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Providence Crier Player Preview: Corey Floyd Jr. – This Year is the Year

On the August 30th episode of the Providence Crier Podcast BOC & The Crier drafted PC’s roster for our player preview series. We take a look at each player and what fans may expect this upcoming season.

Corey Floyd Jr. has bided his time in college for two years. The wait is over, and it is time for Corey Floyd Jr. to be a key cog in the Providence rotation. An insertion into the starting line-up is not out of the question, and I wouldn’t fault the fans for presuming he’d be the starting 2 or 3 alongside Devin Carter.

At the Providence Crier, I’d argue we have pegged CFJr. as the guy most ready to make the proverbial “leap” from role player to prominent contributor for the Friars. Pierre may have something to say about that, but Floyd Jr. is likely the odds-on favorite for me.

Providence Crier Player Series Spotlight – Will Justyn Fernandez Redshirt?

Justyn Fernandez was brought to Providence from George Mason alongside Ticket Gaines and Josh Oduro. Fernandez was quite the coup for Kim English when he was at George Mason, as 4 star Top 150 players don’t routinely enroll at Atlantic 10 programs. Fernandez was arguably one of the top recruits to ever enroll at George Mason, but he did not play as much as one would anticipate a player of his stature to play, averaging only 14 minutes.

The path to playing time was always going to be difficult for Fernandez at Providence in 2023-2024. The leap from high school to A-10 proved to be a steep learning curve for Fernandez, and one would naturally expect a similar learning curve from the A-10 to the gauntlet that is the Big East.

Providence Crier Player Preview Series: Can Donovan Santoro’s Shooting Ability Carve Him Out a Role This Season?

Expectations: From all that we have seen and heard, Santoro will be a reserve for the Providence Friars this year. This is not an indictment on Santoro’s talent by any means, but more so a testament to how deep Providence is on the wing. If there are areas on the Friars that are particularly stacked, I would first point to the backcourt and wing as areas of strength.

Nice fall day for a dip in the pool!

PC lands the third commitment of the 2023 class in Donovan Santoro@ProvidenceCrier breaks down the commitment and impact to Friar programhttps://t.co/H5Kc2AEfMM
— BOC Friars (@BOCallday) October 14, 2022

Crier Recruiting Corner – Introducing 2024 Big Man Luke Bamgboye

The need for frontcourt help is obvious in Providence. Josh Oduro is in his final year of college, and Will McNair Jr. recently departed from the program after seemingly being a Friar for all of 10 days. After this year, the only true bigs on the roster are Rafael Castro, who hasn’t shown he can contribute at the Big East level consistently, and Eli DeLaurier, a promising prospect who reclassified and appears to be a few years away from being Big East ready. While the rest of the roster is flush with talent, there are clear warning signs about the frontcourt that need to be addressed in both quantity and quality.

It is almost a certainty that English will look after this year to replenish the roster with a transfer big in the portal that can play Day 1 while also landing a 2024 big man to develop for the future alongside DeLaurier.

Enter Bamgboye. The 6’10 post player from Compass Prep in Arizona is coming off a visit to Friartown this past weekend, with Kim English likely making clear the path to early playing time in the post.

Below, we break down the recruitment of Bamgboye, how he would fit in the Kim English system, and where PC stands with landing the bouncy frontcourt player.

https://x.com/griffgreenberg/status/1702129564401680673?s=46&t=jxSpiAPB3PvC74snCH-rvQ

If Every Big East Program was a Jersey Shore Bar

Everybody who follows The Crier knows my affinity for the Jersey Shore. There is unquestionably nothing more appealing than a Summer “Down at the Shore”. You can pitch going out east to The Hamptons or vacationing at The Cape to me, but I assure you that it will fall completely on deaf ears. I may just walk away from the conversation mid-discussion when the idea of going somewhere else besides Jersey comes up.

Give me a Saturday line-up of being at the beach all day (don’t get triggered UConn fans), stepping off the beach into happy hour at Columns, and then have that cascade into an evening in God’s Basement at The Parker House. That’s an ideal day and night.

Let’s set the record straight: @RizzoVicki and I love beaches. Counting down to pizza at Leggetts, the sand at Bar A and a Friday night at Parker House. Nothing better than being down the shore. https://t.co/He3RiVDfSD
— John Fanta (@John_Fanta) May 10, 2022

I grew up in Jersey, went to school up at Providence, had a sabbatical post college in Manhattan and Hoboken, and inevitably returned home to the Promised Land a few years ago.

This article idea started when somebody tweeted at Big East’s prodigal son, John Fanta, to do a like for like comparison of Jersey Shore bars to Big East programs. John is a Jersey Shore Bar aficionado, often tweeting about Spring Lakers and The Boom Boom Room at The Osprey. Quite simply, he gets it.

The Jersey shore during summertime always delivers. Enjoy the holiday weekend everybody. God bless the USA. pic.twitter.com/NaGx5xz7ya
— John Fanta (@John_Fanta) June 30, 2023

I decided to do a comparison of my own. Enjoy. I’m sure fans and alums of these schools will take these comparisons in stride and not overreact.

