The End of an Error

A lot has changed in the last few days. The season is over, Keno Davis is out, and the search for the 15th head coach in Providence College history is on. A few thoughts heading into the offseason:

-Keno Davis had to go. I don’t think anyone will disagree with that. Hell, even the donors over on the Scout forum who freak out anytime someone “discredits the program” were calling for his head. The final nail in his coffin had to be the Duke Mondy affair, which we’re all still waiting for answers about. Definitely legal trouble. Had to be. We’ll find out soon enough if he’ll be back next year. Regardless, he was 5th player and 4th Keno recruit to find himself in hot water, which is entirely unacceptable, especially considering the product on the court. I mean at least the St. John’s teams of the late 1990s-early 2000′s were good.

-It certainly didn’t help that at the end, it seemed pretty clear that the team had quit on Keno. The end of the Louisville game was a prime example. I actually found myself enjoying watching it, even though PC looked like the Washington Generals. Marshon Brooks looked like the only one who really cared down the stretch, unless you count Vincent Council’s sudden interest in padding his own stats at the expense of the rest of the team.

-Speaking of VC, I think he quietly took a bit of a step back this year. Not a huge step, but he wasn’t the guy I expected to see this season. Last year he was making dazzling passes and showing flashes as a potential star facilitator. I can’t recall seeing any really special feeds this year. Yes, he was second in the Big East in assists when all was said and done, but there were stretches this season particularly at the end where he looked like the only thing he was concerned about was scoring. Going forward, his focus should be on creating opportunities for the true scorers on the roster, like Gerard Coleman and Kadeem Batts.

-The biggest step backwards on this team was, of course, Bilal Dixon. What a tremendously disappointing season. I lost about all the patience I had with him when he complained on Twitter about playing time after the biggest win of the season over then #7 Nova, going so far as to compare himself to LeBron James. Seriously. I’m not kidding. THAT LeBron James. The one that’s good at basketball. The handling of his situation spoke volumes about the Keno Davis era, as Dixon didn’t just start the next game, but actually got MORE playing time. Another instance of Keno letting his players get away with just about anything off the court.

-Gerard Coleman looks like he could have a bright future ahead of him, as long as he can play with some consistency. He also has to learn that his strongest offensive talent is his ability to cut to the basket, NOT shooting threes. He didn’t shoot an inordinate amount of threes this season, but when he did, they were often less than great decisions. As long as he doesn’t get too enamored with the 3-ball a la Jeff Xavier, he’ll do fine.

-Ron Giplaye has got some real potential. He’s undersized for a power forward but he’s got the toughness that has been in such short supply over the last few years. Yet another shortcoming on Keno’s long list was his decision to give Ray Hall extended minutes, taking away valuable experience from Gipper and Kadeem. Ray was a fun player and a good story, but it wasn’t like he was winning any games for us with his 1.1 points per game and 3 inch vertical leap.

-That said, I will absolutely miss the Ostrogoth.

-Kadeem Batts drove me nuts this season. Obviously, he’s another guy with potential. He had games like the Cincy game (17 pts, 11 rebs), or the first South Florida game (19 and 11). For every double double though, he’d throw up a line like he had against Marquette (6 and 3). He’s going to need to put on some muscle in the offseason and really work on his toughness down low in order to really compete in the Big East. He’s also gotta learn that the occasional jumper could be a good thing, but constantly taking mid-range jumpers is not what we need out of him.

-Duke Mondy turned out to be a force on defense, ending up a quiet second in the Big East in steals. His absence was painfully obvious down the stretch. From a basketball perspective, I’d love to have him back next year, since no one else that’s coming back has done anything to instill confidence in their defensive abilities. If the rumors about what the hell he did are true though, he has no place at Providence College.

-All the others… I mean… fuck, I don’t know. Bryce Cotton was a pretty decent scorer off the bench, but the rest of them are useless.

-And that brings us to Marshon S. Brooks. I’ve given him plenty of shit over the years on this blog and elsewhere. Hell, I once asked on this blog whether he was smoking dope before the games because he sure played like he did. Now it’s time to give credit where credit is due. He really was a different player this year. Coming into the year I really had no idea what kind of leader he’d be. He never seemed to be a guy who would take charge of a team. And yet he answered those questions. Regardless of what the rest of the team did, he had a season that won’t be forgotten anytime soon. He completely put the team on his back multiple times, most notably the Georgetown and Notre Dame games, when he was literally the ONLY reason the Friars were even close. He went out and gave everything he had, regardless of how little the games mattered. You can say he was only trying to improve his draft stock or get individual attention, but you absolutely can not say he didn’t play his ass off, which is more than you can say about a lot of the other guys on the team. Quite simply, he deserved better.

-So now here we are, without a coach and little hope for the immediate future. What now? A lot of names are being thrown around, and it seems like the favorite among PC fans is the assistant that got away, Pat Skerry. Here’s my thoughts on Skerry: He is NOT the answer. His proponents cite his legendary recruiting skills. Here’s my question: who did he ACTUALLY bring in? OK, fair enough, Khem Birch followed him. But who else? Shabazz Napier committed to UConn before he left. Joe Young decommitted afterwards, but he didn’t follow Skerry to Pitt. Same with Naadir Tharpe. The Ricky Ledo fiasco happened well after Skerry left, so he clearly wasn’t a factor there. Besides all of that, does anyone know anything about his actual coaching skills? He seems to me to be a recruiting specialist and not a real X’s and O’s guy. The best way to sell your program is to win games, and you can’t do that unless you can draw up plays, design defenses, and effectively coach your guys. Keno Davis made that crystal clear. The other major candidates at this juncture are Herb Sendek, who recently finished in the basement of the Pac-10 (yawn), and Ed Cooley, who has done a nice job at Fairfield. Cooley could be a good fit, and by all accounts, he’s a hard-nosed coach who expects a lot out of his players, which is exactly what this team needs. That said, I have to say I’m a bit leery about hiring another mid-major coach, even if he does have more experience under his belt than Keno did before he came. I’m more intrigued by Mike Hopkins, who a few years back was picked to be the heir apparent to Jim Boeheim at Syracuse, and is still waiting. Good enough for Cuse, good enough for me. And who better to turn around our defensively challenged program than a guy who has spent the last 15 years studying under one of the greatest defensive coaches of all time? As for recruiting, it seems like he’s more than capable, as he’s had a hand in several of the big names that have come through Syracuse over the years.

-Of course, we’ll probably end up with another bad fit, because it appears that Bob Driscoll will be remaining in power, despite this week’s acknowledgement that Tim Army and Keno Davis, two Driscoll hires, were both mistakes. Army and Davis were just two more additions to a long list of failures on Driscoll’s resume. The best way to get the program moving in the right direction at this point is to continue cleaning house and get rid of Driscoll or at least get some other opinions involved in the coaching search. But then again, what do I know? As Driscoll himself said, ”The vast majority of folks who criticize me have never hired a basketball coach or a hockey coach. Or played sports.” So really, as long as we can find a good coach who doesn’t mind working for a pretentious jackass, we’re all set.

-SM