1. While many Providence fans are turning their sights towards Illinois point guard Ryan Boatright, Keno Davis and his staff have done a good job of staying in the fight for Naadir Tharpe, who has had a monster summer for the New England Playaz. I checked in with someone close to the Brewster Academy point guard and was told that Tharpe is "still very interested in Providence." No word on when he plans on making official visits. As of late July he hadn't heard from Pittsburgh.
2. The NEPSAC won't be the same next year without Mike Byrnes, the former Winchendon head coach with a big personality and one of the most entertaining teams in New England last year. With Khem Birch and Angel Nunez playing there a season ago Providence fans had plenty of reason to play attention to Winchendon, but some may forget that one of PC's all time greats played for Byrnes. John Linehan prepped at Winchendon to improve his stock. As we know it worked. Best of luck to Coach Byrnes who joins a Robert Morris staff that just lost head coach Mike Rice to Rutgers and will be led by one of the youngest coaches in the country, 29 year old Andrew Toole.
3. Speaking of Rice, he is part of a growing fraternity of former Pitt assistants who landed head coaching gigs. He joins Barry Rohressen (Manhattan), Tom Herrion (Marshall) and Jamie Dixon as Pittsburgh assistants over the past decade who moved on to a head coaching gig. Rutgers assistant David Cox was Director of Basketball Ops at Pitt and looks like he could turn into an ace recruiter for the Scarlet Knights after heading north from Georgetown.
Count me among those that won't read into Pat Skerry leaving Providence for Pittsburgh as an indictment of the state of the program, but rather a testament to the great job Dixon has done there. Just how good has he been since taking over for Ben Howland?
- In seven seasons he has won 20 games overall and 10 conference games every year
- Dixon has won nearly 70% of his Big East games and sports the highest winning percentage in Big East history
- Pittsburgh has been in the conference championship game in four of his seven seasons
- His 188 victories in his first seven seasons ties an all-time Division 1 record
No one will deny Providence had their problems this spring, but Dixon's resume combined with Pitt's recent history of turning their top assistants into D1 head coaches made this too good of an opportunity for most coaches to turn down. Rice became a head coach after only one season at Pitt. It took Herrion only three seasons there to become a head man.
Sometimes it is about what's happening outside of Providence rather than within.
Sometimes it is about what's happening outside of Providence rather than within.
4. I wrote extensively a year ago about the need to insert shooters into the lineup. On paper, it could be worse this year. Last season the Friars hit a total of 249 three point shots. A whopping 169 of those came from players who will not be on the roster this year (approximately 70% of those made in 2009-10).