BOC’s Way Too Early Non-Conference Prediction

The Providence Friars have released their non-conference schedule ahead of the 2023-2024 season. I must say that I believe it sets them up quite nicely to be a nationally ranked team ahead of conference play. I may be tipping my hand there on how I foresee the non-conference playing out, but so be it.

There were too many times in the Cooley era where the Friars would stumble out of the gates in non-conference play and have to rely on a Herculean effort in conference play to make the NCAA tournament. Do you know how many Thanksgiving weekends were ruined in the BOC household due to Providence seemingly forgetting how to play basketball in a holiday tournament?

The rub is that Coach Cooley would miraculously find a way to dig them out of their grave and get them into the NCAA tournament with superb conference results. The “cold water in the face” reality, however, is that those late season runs masked the fact that the blemishes of the non-conference put a cap on how high they would be ranked in the NCAA tournament. Too often, Providence would rely on being one of the “hottest” teams heading into March only to realize that a first round win as a 8-11 seed often meant they were facing off against a 1, 2, 3, or 4 seed in the Round of 32. That’s not a recipe for sustained success in the NCAA tournament, exemplified by Cooley’s below average March record at Providence.

I make mention of all of this because I’ll go on record stating that anything less than a Sweet 16 with this year’s roster is falling short of what this team should achieve. Coach Cooley, for all the negative things said about him, had this team and roster primed to make a serious run in 2023-2024. While English is in his first year coaching in arguably the toughest version of the Big East since its realignment, I do think Providence has a chance to be a second weekend type tournament team. Thus, it is imperative that PC comes out of the gates hot in non-conference play and doesn’t have to rely on playing catch-up in conference play.

Without further ado, my predictions below:

🚨23-24 Non-Conference Schedule🚨#Mindset #gofriars pic.twitter.com/sWB0rMV6ud
— Providence MBB (@PCFriarsmbb) August 3, 2023

Crier Recruiting Corner – Introducing 2024 Forward Garrett Sundra

Garrett Sundra, playing for the powerhouse prep DMV program Paul VI, has come onto the scene as a modern big that so many programs seem to covet. Sundra recently released a Final 5 list of college programs, and Providence is in that grouping. As all Friar fans know, Providence is also fighting to win the recruiting battle for his teammates Isaiah Abraham and Patrick Ngonba. Suffice to say, Paul VI will be a nationally ranked high school program this upcoming year with all of the elite talent in the 2024 class.

It is time for Friar fans to become more familiar with Garrett Sundra, as he reminds me of another stretch 4 that helped lead Providence to a Sweet 16 just two years ago.

2024 four-star power forward Garrett Sundra tells me he’s down to five schools.

He breaks down each program and has a timeline for a commitment: https://t.co/bbNjmx7CD3 pic.twitter.com/WcpWPFZezG
— Joe Tipton (@TiptonEdits) June 20, 2023

Crier Recruiting Corner – Introducing 2024 Wing Isaiah Abraham

Kim English has had a heck of a start with his 2024 recruiting class, landing Baltimore point guard Daquan Davis. English is looking to build upon this momentum to get 2024 4 Star wing Isaiah Abraham also in the fold. Abraham hails from the DMV powerhouse Paul VI and is a name that has bubbled up to the top of the recruiting board as English looks to further ingrain Providence into the hotbed that is DMV prep basketball.

Below, we provide an overview of Abraham’s recruitment to date, his game, and how he’d fit within the Friar program.

NEWS: 2024 four-star small forward Isaiah Abraham tells me he’s down to four schools.

The 6-7 rising senior has a timeline for a decision: https://t.co/vd7tB3IPjw pic.twitter.com/6HW21t2viz
— Joe Tipton (@TiptonEdits) June 26, 2023

The Flag Has Been Planted – 2024 DMV PG Daquan Davis Commits to Providence, Coach Kim English

English has been touting his recruiting chops in the DMV since he was hired at Providence, and his activity on the recruiting trail certainly back up those words. The Friar coaching staff has sent out a bevvy of offers in the DMV area in the 2024 and 2025 class, waiting for the first shoe to drop.

That first shoe has dropped, in a big way. Daquan Davis, a 4 star Top 100 point guard from Maryland, has committed to the Providence Friars. Davis was long considered a heavy lean to the home state Maryland Terrapins, but English’s dogged pursuit of Davis has paid off. There was an early May official visit with a certain teammate of his (which we’ll discuss later in this article) that seems to have flipped the script on Davis staying home. With this commitment, Coach Kim English has thrown down the gauntlet to all DMV schools that Providence is going to be a force to be reckoned with in the geographic area. The commitment of Davis is massive in and of itself, but the importance of a top tier DMV recruit committing to Providence cannot be overstated. This is the first of many dominos to fall, and I believe it will be the start of an incredibly strong DMV – PC pipeline moving forward.

Below, we break down Daquan Davis, what he brings to the court, and what his commitment means for the Providence program.

The Providence Crier’s Way Too Early Big East Preseason Ranking & All Conference Awards

Michael is off galivanting in Europe, and we each wanted to provide some offseason fodder for the respective fanbases of the Big East. Below, we provide our way too early analysis of how the Big East will shake out and who will be the top individual award getters in the Big East. As it is about 6 months away from conference play, we are sure to be drastically incorrect in our assessment of the conference, but that’s what makes this exercise fun.