Sedee Keita is the key to Providence’s 2016 recruiting class. No offense to committed point guard Maliek White but that previous statement is a fact. White was a big-time get for Ed Cooley and his staff because they were looking to replace Kris Dunn — the former McDonald’s All-American is expected to jump to the NBA after his redshirt junior season in 2015-16. Had Cooley and his staff not landed White they would still be chasing other guards but if they didn’t find one they wanted in 2016 it wouldn’t have been a massive blow. The current roster has two or three players who are capable of handling point guard duties for stretches, including sophomore Kyron Cartwright who started some games alongside Dunn a season ago and could very well do the same this season. The class of 2017 — especially in New England — is loaded with talented guards and the Friar coaching staff is already heavily involved with a number of them.
A report by Friar recruiting insider Jeff Ferrucci surfaced over the weekend that Providence was out of consideration in the race to land Worcester Academy power forward Kevin Marfo. The report indicates that the recruitment is a two-horse race at this point between Boston College and George Washington. A source confirmed these reports to pcbb1917.com on Monday. Marfo has taken official visits to Boston College, Providence and George Washington while also including DePaul and Rhode Island in his final 5.
Wenyen Gabriel has announced his decision and the fast-rising forward from New Hampshire committed to John Calipari and the Kentucky Wildcats. Gabriel was down to a final 5 of Connecticut, Duke, Kentucky, Maryland and Providence and had taken visits to Maryland and Kentucky before shutting down his recruitment and announcing his commitment on ESPN’s Recruiting Nation with Adam Finkelstein. Gabriel — who attends Wilbraham and Monson Academy and ran with the Mass Rivals on the adidas Gauntlet series — was a top target for Ed Cooley and the Providence staff but, as was the case with the class of 2015’s top Friar recruiting target Donovan Mitchell, Gabriel blew-up in the spring and summer to rise all the way to the top 20 in the class of 2016 rankings, according to 247sports.com’s composite national rankings.
Decision day is here for Shamorie Ponds as the 2016 guard from Brooklyn held a press conference at his high school this afternoon to announce his college commitment. As expected Ponds announced he would be staying home to attend St. John’s. Ponds becomes Chris Mullin’s first top-50 recruit. Possibly more important than that is the fact that he is the first top NYC recruit Mullin has convinced to stay home and play for the hometown Red Storm. Mullin is hoping to convince Rawle Alkins to do the same. Ponds visited Creighton, St. John’s and Providence before deciding to commit. His commitment gives the Big East their 6th 4-star recruit to go along with 1 5-star pledge in the class of 2016 and he is the second highest ranked prospect committed to a Big East program so far for 2016 behind Villanova pledge Omari Spellman, according to 247sports.com.
Providence landed their point guard in the class of 2016 that they had been searching for when Maliek White pledged to Ed Cooley and the Friars during his official visit over the weekend. Next on the agenda for Cooley and his staff is to address the needs in the frontcourt. Enter Sedee Keita. While Wenyen Gabriel is still a priority for Providence it’s Keita who is the only true big man with the size to be a real rim protector. Kevin Marfo took an official visit last weekend with White and would certainly bolster the Friar frontcourt in 2016-17 but he’s a few inches shorter than Keita and is seen as more of a pure power forward.
Ed Cooley and the Friar coaching staff have been trying to reel in a point guard for the last few recruiting cycles. Kyron Cartwright is the only true point guard currently on the roster with Drew Edwards and Tyree Chambers being thought of as more combo guards. Cooley was able to add to that group on Sunday with the addition of Richmond, VA native Maliek White. White visited Providence over the weekend after canceling his trip to Cincinnati.
The recruiting buzz continues to pick up around the Providence program as they are in the midst of stretch hosting visitors. It started last weekend with 2016 wing Jalen Johnson and the Friar staff played double duty this weekend by hosting two recruits. Power forward Kevin Marfo‘s visit was scheduled for this weekend all along, but hosting point guard Maliek White wasn’t supposed to happen until next weekend. The Richmond, VA native decided to cancel his visit to Cincinnati and move up his trip to Friartown, a source familiar with the recruitment told pcbb1917.com on Friday. On Saturday White’s list was cut to a final four, according to the Twitter account of his grassroots program.
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