of sloppy play by opposing teams.  Although the defense allowed only three points, the Bills ended the game with 7 turnovers (5 by Ryan Fitzpatrick).  Anyone that watches NFL football, or even football at any level, knows that committing that many turnovers is essentially the equivalent of a forfeit.  Ryan Fitzpatrick made some throws that had me rewinding and replaying the play four or five times to see what he was thinking.  CJ Spiller looked like he had enough of playing in the weather up in Buffalo by dropping a couple of punts.  Yes, allowing three points is a great sign for this defense, but no, they did not do it without a lot of help from the Bills.

-As I mentioned in the “What to Look For…” segment, this game would be controlled on the ground.  The Buffalo Bills came into Sunday’s contest boasting the worst rushing defense in the entire NFL, and they did little to help their cause.  Yes, Tom Brady threw three touchdowns and the running backs combined for only one (Danny Woodhead), but the backs put Brady in position to throw those scores.  With the cold and windy weather up in Buffalo, Brady’s stats weren’t overly impressive (15/27, 140 yards, 3 touchdowns).  Danny Woodhead grabbed the first score of the game for the Patriots on a 29 yard run in the first quarter and it was all BJGE and Woodhead from there.  The two backs combined to rush 32 times for 197 yards and the one aforementioned touchdown.  They posted a 6.2 yards per carry average, and most importantly drained the life (and clock) out of the game.  The only criticism I have is that Fred Taylor received only one carry and lost three yards.  I would have liked to see Taylor get more action to get him ready to at least contribute during the playoffs.

-If you know me, than you know I’m not finishing this post without mentioning the defense.  So much has been made about the poor stats that this defense has posted throughout the season, often drawing comparisons between the New Orleans Saints of last season in that the defense is not good, just very opportunistic.  Well, I’m calling bulls***.  I told you before the season, this defense is the youngest in the league, but by the end of the season many of these guys can’t be considered rookies anymore.  Devin McCourty, Brandon Deadrick, Brandon Spikes (when he returns), and Jermaine Cunningham have all seen enough time that they can’t be considered rookies anymore.  Other guys like Kyle Arrington and Pat Chung, that didn’t see much time last season, are now very seasoned having played almost all of the snaps over the course of the year.  Since the Patriots loss at Cleveland in week 9, they have allowed an average of 16.9 points per game.  If that defense, with all of its youth, can allow that same amount of points per game in the playoffs, there is no shot the Pats don’t win the Super Bowl.  All I ask of you is to wake up, smell the coffee, and realize that when I tell you something you should listen…and yes I accept the fact that I’m an asshole.

-Let me throw in a little FYI here: So, apparently in 2006 Danny Woodhead led D-II football in rushing with 2,756 yards.  Those numbers are astounding.  But, what a source recently brought to light is that in that same season, D-II’s second leading rusher was former La Salle Academy great, Bryant University running back Lorenzo Perry (1,924 yards).

-NEXT WEEK’S PREDICTION: Patriots 38 – Miami 20