When Providence head coach Ed Cooley arrived at Madison Square Garden for BIG EAST media day recently, he was in fine spirits and, as usual, dressed to the nines. That was in direct contrast to his previous visit to the World’s Most Famous Arena last March, when Cooley was forced to drape a Gatorade towel around a split in his britches as his Friars lost in overtime to Villanova in the BIG EAST Tournament title tilt.
Gone from that game, aside from Cooley’s pants, is the talented triumvirate of Rodney Bullock, Kyron Cartwright and Jalen Lindsey, three of the Friars’ top four scorers who also accounted for 71 percent of their 3-pointers and 54 percent of the team’s assists. Yet there was Cooley, holding court at the Garden and joking about the prospects for his Friars in the upcoming season.
“Yes, we lost a lot,” Cooley said. “But I love my team. We’re versatile, we’re enthusiastic and this group has been fun. I don’t know how good we are, but they are fun to be around.”
Cooley is expected to see most of his fun come from watching junior Alpha Diallo work his magic this season. The 6-7 Diallo was named a Preseason All-BIG EAST First Team pick after averaging 13.2 points and 6.6 rebounds for a Providence team that reached the NCAA Tournament for the fifth straight season last year. Now with Bullock, Cartwright and Lindsey gone, Diallo will have to become the Friars’ alpha dog.
“Alpha’s good, man,” Cooley said. “He’s a tough guy to guard, he has a really high IQ and we play him at five different positions. So his versatility makes him really hard to defend.”
But it will take more than just Diallo to replace Bullock, who averaged 14.3 points last season, as well as Cartwright (11.8 points) and Lindsey (8.8 points). To that end, Cooley will look to returning players such as Holt, Isaiah Jackson, Nate Watson and Kalif Young to increase their workload this season.
The 6-7 Holt missed all of last season with an abdominal injury but two seasons ago he averaged 12.5 points and 5.4 rebounds. The 6-6 Jackson made 10 starts last year and averaged 7.4 points while Watson, the 6-10 sophomore, averaged 6.8 points and was named to the BIG EAST All-Freshman Team. The 6-3 Young made 25 starts and averaged 4.3 points and 4.1 rebounds last season.
But the Friars will also be helped by a top-rate freshman class.
“There’s youth but our veterans have to get better,” Cooley said. “Diallo has to get better and Holt has to get better.”
A key part Cooley’s celebrated recruiting class is freshman point guard David Duke. The 6-5 Duke, a Preseason BIG EAST Co-Freshman of the Year and Providence native, announced on his 18th birthday last October that he would be joining the Friars. And he’s a player that reminds Cooley of one of his former greats.
“He’s very versatile,” Cooley said. “And he has a lot of similarities to (former Providence great) Kris Dunn with his size, his length and his explosiveness. But he’s learning to be a point guard at this level. He has to pay attention to detail with the ball, he’s throwing it around a little bit. But he’s going to be fun to watch in our league.”
It was an added bonus for Cooley that he was able to land a gem from right in his backyard.
“We want to keep the best players local as much as we can,” Cooley said. “We’ve been fortunate to keep some of the better players home and hopefully that continues.”
Cooley’s freshman class also includes 6-6 guard A.J. Reeves, who averaged 27 points, eight rebounds and four assists throughout his career at Brimmer and May High in Chestnut Hill, Mass. as well as 6-8 forward Jimmy Nichols, who logged 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 100 blocks during his career at South Carolina’s Conway High School. Kris Monroe, a 6-8 forward from North Carolina, averaged 21.8 points, 8.8 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 2.3 steals during his career at St. David’s School in Raleigh.
Aside from the talent that his roster boasts, it’s the intangibles that has Cooley the most excited. And he said the difference between this younger Friars team, picked third in BIG EAST Preseason Coaches’ Poll, and last year’s veteran outfit is the level of enthusiasm this team brings with it each day.
“They are very, very coachable,” Cooley said. “These guys, they come in (to practice) and they give you energy. They’re like, ‘Coach, what’s up, man?’ So you want to foster that relationship with them more and more based on their exuberance. They come in and mess with us all the time. That wasn’t my team last year. My team last year, they were older, they had been there, done that. But by nature, they weren’t energy givers.”
So with seven players back who all averaged double digits in minutes played, along with that influx of premium freshman talent, what are the expectations Cooley has for his Friars this season?
“I think you hold them to a standard,” Cooley said. “You tell them what the expectation is and then you hold them accountable. Like I said, I don’t know if we’re a good team, but we’re a fun team. I think people will enjoy watching us play.”