I’m not sure if anyone really expected an ending of some sort this week in the ongoing Ricardo Ledo saga. I think my own reaction tells me a lot, and I imagine lots of other Friar fans are in the same boat. Sitting at work about six weeks after Ledo gave Friartown an amazing Christmas gift, I remember cursing out loud while simultaneously throwing up in my mouth after reading a tweet from Ledo himself saying his recruitment had opened back up.
“WTF??!?111one. This was going to change the Friars! Now we are royally effed! Calipari just slipped him a handful of white envelopes! F that guy! Kenoooooo _avissssssss! Why?! F$$%@ me in the a$$ with a spiked bat!!!”
(Now that I think about it, it’s surprising I wasn’t asked to leave work that day)
Not going to be an easy start to his BIG EAST coaching career for Ed Cooley, with two road games to start (one in Syracuse) with the Hoyas awaiting them at the Dunk for the third game. Getting the Orange twice in the span of 10 days is also going to be fun.
Georgetown, Syracuse, and USF are the teams the Friars will getting twice this year.
ESPN has released their TV schedule for the upcoming BIG EAST season. Here are all the network games for the Friars. Note: The regional schedule has not been announced yet.
Saturday, Dec 31 2PM: Providence @ Georgetown (ESPN2 / ESPN3.com)
Tuesday, Jan 10 7PM: Louisville @ Providence (ESPN2 / ESPN3.com)
Wednesday, Feb 1 7PM: Rutgers @ Providence (ESPNU)
Wednesday, Feb 15 9PM: Providence @ Cincinnati (ESPNU)
“When I sell my background to the kids and my vision to their families, I always tell the kids that if I get the opportunity to know them and they get the opportunity to see who we are as a family and what we do as people during the recruiting process, when it comes time to make a decision on a school, they will have a brutal time telling me no,” Cooley said. “They might tell me no. But they’ll have a brutal time doing it.”
For those of you who were eagerly anticipating some afternoon drinking at PROVIDENCE’S PREMIER SPORTS BAR on Thursday afternoon for Ricardo Ledo’s decision (Part 2!), your weekend will not be starting early.
Kevin McNamara announced on his newly created Twitter account and the Projo Sports Blog that Ricky Ledo has called off his decision.
KMac’s Tweet: “Ricky Ledo’s scheduled Thurs press conf to pick a college is scratched. Ledo text message: “It is cancelled. Please pass that around.”"
Providence still sits as the “favorite” , but does that even matter at this point? Obviously he is not ready to make his choice, so who knows what he is thinking. There was also something a little troubling in the Projo Blog entry.
However, some advisors in his camp weren’t ready to sign off on that decision.
That doesn’t sit well with me at all. What exactly is going on here?
Anyways, looks like we will just have to wait longer to see this:
“I was going to take my talents to the Dunkin’ Donuts Center. Then I wasn’t. Then I kinda was again but now I’m not. Yet. Maybe.”
We got Ledo! Oh wait, not yet. We have to wait another week? Stop messing with us dude. OK, so Ricky Ledo mania will undoubtedly continue for the entire week. All signs are pointing to the Friars.
With the recent signing of top 20 recruit Kris Dunn, Providence will have another potential NBA player on the roster to help him out. No basketball player can get the most out of their ability without the help of a star lead guard…which is exactly what Dunn is. He can penetrate into the lane at ease, score at a high rate, and most importantly, he is a pass-first point guard. What might help Ricardo Ledo the most, however, is that Kris Dunn will help take pressure off of him.
And sometimes at a school like Providence you need the perfect storm to come together. What were the chances that a pair of basketball prodigies, one a point guard and the other a big man, would both be born in Providence within a year and a half of each other?
Indeed a perfect storm. I hope that means we all don’t end up drowning.
Not bad. Left handed no less, but no way close to Johnny Starks dunking on MJ in the ’93 NBA Playoffs.
I didn’t catch any of that High School All-Star game that Noel played in on ESPNU (I DVR’d it), and there wasn’t much chatter about it on Twitter (I guess the amount of people dealing with the Hurricane is EXPONENTIALLY greater than the people that actually get ESPNU). However, someone did say this.
Moments after the news broke on GoLocalProv.com about Ricky Ledo picking PC, the 2012 guard announced via Twitter that he did not in fact make any decision yet.
He then Tweeted that he will be having a press conference next Thursday at 3pm.
Ledo Via Twitter: “On Thursday 9/1/11 at Ladder 133 Bar & Grill In Providence RI, at 3pm I will me announcing my school of choice thanks for all the support”
We’ve been reading all the speculative tweets all week, deciphering Cooley comments, and frantically Tweeting at the kid trying find out more information, but it sounds like we have a more official confirmation that Ricky Ledo has in fact picked Providence.
According to GoLocalProv’s Scott Cordischi, the school is figuring out when they want to make the annoucement.
We reported first here earlier in the week that the PC Friars new head coach had just landed the highly-touted Kris Dunn and was about to land Ricky Ledo. The eagle, or should I say “the Friar” has landed!
Sources say that the school is just contemplating when to make the announcement with Hurricane Irene about to impact the area. Regardless of when the official announcement is made, Ledo’s commitment which comes on the heels of Kris Dunn’s commitment is the perfect storm for Providence College men’s basketball.
Assuming Ledo can get his academics in order, Providence is looking like they could have one of the top recruiting classes in the nation next year!
“We just want to show people that we can do something here and prove people wrong and make Providence a better place.”
Um, yeah OK coach, whatever. Sounds great. Heard that before. Believe it when we see….Wait…what? What’s that now?
Kris Dunn said that? Of course he did.
Somewhere late Wednesday night, deep in a momentarily quiet corner of Alumni Hall, Ed Cooley sat back in a chair and conjured up his best George Peppard inspired Hannibal Smith, smiled half a smile as he bit down on an unlit stogie and allowed himself to think ‘I love it when a plan comes together’. This week’s events in FRIARTOWN have elicited many emotions but one thing for sure; surprise is not one of them. The signs were there all along.
On March 23rd as the once proud Providence College Friar Men’s Basketball program teetered on the brink of shameful irrelevance newly hired coach, Ed Cooley, stood there at the podium, looked the Friar faithful in the eye and revealed his plan. He didn’t beat around the bush either. Cooley talked about things like being the most dominant team every year, winning the Big East and doing it the right way, with the right players…..The right way, with the right players.
Last year around this time in August, I practically shuttered every time I dared to check out any of the usual Friars news sources around the web. At one point, I wondered how awful or ridiculous a story could get where I wouldn’t actually believe it.
“Oh, so Marshon Brooks and Vincent Council were studying dutifully in their dorms for a big exam. Bilal Dixon walked into the room carrying a comically sized bucket of water and tripped, spilling it all over their big stereo system causing a massive explosion. All three players are out for the rest of the season.”
After the terrible offseason involving student beatings, oral sex for high school recruits that may or may not have happened, and losing verbals/LOIs left and right — that above scenario would not have surprised me in the least. It felt like a never ending downward spiral with no light at the end of the tunnel. As I sit here on a cool late August night a year later, things could not be any more different under the command of new Friars coach Ed Cooley. The differences of the 2010 and 2011 off-seasons have been like night and day, and Friartown was buzzing all last night and most of today over the news that Coach Cooley had landed one of the best point guards in the 2012 class, Kris Dunn.
Here are some links and what everyone had to say about Kris Dunn becoming a Friar.
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We’ve been reading all the speculative tweets all week, deciphering Cooley comments, and frantically Tweeting at the kid trying find out more information, but it sounds like we have a more official confirmation that Ricky Ledo has in fact picked Providence.