3 Things We Learned: Providence 78 Georgetown 68

Ed Cooley falls to 0-4 against his former Program

I have litigated Ed Cooley’s tenure at Providence on these pages more times than I care to count. The long and short of it is, he was a fantastic Program builder, but in the biggest games, the games that would have truly elevated Providence on a national level, he lost far more than he won. The manner in which he departed for Washington DC can best be described as sketchy. He does have some pretty nice top end talent at Georgetown, but he’s yet to convert that into sustainable wins and losses.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s give a shoutout to the Providence College Friars. Providence had lost 4 of their previous 5 games when leading at halftime this season, but the Friars, spurred on by the best crowd of the season, overcame their second half demons to get back to .500 on the season. Despite this being a lost season for the Friars, and the worst Providence hoops season in more than a decade, Saturday afternoon’s game had real stakes. Not just in the minds of fans (yours truly included) who treated Cooley’s second trip back to Friartown as this season’s super bowl, but I get the sense that the top levels of Providence College donor-world would have not have been thrilled to see Kim English’s team fall to 9-11 at the hands of our former head coach. Alas, all of those uncomfortable conversations can be avoided now thanks to Corey Floyd Jr’s most impressive game of his Providence career, some timely defensive stops and a vintage Providence home court advantage.

Here’s 3 things we learned from a Providence win that will have Friartown rejoicing just a bit more than all the others.

1. Corey Floyd Jr has finally found his role.

   Perhaps the best part of being a college basketball fanatic (besides winning games, duh) is watching players grow and develop over their careers. This isn’t the NBA, where every player is great, or even good! As we all know, the talent levels across college hoops is as wide as in any major sport.

   That’s a big reason that NIL and constant free agency has fundamentally shifted fans relationship with college hoops. The cold truth is that these days it is incredibly rare to watch a player struggle, grow, develop and improve over the course of multiple seasons for a single program. It’s far too convenient to take the easy (and more profitable!) way out, and that sucks. But for every 10 instances of players transferring or holding out for more money or playing time, there is a cases like Corey Floyd Jr.

   

   

   The year over year shot chart comparison tells an obvious story of improvement. CFJ is shooting 23.4% better on layups, and 30.4% better on attempts in the paint from a year ago. Chalk it up to more confidence, a better understanding of his game, or just plain getting better, but CFJ’s growth from a hugely disappointing season in 2023-24 has been one of the better stories to come out of Friartown this year. While his actual skill has jumped quite a bit, what has impressed me most with CFJ this season has been his improved decision making.

   Trust me when I say this, that initial corner 3 look is a shot that CFJ takes last year. But I think both he and the coaching staff have come to realize the ‘3-and-D’ prototype is just not his game. This year, he catches the ball open in the corner, puts his head down, attacks the paint and lays off a great pass to Essandoko. Decision making. Understanding your game. Brilliant.

   5 point game, 5 minutes left. This is a critical possession and the type in which Providence has struggled all season, especially last week against Villanova. The ball has just not been in the hands of the right players in these moments. Here, CFJ and Pierre set up Micah Peavy with a classic backdoor cut. Great pass, great vision, great awareness. The Friars have been searching for a true point guard all season, and while I don’t think CFJ should be the ‘point guard’ per say, there is no reason the ball shouldn’t be in his hands during the crucial stretches of play over the final 6 weeks of the season.

2. Justyn Fernandez should be averaging more than 8.5 minutes per game.