Providence College men’s basketball coach Keno Davis announced today that student-athlete Alex Kellogg (Columbus, Ohio) has left the men’s basketball team. Kellogg, a sophomore, played in 19 games this season for the Friars.
“Alex is interested in pursuing other options,” Davis said. “He is a hard working young man who gave us a great effort on and off the court. He has a bright future ahead of him and we wish him the best.”
Well, not much of a surprise here, as Alex was probably not going to see much playing time next year. Best of luck to the young man.
Not sure what this does to the whole scholarship situation. Is it too late to get another player for next year? Or will Keno just have to wait for the ‘10-11 season…Hey, Seth Curry is transfering!
Among all the amazing pictures fans sent in of “The Court Storm”, this screengrab from SNY is my winner for photo of the year (narrowly edging out the Female Friar Fanatic texting during foul shots).
Watching Jonathan Kale embrace Geoff McDermott in the sea of people definitely made my eyes water.
Trying to think of all the best plays that occurred over the past 5 months is kind of difficult (especially since I can’t remember what I had for dinner last night). What do you think the play of the year was?
I’ll throw some out off the top of my head
McDermott’s two foul shots to beat URI
Xavier’s nail in the coffin three against Pitt
Curry’s threes againt Nova in the first loss
Jeff Xavier’s three against Rutgers at Rutgers
Last night Marshon had an awesome dunk after he got his own rebound
There’s been a few good alleyoops to Brian McKenzie (!)
What does everyone think? Anyone have a better memory than me? Can we count the Pitt court storm as a “play”??
I just want to forget that this game ever happened. It’s not that the Friars played uninspired or gave up or anything (they played really hard), I just don’t want this game to be remembered as the last game at the DUNK for this senior class. I want their last memory there to be Jonathan Kale kissing midcourt with the sea of people swarming the players. Screw this game, screw the NIT — that is how I am going to remember them leaving the DUNK.
Weyinmi Efejuku
Geoff McDermott
Randall Hanke
Jonathan Kale
Jeff Xavier
THANK YOU.
Thank you for your 4 years (well Jeff 2) of Providence College basketball. It’s sure going to be weird next year not seeing you guys on the court, since you’ve been playing almost every minute since your freshman years. While I’m sure each season did not end the way everyone expected, you represented the school with absolute class. You’ve had your ups and downs, but you gave us a game late in your careers that we will all remember for the rest of our lives.
I wish you all the best of luck in your life after Providence College.
Miami came into the game as a great rebounding team, and they definitely showed it against the Friars. While Marshon Brooks and Jonathan Kale led the game with 5 offensive rebounds each, 5 different Miami players had at least 2 offensive boards. Overall, Miami held a 44-35 rebounding advantage
Three point shooting was a big deciding factor in the game. Jack McClinton pretty much did the job himself hitting 7 threes. Most of the Friars save Brian McKenzie (!) were cold from behind the arc.
Weyinmi Efejuku was able to draw a ton of contact inside, going 9/10 from the line.
Let’s judge some performances by dishing out some pasta (from 1-4, 4 being awesome). My homage to the Star-Ledger.
Jack McClinton – Everyone was saying how he struggled towards the end of the season. Nothing like facing the Friars defense to get you going, eh?
Brian McKenzie – Realistically I think BMac had a 3 bowl night (I’ll look the other way on the 4 turnovers and the poor coverage of McClinton), but I think he should get his first 4 bowl of the season. It will keep him full for next year!
Dwayne Collins – A beast on the boards
Marshon Brooks - Just for getting his own rebound and slamming it home…awesome play
None
Sharaud Curry – Tough way to end his great season. Just didn’t have it from behind the arc and didn’t get any penetration.
Senior guard Weyinmi Efejuku scored a team-high 16 points, but it was not enough as the Providence men’s basketball team (19-14) lost to Miami (18-12) 78-66 in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) Wednesday night at the Dunkin Donuts Center.
With the season on the line Wednesday night at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center, the Friars didn’t show up with all their guns blazing and the Miami Hurricanes escaped with a hard-earned 78-66 victory in a first round National Invitation Tournament game.
Davis said that while he’s happy with 19 wins and a trip to the NIT in his first season, he sees better days ahead. He’s not sure how quickly he’ll retool the program, but he knows the exiting players have helped him in a major way.
The Friars’ season ended Wednesday night in a 78-66 first round NIT loss to Miami and also ended the career of five PC seniors. The core of the group completes its college career with a 1-5 record in March. The Friars finished 1-3 in the Big East Tournament and 0-2 in the NIT over the last four seasons.
It would have been nice for Weyinmi Efejuku and Geoff McDermott, for Jonathan Kale, and Randall Hanke, and Jeff Xavier, to have that win over the Panthers to always remember as their final game in the Dunk.
Instead, they’re stuck with the miserable memory of Wednesday night’s disappointing, 78-66 defeat at the hands of the Miami Hurricanes in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament.
Jack McClinton found his shooting touch and the University of Miami rediscovered how to win a tight game.
McClinton scored 25 points and matched a career-high with seven three-pointers — hitting two clutch, long-distance bombs down the stretch — to lift the turnover-prone Hurricanes past Providence 78-66 at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center.
Miami held the Friars to a poor 32.3 percent shooting effort in the first 20 minutes of action and went into the break with a 33-28 advantage.
The Hurricanes pulled even further away in the second stanza and eventually won by a 12-point margin, thanks to a 46.4 percent shooting effort and a 14- of-17 clip from the foul line over the last 20 minutes of play.
For one reason or another, we did not play our best game and we struggled to get going. A lot of the credit has to go to Miami. They came in very focused and aggressive on the boards and when they got out to a comfortable lead you could sense a fight in the Providence team but we just could not get over the hump to tie the game. That was partly because of Miami.
The Providence Friars have officially ended their 2008-09 season by losing to Miami in the first round of the NIT, 78-66.
Jack McClinton, 1st Teamer ACC, scored a game high 25 points on a nasty 7-14 from downtown, including two clutch treys with under two minutes remaining.
Wey led the Friars in scoring with 16 points, mostly from the line (9-10). Brian McKenzie (!) was 2nd with 13 points on 4 three pointers! Let’s hope he takes that performance into next year!
PC played hard, but just couldn’t get closer than 4 or 5 points late in the game. The officials certainly didn’t do the Friars any favors, calling seemingly ever foul in favor of Miami. At one point, Keno Davis had to be held back by the assistants. Sean McDonough even said something like “well all the best refs are working the NCAA tournament…not to say these refs aren’t good”…Um, yeah.
Keno Davis subbed out each senior individually so they could get a nice cheer from the crowd, which was a nice touch.
The season is now over, but I hope you stick around the next few days, as I will post some final thoughts and give out some season ending awards.
In October, no one envisioned Notre Dame crumbling through a seven-game skid and falling to 8-10 in the league, nor did anyone expect Georgetown, after its 12-3 start, to spiral to a 16-13 finish.
Providence, the wild card, finished as a classic bubble team. The Friars beat who they were supposed to beat and lost games they needed to win in order to distinguish themselves. Unable to get past Louisville in the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament, Providence’s fate was sealed when the upset winners started snatching up bids from the other conferences.
It all added up to the ultimate irony: The Big East actually got more bids last year, sending eight teams on the road to San Antonio.
With that being said, here is the obligatory “Under Pressure” music video….awesome song.
