Wenyen Gabriel may have been the largest stock-riser in the class of 2016 this grassroots season. The 6’9 combo forward possesses an offer list that reads like a who’s who of college basketball elite. Then there is Providence and Ed Cooley. Cooley has been on Gabriel the longest of any high major school. Providence became Gabriel’s first high major offer back in July 2014. Gabriel’s only other offer at that time was from in-state New Hampshire. On Wednesday Gabriel cut his list down to a final 5 schools. That list is comprised of Duke, Kentucky, Maryland, Providence and UConn, according to a tweet from Adam Finkelstein.
Providence hosted their annual Elite Camp on August 8th on the school’s campus and this was the first year I attended. A while back when I decided that I would keep that Saturday open so I could attend the camp this year I had ideas in my head of seeing some of Providence’s star recruits in person. That didn’t exactly come to fruition as there were other competing events — namely the Big Strick Classic in NYC — that thinned out the field for the 2015 version of camp. Still, there was a lot to see and some new names that popped up onto my radar. Other recent recruiting news is that the Friars made the top 5 for JJ Matthews and the top 6 for Quentin Jackson. Both players cut down their lists on Monday. More on Elite Camp and these two recruits below.
2016 Shamorie Ponds announcing his final 4 schools via his Twitter account on Sunday. On Wednesday night it was reported by Adam Zagoria that Ponds has scheduled a visit to Providence on September 11th. The road from Sunday to Wednesday was an interesting one though. Ponds included the Friars in his final 4 list even though he had yet to speak with Ed Cooley. Apparently Cooley and Ponds have communicated because a visit date was added to the calendar to go along with visits to St. John’s on August 28th and Minnesota on September 18th. Ponds visited Creighton — the other school in his final 4 — last weekend.
The Big Strick Classic is a basketball-junkie’s dream that takes place each summer after the live periods of July have come and gone. Players from all across the country will travel to NYC to take on the best that NYC has to offer. The 2015 version of the tournament — named in honor of the late NYC streetball legend John “Big Strick” Strickland — is the 5th annual and features a number of Providence recruits, as well as many top national recruits in the classes of 2016, 2017 and a few from 2018.
While one member of Team Final — Tony Carr — that had Providence in his final 5 schools committed elsewhere on Monday afternoon, Dylan Painter cut his list to a final 7 and did not include the Friars. The 6’10 big man from Hershey, PA cut his list down on Monday night to 7 and Providence made the cut, along with George Washington, NC State, Penn State, St. Joseph’s, URI, Villanova and Xavier. Painter was officially offered by the Friars on July 10th during the 1st live evaluation period of the month. His most recent offer could be a tough team to beat in Villanova. The Wildcats offered Painter earlier on Monday.
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