ESPN updated their class of 2015 rankings from the top 60 to the top 100 and there was a decent amount of movement. Adam Finkelstein offered “Ten things to know about the ESPN 100” to give some insight to how they make their choices and where some spots stand.
To see the entire top 100, click here.
PC Recruits:
Continue reading Recruiting News: ESPN Updated Class Of 2015 Top 100 Recruit Rankings
Jon Rothstein tweeted late last week that Niagara transfer Antoine Mason had cut his list down to 3 schools: Auburn, Boston College and Providence.
That report was refuted by both Antoine and his father, Anthony.
Well it appears Rothstein didn’t just make this source up out of thin air as he is now reporting that Antoine Mason has scheduled 3 visits: Auburn on June 6-7, Providence June 8-9 and Boston College will get the final visit with no date set yet.
The reasons for the Masons refuting of the initial report last week is unclear but perhaps they wanted to hold the door open for other schools to make their final pitch before announcing the visits. Whatever the reason, someone obviously let the cat out of the bag last week to Rothstein and he looks vindicated after not backing down from the initial report.
The timing of this visit is critical for Providence as head coach Ed Cooley plans to get on a plane for Colorado Springs, CO to begin his stint with USA Basketball on June 9th.
I’ll be breaking down the pro’s and con’s of these 3 schools from Mason’s perspective in an article for ScoutFriars later this week.
UPDATE 12:05pm: Jeff Borzello wrote the following about an hour ago:
“I think the official is Auburn and the others [are] unofficial,” Mason told CBSSports.com in a text message.
With so many schools showing interest, Mason could take a few more trips.
“I have more, just haven’t set them up,” he said. “I’m still narrowing the list.”
There is no set timetable for a decision.
Ed Cooley and his staff have worked extremely hard and are involved with the most highly ranked players that I can ever remember at one time. The AAU circuit is slowing down a bit for the next few weekends and individual camps will take the forefront. This weekend is the Pangos All American Camp in California which has featured some big names over the years including two current PC players – Kris Dunn and Jalen Lindsey. As of yesterday’s posting of the weekly recruiting update I didn’t have the roster for this invitation only camp but it came out late last night. Here are the Providence recruits who are there this weekend:
Class of 2015
This year’s Top 50 and Top 25 Games will be televised live on CBS Sports Network on Sunday June 1st from Long Beach City College with the Top 50 game being at 3pm and the Top 25 game at 4:15pm.
Effective 12:00am on Saturday the recruiting calendar shifts back to a quiet period. The quiet period will last until July 5th when the rest of July turns into a dead period except for the 3 weekends designated as evaluation periods for the coaches to attend AAU events. For more information on the recruiting calendar click here.
With the Nike EYBL finishing up Session #4 in Minneapolis last weekend, that marks the end of the “regular season” portion of the EYBL. Of the 16 teams that advanced to the “finals”, a bevy of Providence recruits made it to the Peach Jam which will be played July 16th-20th. This weekend is a bit quiet on the AAU circuit. The most notable events this weekend are the Pangos All-American Camp and the Mary Kline Classic. The Pangos All-American Camp is held in Long Beach, CA and is an invitation only camp and the last Friars to attend are Kris Dunn and incoming freshman Jalen Lindsey. The official roster is not out but PC targets that attended last year are Braxton Blackwell, Kaiser Gates, Isaiah Briscoe, Malik Beasley, Antonio Blakeney and Alex Illikainen. I would guess there will be more PC targets in attendance this year as Ed Cooley and his staff are involved with a ton of highly ranked players for 2015 and 2016. This year’s Top 50 and Top 25 Games will be televised live on CBS Sports Network on Sunday June 1st from Long Beach City College with the Top 50 game being at 3pm and the Top 25 game at 4:15pm.
The other notable event this weekend is the Mary Kline Classic which will be played Saturday. The MKC is now in it’s 4th year and is played in honor of “The Recruit Scoop”, Alex Kline’s mother, Mary, who passed away from cancer. This event has raised $55,000 for cancer research in the first 3 years and is a fantastic cause. This year’s game will be played at West Orange High School in West Orange, NJ at 6pm. There will be many notable names playing but notable Friar names that will be there are Ben Bentil playing in the Senior game and PC recruits Rawle Atkins, Cheick Diallo, Unique McLean and Donovan Mitchell who will all be playing in the Underclassmen game. In addition to the Senior and Underclassmen games, there will be a dunk contest and three point shooting contest. All 4 events of the MKC will be streamed live at www.thesfbn.com with limited time On Demand viewing also available after the live events end.
Continue reading #pcbb Weekly Recruiting Update 5/30/14
Some exciting new site features are in the works regarding recruiting and I hope to have everything built and ready to go before the July live period. Keep an eye out.
Effective 12:00am on Thursday we are now in a recruiting dead period. The dead period will last until next Friday, May 30th. For more information on the recruiting calendar and what a dead period means, click here. Being a dead period doesn’t stop the AAU circuits from continuing. This is another weekend where Nike EYBL and Adidas Gauntlet will both be in action and there are also a few other events taking place over the Memorial Day weekend. Here are all of the events this weekend courtesy of CBS Sports’ Jeff Borzello:
May 23-25
May 23-26
May 24-26
There are a two guard names that the Friars have apparently are now focusing on for their 1 available scholarship left in the 2014 class. One would be an incoming freshman while the other would be an incoming senior who would be immediately eligible with 1 year left. The incoming freshman is Tramaine Isabell who was recently released from his National Letter of Intent at Washington State. It’s a bit of a bizarre released because he signed with the prior coaching staff and when the new coach came on board, Isabell re-committed to them a month ago. There are rumors that Isabell may have grade issues and could be at risk on not qualifying and that’s why the new Wazzu staff “pushed” him out. Providence certainly has not had good luck with the NCAA clearinghouse recently so this looks like it could be a risky proposition though they have offered along with Auburn (who may now be out because of 2 recent guard commitments this week) and Missouri. Isabell also tweeted out the below picture indicating that God Shammgod is in contact with him.
https://twitter.com/oTrillMaine/status/468116803018035201
If you a hooper, you understand who this is. I use his move all the time🏀🏃 http://t.co/Kjumxvc6wo—
Tramaine Isabell (@oTrillMaine) May 23, 2014
The other name is Antoine Mason.
Continue reading #pcbb Weekly Recruiting Update 5/23/14
Another weekend of competition where coaches cannot observe but that hasn’t stopped them from offering a lot of players. You’ll see below the guys that PC has offered lately. Nike EYBL continues action for the 2nd weekend in a row with Session #3 in Hampton, VA on route to the Peach Jam in mid-July. The Adidas Gauntlet picks up where it left off in the April live period with session #2 in Indianapolis this weekend. PC is heavily involved with many elite players that are playing in both the Nike EYBL and the Adidas Gauntlet. Those two AAU circuits are widely considered to be the two best in terms of talent and organization. Here are all of the events this weekend courtesy of CBS Sports’ Jeff Borzello:
May 16-18
May 17-18
Continue reading #pcbb Weekly Recruiting Update 5/16/14
Providence was putting a lot of effort into 2014 PG Larry Austin from Illinois but it wasn’t enough as Austin gave his commitment to Chris Mack and Xavier today. After getting his release from Tennessee following Cuonzo Martin taking the job at Cal, Austin had plenty of suitors but only actually made one visit and it was to Xavier.
Providence will continue the search for another guard but the herd is really starting to thin. Naddir Tharpe may get his tires kicked now as it would probably be better to bring in someone who would only tie up a scholarship for a year or two than reach for an available high school senior point guard.
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