Bynum could be missing piece
Pass-first guard makes difference
When Jared Bynum transferred from St. Joseph’s to Providence in April 2019, it was seen as a move that had “future Big East assist leader” written all over it.
The addition of a passfirst, scoring-can-wait point guard also revealed that future Friar teams under Ed Cooley’s watch were not going to be caught shorthanded when reflecting back on one of the most glaring elements that was missing from the 2018-19 and 2019-20 squads.
For the longest time in the reconfigured Big East era, rock-solid contributions from the point guard spot became synonymous with the Friars. Starting with the 2013-14 season and concluding with the program’s most recent NCAA Tournament appearance in 2017-18, Providence produced the single-season assist leader four times. The only time during the five-year span when it didn’t happen, PC slumped all the way to … second in the conference when Kris Dunn in 2015-16 averaged 6.2 assists.
Then, just like that, the Friars abdicated the assist throne. For a program that could write the book on the importance of point-guard play, the absence of said player in the helping mold of Dunn, Bryce Cotton, and Kyron Cartwright became a cardinal sin that brought into question why Providence allowed itself to get caught so flatfooted in back-to-back seasons.
Providence’s 2018-19 unit will be remembered as the one that snapped a program-record five straight appearances in the NCAA Tournament, bowing out instead after a first-round home loss in the National Invitational Tournament. That season, the Friars’ top assist man was Alpha Diallo whose 3.1 per game average ranked 15th in the Big East.
Landing Bynum was seen as essential and necessary, yet per NCAA transfer rules, he wasn’t going to help the 2019-20 Friars. For the second straight season, Cooley went in hoping to mask a shortcoming with a committee approach that featured Luwane Pipkins along with Diallo, Maliek White and David Duke.
Granted, last year’s PC team was able to shake free of a slump that basically encompassed three-plus months to enter the Big East Tournament on a supreme roll. A deeper dive into the season-ending six-game winning streak revealed PC averaged just 10.3 assists per game during the impressive stretch. That number was greatly influenced when the Friars handed out 21 assists at Georgetown on Feb. 20.
In terms of 2019-20 Big East leaders, Duke’s Friar-best 3.1 assist average ranked 13th in the conference. Fortunately for Cooley, he had Bynum waiting in the wings.
A native of Largo, Md., Bynum as a freshman in 2018-19 was handed the point-guard keys by then-St. Joseph’s head coach Phil Martelli and ran with them, averaging 36.6 minutes with 11.3 ppg and 4.4 assists. Per KenPom. com, Bynum’s assist rate during his lone season as a Hawk was the fourthbest conference-only mark in the Atlantic 10 (28.4).
As an aside, Pipkins in his final season at UMass in 2018-19 saw him lead the Atlantic 10 in assist rate (35.6). In 2019-20 with Providence, that same figure dropped to 21.9 overall and 12.7 in Big East games. For whatever reason, drawing that pointguard element out of Pipkins never fully materialized under Providence’s watch.
Getting back to Bynum, his Friar debut last Wednesday rekindled fond memories of when Cotton and Cartwright were orchestrating the attack. In one afternoon at Alumni Hall, Bynum’s final stat line of eight assists compared to zero turnovers in the 9756 rout of Fairfield went a long way in helping to wipe away a frustrating two-year period of PC not rolling with a point guard who clearly has a setting-up-his-teammates ability about him.
“He’s a great ball handler … the ball is an extension of his hand. That certainly helps when it comes to getting to where he wants to go on the floor,” said Ryan Eskew, Bynum’s coach at Georgetown Prep, in a 2019 interview with the Times/Call.
The trick will be for Bynum to build upon his performance against the Stags when Providence opens play in the relocated Maui Invitational against Indiana on Monday in Asheville, N.C. In 34 career games at the college level, Bynum has passed for five or more assists on 14 occasions.
“Jared fits our culture, but there’s a lot more in him,” said Cooley. “I thought he handled himself well [against Fairfield], but our team will continue to improve as Jared improves. He’s someone I’m going to expect big things from.”
Looking back his redshirt season, the time that Bynum spent practicing against Duke, A.J. Reeves and Nate Watson was a prime chance for him to learn their tendencies … where they like to catch the ball and their preferred sweet spots on the court.
“Now that I’m wearing the jersey, I’m taking from what I learned last year and translating it to the games,” said Bynum.
What shouldn’t be discounted is Bynum’s ability to score. With St. Joseph’s, he shot a respectable 34 percent from three and came close to averaging four trips to the free-throw line per game. The Friars appear to have enough offensive fire power that anything that Bynum can provide should be seen as a most-welcome bonus.
“It’s a feel thing … how the game is going. If I have the hot hand, I have no problem taking the shot. At the same time, we have enough guys who can score,” said Bynum, who against Fairfield went 0-for-3 from the field yet went 4-of-4 at the charity stripe. “Whether it’s going inside to Nate, looking for A.J. for corner threes, and David, who’s good at going downhill and creating his own shot, we have a lot of guys who can do different things.”
Did it really take all of one game for PC’s point-guard prayers to be answered? It’s okay to answer in the affirmative based on what took place during the past two seasons.