FGCU’s Ricky Doyle could become hometown star

Lethargic, restless, depressed and unable to focus most of last season, Doyle saw a promising freshman season two years ago at Michigan melt away last fall and winter with the Wolverines.

“We know he’s good,” Dooley said of Doyle, who will have two seasons on the court with FGCU after sitting out the 2016-17 campaign as required by NCAA rules.

But Dooley expressed no reservations about Doyle’s health, pointing instead to Doyle’s considerable attributes and ability to handle expectations as a potential hometown star.

“I think if he was afraid of (expectations) he wouldn’t have come back home,” Dooley said of Doyle, born in France to Richard and Lenka Doyle but raised in Southwest Florida since age 3.

Ricky Doyle calls coach Joe Dooley after announcing that he will transfer from Michigan to play basketball for FGCU.

But after playing 24 minutes in Michigan’s Big Ten tournament opener, Doyle averaged only 6.0 minutes the last four games of the season, including two in the NCAA tournament.

With two players having passed him on the depth chart by season’s end, two more centers arriving next season and surgery still a possibility, Doyle opted for a transfer season to make sure he’s well.

Doyle’s hometown ties to FGCU he’s been a friend and pickup player with FGCU’s players since before he left for Michigan, and FGCU athletic director Ken Kavanagh’s youngest sons attended Bishop Verot and befriended Doyle gave the program more than an edge in his second recruitment.

A chance to make a postseason impact especially in the NCAA tournament, where FGCU returned in March for the first time in Dooley’s three seasons at FGCU also steered Doyle back home.

Should he depart, though a possibility the Doyles considered the family also has put its faith in Kavanagh, the school, hometown and Ricky Doyle himself.