By BRENDAN McGAIR

Sports writer

Two exhibition games do not provide us with a firm grasp about a team.
Not two games devoid of suspense like the film Titantic. Not two games that no fan is going to recall once the regular season tips off.
Two games that you really can’t gleam anything from. Especially a team featuring so many new pieces, like the Friars.
There’s one basic component to consider as Keno Davis begins his second season at Providence. The Friars are woefully thin on experience, a point that has been harped on already and stands to be reinforced throughout the season.
The Friars are the equivalent of a Cub Scout troop. Call it a byproduct of when your entire roster is lost to graduation. Or think about it in terms of this year: take away proven starter Sharaud Curry, a budding star in Marshon Brooks and a three-year vet in Brian McKenzie, and there’s not a single body on the PC roster that has logged serious Big East minutes.
In other words, Davis is working with a blank canvas.
This isn’t meant to automatically dismiss the bumper crop of Friars the coach and his staff have brought in. The two freshman point guards, Johnnie Lacy and Duke Mondy, have already been labeled “instant contributors,” the hope is that their presence on the floor will allow Curry to focus more on scoring and less on ball-handling.
That same kind of promise extends to first-year Friars Kadeem Batts, Vincent Council, James Still, Russ Permenter and Kyle Wright. 
Make no mistake, though. This Friar team is like the shiny car pulling out of the dealership: new and untested. One that’s a far cry from the one that advanced to the NIT a season ago, the same team that pulled off the unthinkable with a home upset of top-ranked Pittsburgh and was given serious NCAA Tournament consideration.
Can you remove from the equation a 15-point scorer like Weyinmi Efejuku, a proven 3-point shooter like Jeff Xavier and the rebounding toughness that Jonathan Kale and Geoff McDermott provided and not feel the pinch?
Don’t kid yourself for even a second.
So what do all these novices mean in terms of this season? That’s the true mystery.
You could see, even in exhibition romps against Merrimack and Stonehill, that there’s potential lurking, that Davis was fortunate enough to unearth some gems that didn’t catch the eyes of other programs. Yet you could also see signs that there’s still plenty of work that lies ahead, which shouldn’t come as shocking news.
The season is all about transitioning from the players Davis inherited from the previous regime to one littered with players he recruited, his “guys.” Save for a few holdovers from the Tim Welsh era, this Friar team has far more of Davis’ fingerprints than the handpicked squad of a season ago.
While there’s a faction of PC fans relieved to see Efejuku, Xavier and McDermott depart, keep this in mind: the Big East can be an unforgiving league, one that devours teams starting from scratch. Davis, with gobs of minutes to disperse, has little choice but to throw many of the Providence newbies into the deepest part of the pool, rather than let them start out in the shallow end.
“With such a young team there’s going to be ups and downs,” affirms Davis, no doubt cognizant of the makeup of the Friars and the struggles that could ensue. “I try and be patient with them as far as not getting on them for mistakes. The only thing that bothers me is a lack of effort.
“I understand that we’re not in midseason form. We might not be all year,” added Davis. “If we can get the effort up there then the other areas will improve.”
The question becomes how to gauge improvement, particularly when referencing this winter. The obvious barometer is wins, but say Providence fights tooth-and-nail only to come up short against the UConns and Villanovas of the world? Is that called progress, the belief that the rough patches that unquestionably lie ahead will harden their collective resolve by the time they reach their junior and senior seasons?
It was a similar tale we once heard when Efejuku and McDermott were novices, back when they teased us with their potential, back when we hoped they would pick the program up and make it a factor in the Big East, a 16-team behemoth that offers few layups. That group of Friars never lived up to the billing, now passing the baton off to a new generation that will attempt to chart a different course.
That is what makes this season fascinating, watching a team mesh together, the hope that the Friars can keep their heads above water in one of the nation’s toughest conferences. It all begins in earnest Friday when Providence rings in the new season against Bryant.
It’s also when the true insight takes flight.