Brice Kofane Pledges to PC

Sunday morning at the Providence Jamfest I got a call about a prospect visiting PC’s campus this weekend. Brice Kofane. The name sounded vaguely familiar, but to be honest, I couldn’t have told you the first thing about him when I got that call.

“So, what kind of player is he?” I questioned.

“Athletic kid. A 6’8 shot blocker.”

“I’ll take it.”

After I got home from the Jamfest I read about a 6’8 shot blocker who was new to the country, and the game, and my interest grew. It was then I remembered that fans on BC’s Scout message board had long talked about him being part of a potential class they were very excited about: Kevin Noreen, Rod Odom, Brady Heslip, and Brice. That didn’t work out so well for the Eagles in hindsight.

One day later Mike Sullivan of Scout.com reported that the Friars were on the verge of landing a commitment from Kofane.

I’ll take it.

Shot blockers wanted (in December)

After Providence scored an offensively impressive, but defensively frightening 110-97 win on the road against George Washington two things became clear to me:

1. Providence will always score under Keno Davis
2. As constituted, that team had no chance of winning in the Big East

In an article titled, “Searching for Marcus Douthit” Friarbasketball.net highlighted the need for a shot blocker and the effect it could have on Providence’s fortunes.

One of the biggest misses of the Tim Welsh era came after the 2005-06 season. A local shooter out of Manhattan had just lit up Maryland to the tune of 31 points in the NIT. The kid grew up in Pawtucket, dreamed of coming to PC, and everyone was thrilled when Jeff Xavier transferred in.


Everyone but me at least. Not with Shawn James transferring out of Northeastern. You might remember James, the America East Rookie and Defensive Player of the Year, averaging 5.4 blocks per game. A year later he broke an NCAA record by averaging 6.53 blocks per game. He had over 190 blocks his sophomore season. Only two Providence teams ever have had that many in a season. And he was available.


Welsh jumped on the shooting guard, James went to Duquesne (second time I've posted about missing out on a guy who ended up with the Dukes in a week) and an inability to stop anyone spelled the end of Welsh's career at Providence two years later.

Did Welsh not realize what he won with at Providence? The 2000-01 squad featured a roster that had been stripped bare after the Prime Time incident and it would have been a long year if Welsh didn't have a defensive dynamo at point guard and two seven footers protecting the paint.

Is it just mere coincidence that the only two tournament teams in Providence under Welsh were led defensively by guys who could protect the rim? Was it coincidence that when Marcus Douthit struggled his sophomore year and rode the bench the first half of his third season that the team fell with him? Was it coincidence that they caught fire at the end of his junior season through most of his senior season when Welsh switched to a 2-3 zone and funneled everything through the re-emerging center? Was it coincidence that the zone was forever ineffective after he left? Was it coincidence that following his graduation, a team with a senior All American started 0-9 in Big East play?

Recruiting shot blockers

In that December article I convinced myself that Keno Davis and his staff saw the need for a shot blocker in the middle and recruited a couple of good ones in Carson Desrosiers and John Reik.
Expecting Kofane to have the impact of one of the best shot blockers in PC history or a record-breaker like James (although at 6’9, 215 he wasn’t much bigger) is completely unfair, but the recruitment of Kofane is a positive for someone like myself begging for someone to challenge opponents at the rim.

Face up shooting big men like Blake McLimas (last year) or Kevin Noreen would be fine additions to the program, but with such glaring defensive deficiencies this past season bringing in that type of player would have done little to alleviate my defensive concerns.

The defensive deficiencies of 2009-10 have fans wondering if they will be existent throughout Keno’s tenure here. At the least they have split folks into two camps:

1. Defense is all about hustle and intensity and the poor results this past year had more to do with not instilling a defensive mindset than talent
2. With better talent comes better on court production. Give Keno more than one productive player above 6’6 and see how his teams defend.

Yes, there are examples of coaches who get their teams to defend, even though they are undersized, but the problem with last year’s team wasn’t just that they were short, it was that they were short and not as athletic as most teams they played. Combine that with a defensive spirit that spiraled at the end and you have Jay Bilas and Sean McDonough tripping over each other to make their next corny joke about it at the Big East Tournament.

What camp do I fall into? Tim Welsh teams did not play good defense for a majority of his tenure, but when he had Douthit and Karim Shabazz they were suddenly among the best in the Big East. Their senior seasons were his teams tournament teams. Go figure.

Superior defensive coaches can turn almost anyone into defenders, but big time shot blockers can make coaches look like defensive masterminds. With a limited amount of scholarships to offer you don’t want to spend many on specialists (i.e. backup point guard, shooters who struggle defensively and off of the dribble), but if Providence is going to take a shot on any type of specialist my hope is that it is a shot blocker.

As limited as Shabazz and Douthit were offensively, in covering wide bodies, and on the glass, they were just as responsible for the 01 and 04 tournament teams as John Linehan and Ryan Gomes, the most decorated players of the past decade.

Brice Kofane may be a blip in the Providence history books when it is all said and done, but after reading about his 16 block performance against the powerful New York Gauchos or hearing his coach speak about energizing his team defensively, I’m sold on a kid I wasn’t even following two days ago and could care less what he brings offensively next fall. That part can be developed.

Good athleticism, great in the classroom (3.6 GPA), relatively new to the game, and the potential to protect the rim? On paper, not a bad fourth signing for a team in need of an interior presence.