Looking forward
Cooley excited about 2017-18 season, but knows journey is just getting started
The start of the regular season still a ways away, PC basketball coach Ed Cooley is already excited about 2017-18.
PROVIDENCE — Take a peek outside the windows at Alumni Hall, and you’ll see progress. A deep, wide hole, along with a couple of excavators digging away, may not look esthetically appealing, yet the construction site represents a clear-cut sign of what’s on the horizon for Ed Cooley and his Providence College men’s basketball program.
The Ruane Friar Development Center — the long-awaited practice facility that will help put Cooley’s Friars on par with much of college basketball’s landscape — is coming along. Until recently, another example of summertime progress could be found inside Alumni Hall. If you listened for the sound of the ball bouncing on the hardwood, you would have found the PC crew putting in the work with an eye towards the 2017-18 season.
From July 2 until this past Friday, a Friar squad that returns last season’s top eight scorers meshed with three promising newcomers. Per NCAA rules, coaches can spend two hours per week with the players; they are permitted six hours of strength and conditioning work per week. That may not seem like a ton of time, especially during the three-week July live recruiting period where coaches typically leave on a Tuesday and return Sunday night.
The agenda over these past few weeks has been to set the tone for what awaits when the school bell rings. From the sound of it, Cooley says that goal was accomplished before saying goodbye to his players for much of August.
“You can’t get a lot done, but it’s about trying to get them all on the same page and seeing how I’m going to put the pieces together. It’s about holding them accountable,” Cooley said. “I just want the guys to get comfortable with each other’s personality and get somewhat assimilated to what the rhythm of practice is going to be like. For the new guys, it’s about getting them acquainted to college.
“For the veterans, it’s about seeing who has developed.”
The summer session isn’t just about hoops. The Friar players took night classes and spent their days lending a hand to the on-campus summer camps. They attended several seminars that stressed the importance of making the right choices, and volunteered at a local youth clinic.
“Intercollegiate athletics, especially the sports where you’re traveling, we need the summers [to help lighten the player’s in-season academic load],” Cooley said. “I appreciate Providence College for allowing us the opportunity to have them here during the summer.”
Each summer, Cooley hears several spins on basically the same basketball question: How are the Friars going to be this year? The tenor of the inquiry this year, however, is a bit different than in the previous two summers.
Two years ago, almost all the summer wind focused on star point guard Kris Dunn. Last year, a group of former understudies and sidekicks emerged to earn the program’s fourth straight NCAA Tournament berth.
This year, there’s not as much concern wrapped around the question. When it comes to experience, the Friars have the bases covered and should be on the short list for Big East title contenders.
“There’s not as many question marks because I know the strengths and weaknesses of all our returnees. It’s a matter of whether we can come together with a different expectation,” Cooley said. “The spotlight will probably shine a little bit more; thus you’re not going to sneak up on anybody.”
On a Friar roster that features plenty of established and battled-tested veterans like Kyron Cartwright Rodney Bullock, and Jalen Lindsey, the message delivered to first-year players Makai Ashton-Langford, Nate Watson and Dajour Dickens over the past few weeks was simple and straightforward.
“They’ve got to earn their keep. Nothing is easy,” Cooley said. “Their improvement has shown in their attitude toward practice and how hard it is.”
August is known as the month where college basketball coaches can finally catch their breath. Cooley says he and his staff will remain in contact with the high school prospects they trailed during July, but it will be good to finally come up for air.
“It gives us a chance to get away and try to debrief a little bit before September, then the October stretch, and then the season,” Cooley said. “I’m really excited about my group, but we’ve got a long way to go.”
Instead of heading home like the rest of their teammates, Friar guards Drew Edwards and Maliek White left for New York on Saturday to meet up with their USA East Coast teammates and Hall of Fame head coach Larry Brown in preparation for the team’s 2017 tour of Madrid, Spain. The competition gets underway Monday and runs through Saturday.
“Take advantage of it and work on their game,” was what Cooley told his two guards before they departed. “Work on ball handling and shooting, but also winning. Winning is a habit.”
For Edwards, the chance to play against national teams from Japan, Venezuela, Mexico and Senegal will represent his first foray into competitive hoops since last December. The 6-4 redshirt sophomore endured a slow recovery from knee surgery that limited him to just eight games and forced him to sit out the season’s final 21 contests.
Fast forward a few months, and Edwards hasn’t been held back during the summer. Now he heads across the Atlantic Ocean with a prime chance to shake off the rust.
“I know I need to play, so why not go? I feel great and I’m looking forward to seeing what I can do at 100 percent,” Edwards said. “Going through last season and not really playing, I’m excited as anything to head overseas and play against professionals. I know this is a legit team so I’m hoping for the best for myself and Maliek. We’ll see if we can crack that starting five and go from there.”
Brown told his USA charges to feel free to text him leading up to the two-day training camp before flying to Spain. The few times Edwards took Brown up on his offer to reach out, he was told to come in ready to work for the defensive-minded coach. That was music to Edwards’ ears, since getting after it on defense is his forte.
“To me, that’s how you get on the floor,” Edwards said. “I’m all for it.”
When the time allows, Edwards plans to ask Brown what it was like to coach Allen Iverson, who played for Brown and was Edwards’ favorite player growing up. Will Coley had the opportunity to coach recent Friar verbal commit Kris Monroe when Monroe was a 10-year-old camp attendee. Even back then, Monroe displayed a penchant for shooting the basketball. As he continued to grow to his current 6-7, 220pound frame, the temptation to exclusively place him down on the blocks simply never materialized because of that outside stroke.
Now Monroe’s head coach at St. David’s School in Raleigh, N.C., Coley described the latest addition to PC’s 2018 recruiting haul as “a hybrid forward who does a little bit of everything. He grew 8-10 inches between the time I saw him as a youngster to when I started coaching him in high school, but he’s always prided himself in being able to shoot it. Based on the situation, we’ll play him anywhere from the one (point guard) to the five (center). He can do a lot of different things and do them well.
“He will get bigger and stronger once he gets up there,” Coley added. “Physically, I don’t think he’s fully realized or reached his potential. That’s not meant to be a negative. That means he’s going to improve.”
Providence first got involved with Monroe last summer at a time when his stock was rising with the Team Wall AAU program. He’s coming off a strong junior season at St. David’s, leading the team in scoring (18.8 points per game) and rebounds (8.6).
“(PC assistant coach Jeff Battle) asked me, ‘How did we miss this kid? Where did he come from?’” Coley said. “Coach Battle saw Kris again and still liked what he saw. He liked it so much that Coach Cooley took a look at him and said, ‘We love this guy. He’s a PC type of guy.’”
The message that Monroe heard from Cooley and Battle resonated so deeply that Monroe ended his recruitment without ever setting foot on PC’s campus or checking out a Friar game in person. Monroe picked the Friars over N.C. State, Boston College and Xavier.
“I told him that he’ll have a gut feeling about what program is best for him,” Coley said. “I think he was ready to make a decision. It’s nice to be recruited and he had a lot of choices, but now he can focus on his senior season and really enjoy it.” What ultimately drew Monroe to PC? “Coach Cooley and Coach Battle were straightforward and did a fantastic job. They were clear and honest with Kris about what their intentions for him were and are,” Coley said. “The way they talked to Kris, those are two coaches who really care about their players at the end of the day.”