The Challenge Facing Ed Cooley - Friar Basketball

Ed Cooley has himself quite the conundrum eight games into the 2019-20 season.

At the Big East Media Day in October Cooley said he thought this team had a chance to be special — maybe the best he has coached at Providence.

Cooley wasn’t alone.

CBS’ Matt Norlander was all in, ranking Providence #15 in his preseason poll and picking PC to win the Big East. The Stadium’s Jeff Goodman ranked the Friars in his top 25, while others like Andy Katz had them on the cusp of theirs.

After yesterday’s 63-55 loss to Charleston, PC fell to 4-4 on the season. They have lost three straight to less than imposing opponents (Penn, Long Beach State, and Charleston).

Now Cooley faces the type of challenging decision no one anticipated he would have to prior to the calendar turning to December: what to do with his senior class?

Providence’s issues run deeper than one or two individuals, but Cooley could not have anticipated getting so little from his veterans in the early going.

Alpha Diallo is a returning All Big East performer. He was named 1st Team All Big East by the league’s coaches in the preseason and a 3rd Team All American by Street and Smith’s in the fall. While even the most ardent PC supporters had a hard time justifying an All American selection over Seton Hall’s Myles Powell, Diallo was assumed to be the constant on a deep roster.

Cooley lauded Diallo for the work he put in on his jump shot in the offseason, but his shooting numbers have plummeted to start his senior season. More accurately, his perimeter shooting percentages have fallen.

Diallo remains a potent presence on the interior. He has made seven of nine shots in post up situations this season and has been terrific on attempts near the rim (58%). His problems have come when stepping outside of the paint.

Diallo is shooting 21% from 3-point range. He has made 3-7 from deep when shooting from straight away, but his numbers fall to 4-26 when not taking deep ones from beyond the top of the key. Maybe his 3-point shooting should not be a surprise. Prior to making 33% from deep last year, Diallo shot 24% and 21% from 3-point range his first two seasons at Providence.

His troubles at the free throw line are more puzzling. Diallo was a steady 73% his freshman and sophomore seasons, but has seen that percentage fall to 67% last year and 57% as a senior. Diallo shot nearly 47% from the field as a sophomore, but that number has dipped as he has expanded his game beyond the arc (42% last year, 41% this season).

Diallo’s turnovers have also spiked to 3.5 this season, up from 2.7 as a junior.

One of the more underplayed aspects of the offseason, and one that I certainly glossed over when evaluating this team in the preseason, was the risk Cooley took in bringing in Luwane Pipkins last spring.

Pipkins reputation was that of a gunner at UMass. A gunner on bad teams who brought a big personality to Friartown. The horrible point guard play of Providence a season ago combined with some of the monster performances in Pipkins’ past was enough to sell this writer on the move. I did have questions on adding such a big personality to an already deep roster — a roster filled with plenty of mouths to feed offensively — but there was enough upside there to support making the move.

Pipkins was an All A-10 performer two years ago. He scored over 30 points five times that season, shot over 40% from 3, and he put up numbers against good teams throughout his career (38 vs. VCU, 27 against URI, 30 vs. PC, 31 vs. Davidson, 36 vs. Harvard, 30 vs. Nevada).

His numbers dipped last year as he played through a hamstring injury, and perhaps it should have been a bigger red flag when both knee and hamstring injuries crept up this offseason. Pipkins simply doesn’t look to have the explosiveness he showed when he torched PC for 70+ points in three games the past three seasons. He is really struggling to finish at the rim (7-19 — 36%). He made 47% of those two shots years ago, and saw that number fall to 41% last season when the hammy acted up.

Pipkins is shooting 29% from the field this season and 28% from 3. I don’t think he’s a bad shooter, despite up and down career numbers. He hasn’t missed a free throw this season, and while his 3-point percentage fell last year, a bad shooter can’t make 42% of his threes while taking nearly eight a game — as Pipkins did two years ago.

The question regarding Pipkins is if he can be effective as a lower volume shooter.

The biggest challenge for Cooley going forward will be to find some semblance of consistent offense.

To do so, he will likely have to reign in the shot selection of his seniors. That may fly in the face of the free wheeling offense that Cooley wanted to play heading into this season, but for a Friar team that suffered two seven plus minute scoring droughts that essentially cost them games against Long Beach and Charleston, finding consistency on offense is a must.

Two years ago, Providence was among the best post up scoring teams in the country, with Nate Watson and Diallo ranking among the tops in the nation. With Watson still hobbling, PC needs to find a way to establish Diallo in the post again.

Diallo has taken twice the number of 3-pointers as the team’s best shooter (AJ Reeves).

It would be shocking to see Cooley scale back on Diallo’s minutes, and it is not in the best interest of the team to bench a veteran who also happens to be the best rebounder on a group that was just pounded on the glass by Charleston. Cooley seemed more disturbed by his team’s lack of toughness than its scoring ability following the Charleston loss. Say what you will about Diallo, but he will mix it up on the interior.

Cooley has a number of challenges ahead of him: helping Watson find his legs, getting Reeves more involved in the offense, finding minutes for impressive freshman Greg Gantt — and some of those changes could come at the expense of minutes and shots of his seniors. Diallo and Pipkins aren’t alone when it comes to this poor start, but they may be asked to adjust the most.

With the season now in full swing, Cooley will have to figure out how to do all of this on the fly. It will require buy-in from his veterans, while simultaneously re-establishing Watson and Reeves in games PC simply can’t afford to lose going forward.

On a team with nine players who have started a game and a freshman who could make a case for getting there eventually this season, effectively managing this roster and salvaging this season would be perhaps the best accomplishment in Cooley’s Providence tenure.

Twitter: Kevin_Farrahar

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