And here’s that frontcourt help y’all have been asking for…Bryan Hodgson keeps on adding transfers to the roster faster than you can say, Jaws. It’s getting hard to keep up with the non-stop additions to the Friars roster, but I’m the farthest thing from complaining. The latest addition to Friartown is Samson Aletan, a 6’10” big man from Yale.
Samson Aletan spent three years at Yale, developing into one of the premier shot blocker in the Ivy League. The past season, Aletan blocked 1.4 shots per game in 25.9 minutes per game, good enough for the third best mark in the conference. His 5.8 rebounds were also a top-ten mark in the Ivy, checking in at 6th best average per game in the conference. With the addition of multiple wings and guards thus far, the Friars and Friartown were certainly craving the addition of a frontcourt presence. With averages of 7.8 ppg, 5.8 rpg, and 1.4 bpg, the Friars essentially added Oswin to their roster at roughly 1/4 of the price. Oswin averaged 6.9 ppg, 8.3 rpg, and 2.1 bpg for what is being reported as around $3M (!!!) from Creighton. Providence got a guy that turns it over less (0.9 vs. 1.4 turnovers per game), fouls less (2.6 vs. 3.3 fouls per game), gets more assists (1.2 vs. 0.8 assists per game), and shoots better from the line (58.5% vs. 52.5%) and they’re paying him a fraction of the cost that they can now use on other pieces for the roster.
Also, I’m now officially following Slan Sports because this graphic is pretty damn sick.
The Providence Crier had a great write up on Samson even before Samson committed to Bryan Hodgson and the Friars just based on his player profile alone and the fact that Providence was in need of some dudes in the frontcourt. Looking at his back story and his reasoning behind initially committing to Yale despite some high major offers from schools in his home state of Texas, it looks like Providence is getting a guy with a great head on his shoulders who is looking to win above everything else and comes from a fantastic family to boot.
The Morning Hangover 