Kevin Stacom: Not a Time for Fair Weather Friends

Kevin Stacom: Not a Time for Fair Weather Friends

The post-game press conference this week was probably Kim English’s toughest assignment yet in his very young coaching career. He had to fulfill his obligation of showing up after a very difficult loss at home to Marquette on New Year’s Eve night. Not an easy task.

           

Coach English, as he usually does, graciously gave credit to the opposing team, Marquette, who more than lived up to their deserved # 8 National ranking with a very balanced scoring attack initiated by a smothering, aggressive ball-hawking defense; that, once they found their rhythm turned a 10 to 4 deficit (1st 3 minutes), into what mutated into an insurmountable 47 to 20 halftime lead Providence managed to score only 10 points for the remaining 17 minutes left in the half after that initial early 6 point lead. 

GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST

         

All the red flags of the Hopkins less version of this PC team rose up in spades. Unlike against St John’s, where they were able to hang around and almost pull out a victory due to St John’s struggles from the Field, the 3-point line, and the Free Throw line, Marquette showed none of those vulnerabilities, as they came up with even more steals than St John’s(12), relentlessly pressuring Providence into 22 turnovers and accumulating 15 steals in the process. All of this mayhem Marquette was able to generate from their defense resulted in 27 points of turnovers versus 3 for PC. This disparity, Coach went on to explain resulted, as it did against St John’s, in Marquette being able to get a lot more scoring opportunities than Providence (66 FGA vs 50 FGA respectively). In terms of the inordinate amount of turnovers forced by Marquette, the glaring amount of steals(15) is not that much of an anomaly since coming into this game they were averaging 10 per game for the 1st 13 games prior to this one. 

           

Unlike Providence, who’s had to battle without their best player, Marquette is led by an excellent National Player of the Year candidate, Kam Jones, a 6’5” 205 Sr guard, who not only leads the team in scoring (20.3 per), but also in assists (6.5/game), accentuated by a better than 4 to 1 assist to turnover ratio to the positive ( in this game vs PC, he had 10 assists and 2 turnovers) 

         

They’ve been able to sustain and build off last year’s success despite the loss of 2 players to last year’s NBA Draft- RI’s Tyler Kolec (#34 NY Knicks) and Oso Ighodaro (#40 Atlanta now with Phoenix Suns) Marquette’s current star waited his turn coming up through the system, being paired with two other accomplished seniors (Stevie Mitchell and David Joblin), who like Kam Jones were developed from the ground up within their system. 

             

That is a characteristic of a team that has its obvious advantages in terms of developing a culture and a resulting positive chemistry not easily attainable in today’s new world of NIL realities 

           

I mention that in contrast to the situation that Coach English found himself in upon the untimely departure of Coach Cooley. I’m sure Coach would much rather have had the luxury of being able to develop a base of players from the ground up with all the continuity that would entail. 

       

This brings us to the point of the season where this PC team finds itself. Again, I could bore you with all the statistical evidence of what a different team this has and would have been if Bryce Hopkins was available and at full strength. It’s not that the four players that were acquired through the Portal cannot play (Bensley Joseph, Wesley Cardet, Jabri Abdur-Rahim, Christ Essandoko) -they were all fairly highly sought after once they hit the Portal. It’s mainly those players who were acquired with the idea of blending them in with a star-level player who would employ all their complementary skills for everyone’s benefit. Minus that star, it’s obvious where the struggles begin. 

     

As Kim English previously stated,” This team makes a lot more sense with Bryce Hopkins on it.”

             

Inevitability at the aforementioned presser, Coach English was asked to address the overall expectations of when Bryce Hopkins might return. Coach emphasized that Hopkins had sustained a “catastrophic” injury only last January, that he has worked extremely hard and has done all that he can in terms of his rehab. He reiterated that after the DePaul game, Bryce experienced some swelling and some pain, that an MRI found no “structural” damage, and not wanting to risk a relapse, they as a team are waiting for him to determine when he feels confident to return It will be 26 days between that DePaul game and the upcoming Sunday game at UConn. 

           

At some point, this difficult situation for all concerned will be brought to a conclusion. Hopefully, by necessity, in the near future, the perceived best self-interests of the young man will coincide with the best interests of the team and the program. 

           

In the meantime, UConn awaits in its home court in Storrs, Connecticut, for a Sunday afternoon game (2pm). After their disappointing Maui Tournament, where they lost 3 in a row, they are on a roll, winning 6 in a row, including W’s against #15 Baylor, at Texas, against #8 Gonzaga at MSG, vs. Xavier, at Butler, and at DePaul, bringing their record to 11 and 3, and 3 and 0 in the Big East.

             

 As Rocky said, “The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows….it ain’t how hard you can hit- it’s about how hard you can GET hit and keep moving forward.”