How Providence transfer Drew Edwards has shot Charlotte 49ers basketball to 1st place

The question Drew Edwards had to ask himself last offseason was simple.

“How can I help?”

He’d just graduated from Providence College in May with a degree in business management. Also a basketball player for the Friars, Edwards knew he wanted to use the one season of NCAA eligibility he had remaining to play somewhere else.

He was going to make the most of that chance, even if that meant finding a basketball home with a team that wasn’t a perennial NCAA tournament contender.

“I wanted to go somewhere where I could really help a lot of people,” Edwards said. “Where those little things I do are extremely valued. I wanted to be as much of an influence as possible.”

That program turned out to be the long-struggling Charlotte 49ers, for whom Edwards is now playing a key role on a resurgent team that’s in first place early in the Conference USA schedule. The 49ers (10-5, 4-0 C-USA) are in the midst of a three-game road trip, which continues Saturday at Western Kentucky 11-6, 4-1).

“I saw so much opportunity at Charlotte,” Edwards said. “It was a no-brainer.”

Using his experience as a guard who played on three NCAA tournament teams at Providence, Edwards averages 9.9 points, 3.8 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.3 steals for Charlotte.

But it’s his contributions off the court that are making as much, if not more, of an impact on the youthful 49ers.

“If you get a kid whose heart is postured correctly, and willing to serve — and Drew is a servant — things usually work out well,” second-year 49ers coach Ron Sanchez said. “We knew Drew would provide leadership. But we didn’t know he’d provide this much. He’s been a lot better than we expected.”

What Edwards saw in Charlotte (a program that hasn’t been to the NCAA tournament since 2005) was a young team that had lost its top player (point guard Jon Davis) to graduation and was adjusting to a culture being established by Sanchez.

“It’s their ‘pillars,’ what they value: Togetherness, thankfulness, humility,” Edwards said. “It’s all based on what they believe in and that’s more than basketball. It’s faith, life lessons. That’s been me my whole life. It’s relationships and how you treat people.”

With the departure of Davis and center Jailan Haslem from last season’s team that went 8-21, Sanchez knew he needed an infusion of experience. But finding transfers who fit Sanchez’s mold was paramount. He found that not only in Edwards, but in forward Amidou Bamba (transfer from Coastal Carolina) and guard Jordan Shepherd (Oklahoma).

Shepherd, a junior who sat out last season, is leading the 49ers in scoring at 14.5 points per game. Bamba, who along with Edwards is one of just two seniors on the team, is the 49ers’ second-leading rebounder (4.9) and averages about one block per game.

“I have to give credit to the coaching staffs at those other programs,” Sanchez said. “We’re reaping the benefits of a lot of hard work poured into those guys by other staffs.”

None of the three — but especially Edwards — is shy about mentoring younger players.

“It’s pretty natural with him,” freshman guard Jahmir Young said of Edwards. “He does a great job, encouraging us in practice. When we’re not playing to our best ability, he’s in the huddle, always talking to us. It’s a gift. It’s huge having somebody older like that walk in and be able to teach us.”

Said Edwards: “It’s hard to trust somebody you haven’t known before and have them express their feelings with you. You don’t really know who you’re dealing with. I try to do things, see things and tell them things from my experiences. Just so they know not everything’s coming from the coaches. I’ve been there and seen it.

“I’m genuine; I’m real. I think they know it’s coming from the right place.”

Sanchez said Edwards is a perfect liaison between the coaching staff and the team.

“He’ll have a conversation,” Sanchez said. “He’ll come by the office and say, ‘Can I talk to you about this.’ Sometimes it’s something simple as ‘we need more snacks.’ Or it can be something bigger. But he’s come from good stock that way.”

49ers’ glue guy

Growing up in the Baltimore suburb of Perry Hall, Edwards was raised in a basketball family. His dad, Darryle, and mom, Jan, both played at Mount St. Mary’s in Maryland. Twin sister Danielle played at Clemson.

Drew’s older brother Darryle had his own promising basketball career, but it was cut short in high school after he was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a genetic cardiovascular disease.

Edwards wears jersey No. 25 — Darryle’s number in high school at Baltimore’s Calvert Hall — as a tribute to his brother, who earned a degree at Maryland and later served on the staff at Providence when Drew was playing for the Friars.

“He’s my role model,” Drew said.

After a stellar career at Calvert Hall, Edwards headed to Providence. A role player over his career with the Friars, averaging 2.5 points and 1.4 rebounds in 104 games.

Now, Edwards is Charlotte’s glue guy, similar to what he was at Providence, albeit as a starter. Averaging 31.1 minutes a game, he’s also the 49ers’ best perimeter defender and helped hold holding Old Dominion to 1-for-22 shooting from outside the arc last Saturday.

The 49ers’ 29.3 percent 3-point field goal defense is second in C-USA, while their 61.5 points-per game scoring defense is second in the league.

That stinginess comes from Sanchez’s “pack” defense that he brought from his days as an assistant at Virginia, a system that Edwards is still getting used to its intricacies.

“I still mess it up!” Edwards said. “It’s just different than what I’m used to from playing a different system for four years. Sometimes I go back to my instincts. I’ve got to be disciplined. Some things I’ve fought with a little bit. They didn’t make sense. There were a lot of angles, close outs, things like that, that I needed to get used to.”

Edwards actually played against Virginia (and Sanchez) when he was with Providence in 2016 and remembered how hard it was to chase former Cavaliers star Kyle Guy around the floor.

Edwards did have a play at Providence that is among the more well-known in Friars history. In the final seconds of an NCAA tournament game against Southern California in 2016, he threw a deft in-bounds pass to a breaking teammate under the basket for the winning points.

And he already has a signature moment at Charlotte. In the second half against Middle Tennessee on Jan. 4, Edwards helped stave off a Blue Raiders rally, running from behind and blocking a fast-break layup by the Blue Raiders’ Jo’Vantae Millner. The block helped turn momentum back in Charlotte’s favor in a 68-62 victory.

After facing Western Kentucky on Saturday, Charlotte’s road trip wraps up Monday at ODU. Then come home games later next week against Florida Atlantic on Jan. 23 and Florida International on Jan. 25.

They have five games in 10 days, a stretch that could make or break the conference schedule for the 49ers.

Edwards will be there for the assist.

“I want to help these guys get through what I went through when I was younger,” he said. “I wish I had somebody like that.”

Charlotte at Western Kentucky

When: Saturday, 5 p.m.

Where: Bowling Green, Ky.

Watch: ESPN3

Listen: 730 AM.

This story was originally published January 15, 2020 at 4:17 PM.