2014 PG Kyron Cartwright was on campus over the weekend for an official visit. From reports, he liked the campus and the visit went well but it seems that he left Rhode Island without an official offer. My guess is the staff is being more picky with 2014 HS players at this point and focusing their efforts more strongly on 5th year transfers and JUCO player that will be eligible immediately. Reasons for that would be a) balancing classes b) a bad call will only affect the roster for a year or two vs. four c) need quality contributors right away for 2014-2015.
2015 SG Donovan Mitchell spoke with Rob Howe of HawkeyeInsider.com, an Iowa Scout.com site. He has offers from Boston College, Cincinnati, Connecticut, Creighton, Florida, Fordham, Iowa, Marquette, Providence, Seton Hall and St. John’s. He also said that Kansas and Xavier have been showing a lot of interest. On what he needs to work on: “I have to improve my jump shot.” On what he is looking for in a school: “I am looking for a school where not only can I have a great basketball career but a great academic career.” Kevin San (aka Undercover Friar) posted an article on Mitchell on the ScoutFriars.com site last night. Mitchell talks about how Cooley being front and center at Brewster games and practices “sends a message.” He also mentions that he believes his game fits how they play at PC and that he and his family have a good relationship with the coaching staff in Friartown.
Lindsey scored 11 points in the 65-63 buzzer beater win over La Lumiere (IN). Former PC recruit JaQuan Lyle hit a 3 at the buzzer to get the Irish the win. Huntington Prep (WV) is now in the semifinals tomorrow at Christ the King at 4:30pm on ESPN2. They will face the winner of Montverde Academy (FL) and the Sagemont School (FL) who will play at 6pm tonight at CTK. I’ll have a review of Lindsey’s play today in the weekly recruiting update that I post every Friday at 12pm.
I’ve added a Recruiting Updates (see below for the permanent location on the home page) page which will be dedicated to recruiting info and recruiting targets. For the offseason, I’ll be keeping a list of all PC targets for 2014 that either get a release because of a coach firing or if a player wants to play his 5th year somewhere else and PC is recruiting that player. Make sure to check it out.
2014 PG Kyron Cartwright recently got his release from Loyola Marymount after their coach, Max Good was let go. The left handed lead guard is currently visiting Providence. Craig Belhumeur of FriarBasketball.com spoke with Cartwright and his HS coach, Anthony Thomas. Thomas has a relationship with PC Associate Head Coach, Andre LaFleur from their days playing AAU together for Slam n Jam out on the West coast in the early 1980’s. Make sure to check out Craig’s article for quotes from both Thomas and Cartwright. Cartwright talks about what he likes about PC so far and what he would do if Cooley extended an offer. Great stuff from Craig B!
Another name for 2014 point guards is Malik Pugh. He committed to UNC Wilmington in February but a coaching change has caused him to open up his recruitment. PC is checking up on him and he is a potential candidate to fill out one of PC’s remaining scholarships for 2014. Pugh is a scoring guard who put up 20 ppg this season for Dyer HS in Tennessee including going for 37 in his final HS game. The knock on him is his size but he seems to like playing with that chip on his shoulder.
Last week I had posted about 2014 PG Kyron Cartwright who got his full release from Loyola Marymout University after the firing of Coach Max Good. For more information on that and to see the ESPN scouting report of Cartwright, click here.
The Friars and Ed Cooley have at least 2 open scholarships for the 2014-2015 season with the likelihood being that they will have 3 with Brice Kofane graduating in May and using his 5th year of eligibility elsewhere. The thought process is that PC will use 2 of those 3 potential available scholarships on guards. Don’t be surprised if Cartwright gives his pledge to Cooley this weekend while on campus.
Now that the conference tournaments are over and the dust has settled after the NCAA Tournament selections have been made, the coaching carousel has begun. There have already been a few guys that got the axe including Steve Donohue at Boston College. But one particular coaching change of interest to PC in terms of recruiting is Max Good being let go by Loyola Marymout University. Because of this, a 2014 PG has returned to the market after getting a full release.
Kyron Cartwright is a 5’11 165 lb left handed lead guard from Compton, CA. When he decided on a school in November, he picked LMU over Grand Canyon, a for-profit school where Dan Majerle is the head coach in their first season going from Division II to Divison I this season. Cartwight’s brother, Bryce, played his last 2 years at Iowa after transferring in from a JC. According to Scout.com’s Evan Daniels, KC has early interest from Providence after getting his full release on Tuesday. He wants to make a pretty quick decision and is hoping to get away from home this time:
The NEPSAC playoffs finished up last weekend and Providence targets played major roles in taking home trophies for their respective schools. Jalen Adams put the knife through the heart of the St. Andrew’s faithful for the 2nd year in a row when he put home this rebound to win the semifinal matchup:
Cushing was able to take down Abdul Malik Abu and Kimball Union in the championship game behind Kaleb Joseph and Adams’ stellar play. Adams took home playoff MVP.
For Brewster, Donovan Mitchell and Devonte Graham, both PC targets, were impressive during the playoffs and especially in clutch moments. Mitchell calmly nailed 4 consecutive free throws at the end of the championship game to defeat New Hampton and Graham was able to answer every time New Hampton appeared to be pulling away in the first half.
The Providence staff was down in Nashville on Tuesday night, along with a few other high majors, to check in on Braxton Blackwell (2016) who plays for CPA which is Jalen Lindsey’s old squad. CPA won the game PC attended, the region semifinals, and Blackwell scored 31 points. On Wednesday night, they played the 6-AA region finals and won to improve to 32-2 on the season. Blackwell scored 15 points in the win and was named the All-Region MVP. The 6’8 215 lbs (SF) 17th ranked player in the class of 2016 according to ESPN holds offers from Auburn, Cincinnati, Florida, Indiana (attended Hoosier Hysteria this year), LSU, Memphis, Mississippi St, N.C. State, Providence, Tennessee, Vanderbilt (his HS coach played there), Virginia and Virginia Tech. He also has interest from Kentucky, Michigan State and North Carolina. This would be the most impressive get if Cooley could somehow pull this off. He is a consensus top 30 player in the class of 2016 and has no ties to Rhode Island like Jalen Lindsey so getting him from Nashville to Providence would be a huge coup. So far he has visited Louisville (1/2/13 coincidentally when they played PC), Vanderbilt (9/4/13, 2/5/14), Memphis (9/20/13), Indiana (10/4/13 for Hoosier Hysteria) and Auburn (11/30/13).
The NEPSAC playoffs started on Wednesday and there are a lot of PC recruiting targets taking part in the action. Click here to see the names from Wednesday’s post. For results of Wednesday’s game click this link to the NERR.
Paschal Chukwu and the Fairfield Prep Stags finished the regular season undefeated (20-0) after winning at home against Hamden last Saturday night. It was Senior Night for Prep and Chuwku went for 21 points in the win. The next step will be the playoffs starting tomorrow morning 11am at Branford HS against Notre Dame-West Haven. Fairfield Prep handled ND-WH both times they met during the regular season by 15 and 16 points respectively. In national recruiting news, ESPN’s Adam Finkelstein lists Chukwu as one of his “Five Prospects Who Project Long Term”. He had this to say:
pcbb1917.com - Providence College Basketball 