Ed Cooley and the Providence Friars just nabbed their second commitment from the transfer portal in as many days, and third of the off-season (I guess it would be called an off-season, right?).  Saint Joseph’s Freshman guard Jared Bynum announced on his Instagram and Twitter that he will be heading to Providence, sitting for one year before being eligible to play the next three, essentially becoming the second commitment of Greg Gantt’s class next season.

Us. We. Together. Family. Friars ⚫️⚪️ pic.twitter.com/dbDWdkpXPd

— Jared Bynum $ (@JBDimes3) April 24, 2019 

The news of Bynum choosing PC comes a day after North Florida Forward Noah Horschler announced he would be heading to Providence College to sit out the next season before playing his last year of eligibility out following that.  The third transfer that Cooley scooped up was Luwane Pipkins from UMass who will be the only one of the three eligible to play immediately his final season next year and won’t actually get to play alongside Horschler or Bynum.  Assuming that Emmitt Holt is granted a 6th year of eligibility by the NCAA, the signing of Bynum fills up the last open scholarship next year for the Friars.

Once again, The Woonsocket Call’s Brendan McGair caught up with a former coach of an incoming transfer player, this time with Bynum’s Georgetown Prep head coach Ryan Eskow.  The fact that he is only transferring from Saint Joe’s because their head coach Phil Martelli was fired following the end of the season makes me feel even better about his situation.

He sure sounds like a Friar to me.

“He’s one of the hardest workers that I’ve ever had the pleasure of coaching. If he has to sit out this year, he’s going to use the time to get bigger and stronger so that he can step in and be a huge difference maker for Providence, there’s no question.” – Ryan Eskow

Bynum was ranked as the 23rd best available player on the WatchStadium.com transfer portal, just 4 spots behind fellow PC signee Noah Horschler.  I may like the addition of Bynum even more because he’ll still have three years of eligibility once he becomes eligible to play.  By that time, both Maliek White and Luwane Pipkins will have graduated, opening up even more minutes in the backcourt and with a year of seasoning and improvement under his belt.

Even though he was just a Freshman last season, Bynum averaged the most minutes on the team with an astounding 36.6 mpg for a first year player.  Bynum averages a team-high 4.5 apg as the lead guard and a very healthy 2.7 to 1, assist to turnover ratio.  Along with dishing out the assists, Bynum averaged 11.3 ppg, 3.6 rpg, and 1.3 spg, while finishing with shooting splits of 41.6%/34.3%/69.0%.  He definitely has to work on his offensive efficiency and up those shooting numbers a little bit but that is a tough workload to carry for a team as a Freshman and experience and growth will only make those numbers climb.

Bynum is a smaller guard, standing 5’10” and weighing 175 pounds, but that doesn’t stop him from mixing it up with the big boys in the lane.  Besides Providence, the other six teams that Bynum was considering included Stanford, Clemson, Virginia Tech, Notre Dame, Butler, & Seton Hall.

There are two very articles that I suggest that you check out to dig a little deeper on Jared Bynum.  The first comes from Busting Brackets that broke down the fit for Bynum and his list of seven schools.

Jared Bynum (St. Joe’s) is one of the top sit-out transfers available this offseason. He is coming off of a strong freshman season in which he averaged 11.3 ppg (.416/.343/.690), 3.6 rpg, and 4.5 apg. Here is a look at his final seven.

WORDS: https://t.co/inbbbAFuSw

— Lukas Harkins (@hardwiredsports) April 22, 2019

The second is from Friarbasketball that delves into some more advanced numbers of Bynum’s Freshman year play and also gets into the other two Friars incoming transfers.

Ed Cooley targeted the transfer market this spring and came away with three solid commitments. A look at what Noah Horchler and Jared Bynum bring to Providence. https://t.co/JNr6y4KYx3 #pcbb

— Kevin Farrahar (@Kevin_Farrahar) April 24, 2019

There aren’t that many highlight videos I could find of St. Joe’s, maybe because they finished 10th in Atlantic 10 in what was a down year from the league.

Welcome to Friartown Jared, you are welcomed with open arms!!