After releasingtheir updated Top 100 for the Class of 2017 on Wednesday, ESPN dropped their Top 60 for the Class of 2018 on Thursday. The Friars have already been recruiting the Class of 2018 in earnest with first direct contact for these rising juniors occurring on June 15th. With the current roster construction and scholarship situation, Ed Cooley and his staff have 5 open scholarships for the 2018-19 season. However that doesn’t account for the potential for Providence to add at least one more player to their 2017 recruiting class. Here are the Providence recruits that made ESPN’s Top 60 in the Class of 2018:
With summer winding down and players heading back to their high schools and prep schools ESPNand Scouthave released updated versions of the Top 100’s for the Class of 2017. The rising seniors on these lists are still mostly uncommitted with 36 and 38 of the 100 committed on ESPN’s and Scout’s lists, respectively. The Big East has 4 commits in ESPN’s Top 100 and 5 in Scout’s. The two services differ largely on where Providence’s top big man recruit ranks, but they are in relative agreement about the Friar’s top guard recruit. Here’s where Providence recruits fit on both lists, along with some notable Big East commits and former Providence targets:
Providence fans are all very familiar with Ed Cooley’s dramatic physical transformation after dropping over 100 pounds following a weight-reduction surgery in July of 2012. Friar fans will also recall Cooley’s issues with vertigo and dehydration that flared up in both the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons. On Monday, Cooley underwent back surgery because of pain caused by a herniated disc. The news was first reported by Matt Norlander of CBSSports.com.
Check out this video of former Friar Marty Conlon talking to TheBasketballDiary about the Final Four with Providence, his journey through the NBA and overseas and working for NBA International:
On the heels of Providence’s top guard target in 2017 announcing his official visit dates to his final three schools, Providence got some more good news with their top big man target setting an official visit date to come visit Friartown. 2017 Nate Watson cut his list down to a final seven about three weeks ago with all seven besides North Carolina having already offered. On Monday, Watson’s visit dates were announced by Josh Stirn of 247Sports.com. Watson currently has five visits scheduled with just Kansas and North Carolina not having dates set. UPDATE: Watson cut his list from 7 to 5 on Tuesday and cut Kansas and UNC. As previously reported, Watson will take visits to NC State and Wake Forest while he is in North Carolina for a family party. The NC State visit is an official and is set for August 22nd and the Wake Forest trip will be unofficial on August 24th.
The search for size has dominated much of this recruiting cycle for Providence as they have tried to replace the transfer of Paschal Chukwu and the decision by Ben Bentil to stay in the 2016 NBA Draft. Ed Cooley grabbing a commitment from Canadian big man Kalif Young to finish off the Class of 2016 helped and Cooley also has Virginia 7-footer Dajour Dickens committed in the Class of 2017. Big men are certainly a focus, but Cooley has also kept a keen eye or two on Makai Ashton-Langford along the way. Cooley and his staff have attended plenty of Cushing Academy and Mass Rivals games over the last couple years and the lead guard has noticed. It isn’t news that Ashton-Langford has preferred three particular schools throughout this process but on Sunday his Mass Rivals coach, Vin Pastore, confirmed that all three of those schools will get official visits from him in September, as reported by Evan Daniels of Scout.com.
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