PC Rumors True & False
Thursday, March 29, 2012
CBSsports.com college basketball writer Jeff Goodman tweeted Wednesday that three Providence College men's basketball players were transferring out of the program. The tweet said that Bilal Dixon, Ron Giplaye will definitely be leaving PC and that Gerard Coleman was likely to pursue playing college basketball elsewhere as well.
Reached by phone Wednesday night, Friars head coach Ed Cooley said, "the report out there is not true as far as I'm concerned."
Cooley said that Dixon will not be back with the program next season which comes as no surprise. He is scheduled to graduate this spring and there wasn't going to be a spot on PC's roster for him next year anyway.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTGiplaye and Coleman are a completely different story according to Cooley. "I just met with the guys on the team yesterday and none of this (transferring) was discussed with Ron or Gerard. I don't know where that report came from but it didn't come from me," he said. "Maybe it's players talking or something like that, but those guys have said nothing to me about leaving."
Cooley said that he was going to call Goodman after he got off the phone with me to talk to him about the report. Many Friar fans wonder who Goodman's "source" may be on Coleman. One person close to the program wondered if it was former Friar assistant coach Chris Driscoll who came to PC from the BABC to join Keno Davis' staff. When Cooley was hired, Driscoll was not retained. Some suggest that the recent defections of BABC players may be somehow related to Driscoll or wonder if he is advising any of these players. Goodman lives in the Boston area so Driscoll may very well be that "source" he is referring to.
It would not come as a complete shock if either Giplaye or Coleman were to leave PC. Giplaye averaged just 7.5 minutes per game in the 26 games he appeared in this season. The sophomore averaged 1.3 points and 2.0 reounds per game.
Coleman was a much bigger part of the team this past season averaging 34 minutes per game which was the 4th highest total on the team. He was 4th on the team in scoring averaging 13.2 points per game and second on the team in rebounding at 5.0 boards per contest. He did start 21 of the 30 games he played in this season but may feel that his playing time might go down with the addition of Ricky Ledo, Kris Dunn and Josh Fortune.
Cooley also told GoLocalProv.com that he and his staff continue to work very hard in trying to recruit another big man who will be eligible to play this fall. "We're not going to sign someone just for the sake of signing someone," he said. "Whoever we get is going to have to fit our system and what we do." When asked if he was confident that he could find such a player that could be in uniform for PC next fall, Cooley responded confidently saying, "yes I do."
