Noah Horchler, a much sought after transfer from North Florida announced that he has committed to the Providence Friars.  He will sit one and play one.  With the commitment of Horchler, the Friars now have 1 open scholarship left.

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Thank you to everyone I met in Jacksonville for making these last two years an amazing experience on and off the court! To Coach Driscoll, the staff and all my teammates.. I loved every minute being apart of the Osprey family. But next season I will be joining the Providence College Friars and look to achieve my dream of playing professionally #gofriars

A post shared by Noah Horchler (@noahhorchler) on Apr 23, 2019 at 3:03pm PDT

Noah played 2 season with the North Florida Ospreys…wait a second.  Ospreys?  What in the world is an Osprey?

Apparently it’s a type of sea hawk.  It looks pretty bad ass anyway, so I guess it’s kind of a cool school mascot but they definitely need a symbol or picture of some sort on their uniforms if you ask me.

Horchler averaged 16.0 ppg and 9.3 rpg, leading the Ospreys (I feel like I have to use it now) to a third place finish in the Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN).  The transfer stands at 6’8” and 219 pounds and has the ability to play the 4 and a stretch 5 in the right line-ups.  Last season, he led North Florida in minutes (31.2 mpg), points, and rebounds, and ranked 2nd in blocks with 1.7 bpg.

He has the ability to shoot the three but I wouldn’t call him a three-point shooter.  Horchler connected on 30% of this threes last year while attempting 71.  He shot a little better last year (34.8%) on 66 attempts.  Having some slashers and teammates with the ability to drive and dish will make his three-point shot level of difficulty much easier within the Friars offense.  With Big Nate dominating down low, that should also help Horchler slide into his natural spot at the floor and create open shots for him.

Horchler was listed as the 19th best player in the transfer portal by watchstadium.com, 20 spots ahead of out-going Providence transfer Makai Ashton-Langford.  Other schools that were interested and Horchler included Arizona, Oklahoma State, Nevada, Clemson, Missouri, Ole Miss, Oregon State, Arkansas, Purdue, TCU, & Hawaii.  That makes the commitment from the Junior all that more impressive for Ed Cooley and his staff.

Horchler was named to the ASUN All Conference 2nd Team after his first season and even though he improved in basically every statistical category in his second season, he wasn’t named to the first or second all-conference team.

• Points went from 11.7 ppg to 16.0 ppg
• Rebounds went from 8.6 rpg to 9.3 rpg
• Blocks went from 1.6 bpg to 1.7 bpg
• Steals went from 0.5 spg to 0.9 spg
• Assists stayed at 1.6 apg from the first year to the second

The three biggest things that I think Horchler brings to the table for the Friars are his defensive presence with his shot blocking, his rebounding prowess which the Friars could have definitely used last season, and his ability to stretch the floor.  With a year practicing with the team and working on improving his shot, I think it will be an even bigger factor when he sees the floor than people realize.  I’m going to love him and Nate playing off each other with Duke slicing and dicing.

You just love to see former coaches talking about Friar like this…

Mike Soliven, who was Noah Horchler’s head coach at Melbourne HS: “They’re getting a kid with huge upside … an athletic stretch 4 who can guard the 5 if necessary. He can step outside and shoot it. He’s also a natural shot blocker and a double-double machine.” #PCBB #Friars

— Brendan McGair (@BWMcGair03) April 24, 2019

Actually, The Woonsocket Call’s Brendan McGair caught up with Horchler’s former coach a little bit that you can read about here as well.

“I really just loved the brotherhood that they have there. They have a great family atmosphere. We formed a chemistry with the guys, so I felt like it was a good fit.” – Noah Horchler