PC made an offer over the weekend to 2015 PG Justin Robinson of St. James School in DC. The southpaw transferred there after playing his first 2 seasons of high school ball at Montrose Christian. He also plays for famed AAU squad, Boo Williams, current PC Sophomore Josh Fortune’s former AAU team. Robinson has seen his stock rise from mid-major to possibly high major. PC is his first high major offer and it seems that Cooley and staff have had a way of finding these kinds of players just before their recruitment’s take off. For now, Robinson is likely a backup plan at PG for the 2015 class but he could wind up being a very solid plan B if things don’t work out with Jalen Adams.
Providence has offered 2015 @SaintJamesHoops PG Justin Robinson.
Scout Friars posted a great article by Kevin San on the push to land guards in 2014. The article, titled PC’S Full Court Press for a Guard, can be found here but a subscription is required.
Paschal Chukwu and the Fairfield Prep Stags remained undefeated (19-0) after winning at home against Career last night. Chuwku poured in 21 points in the win and added 11 rebounds and 8 blocked shots despite sitting for nearly 5 minutes in the 2nd half after he picked up his 4th foul. Prep is now 1 win away from a perfect regular season.
The 2014 NCAA Tournament Mock Selection took place over the last 2 days in Indianapolis and some national writers got a chance to hear how the selection committee thinks and put together their own mock bracket. It was very interesting following this last night and today to see how the seeding and selections are done. Here is a recap of the event via the writer’s tweets. Despite PC’s recent downturn, the writer still had them in (last 4 in) as a 12 seed.
2014 PG recruit Tarin Smith and the St. Anthony Friars won a close game earlier this week as they traveled to Long Island Lutheran who features 2016 PG Devonte Green. Green, the St. Mary’s transfer, had 22 points in the loss. Green is the younger brother of former UNC player and current NBA player, Danny Green. Tarin Smith led St. Anthony in scoring with 14 points and was the only Friar in double figures.
The National Prep School Invitational was last weekend at Rhode Island College. It was unfortunate timing for PC to hit the road as this is always a great event with elite talent and many PC targets played. The PC staff did make it on Sunday after returning home from Chicago and they reportedly watched Brewster Academy (Devonte Graham ’14, Donovan Mitchell ’15, Jarred Reuter ’15) take on Vermont Academy (Christian Vital ’16). For a great recap of the event, here is FriarBasketball.com’s article from Monday. This is a great recap with highlights by Cox Sports.
Here’s a great highlight tape of Jalen Adams via @CoreyPorterTV:
I’ll continue to beat the drum for Tarin Smith (2014). This team needs guards and they will undoubtedly take at least 2 more for 2014. I think Smith is the exact kind of guy that would fit in at PC. He just keeps getting better and seems like a very high character kid. He is #1 in his class academically at St. Anthony and has drawn praise from his legendary coach, Bob Hurley.This is also a great read from the Hudson Reporter on Smith.
On Tuesday night, Isaiah Briscoe announced that he is adding Providence and Gonzaga to his list which already includes Arizona, Baylor, UConn, Florida, Florida State, Indiana, Miami, Michigan, Ohio State, Pitt, Rutgers, Seton Hall, Syracuse, UCLA, UVA. Did the list give away that this kid is a special talent? He’s currently ranked as the 20th best player in the entire class of 2015 and the 7th best Shooting Guard in the class by ESPN and Briscoe is ranked 17th overall in the class by Rivals. He does have good enough ball skills to play PG at the next level but his primary value is as a scorer. Eric Bossi of Rivals called him “one of the most explosive scorers in the class of 2015.” Briscoe is listed at 6’3 and 200 lbs and ESPN says he “is physically ahead of his peers…already cut and powerful.” It’s interesting that PC is making a run for Briscoe since they are putting their full court press on 2015 SG Donovan Mitchell but a talent like Briscoe is a talent you can’t pass up on. Based on the quotes from Craig Belhumeur’s article, Briscoe doesn’t exactly seem that warm on PC.
Speaking of Craig’s article, the other PC recruit in that game on Wednesday night at St. Peter’s was 2014 PG Tarin Smith. I’ll continue to beat the drum for PC officially offering this kid. Hall of Fame coach, Bob Hurley, said that Smith is #1 in his class and has already been admitted to Penn and Princeton. In watching Smith play on SNY in the SNY Invitational last weekend, I came away thinking that he would be a great depth/prospect recruit to go along with Kris Dunn and maybe another guard or two that PC would look to bring in for the 2014 class.
Jalen Adams (2015) received an offer from Kansas this week after they watched him play at the Hoophall Classic in Springfield. In a recent Scout.com article, Adams said of the offer “I love it and [I’m] pumped that they are recruiting me and I want to get up there and check it out.” When asked which schools were recruiting him the hardest, Adams listed Uconn, Minnesota, Kansas and Creighton. It seems pretty clear PC is putting all their 2015 eggs in the Donovan Mitchell basket at the moment.
PC continues to be on the prowl for 2014 guards and a new name appeared this week in the form of a Canadian point guard – Kadeem Smithen
More on the 2014 guard front, PC watched Floridian combo guard Richard Lee who seems to have more interest than offers at the moment but the interest is from Northwestern, Alabama, George Mason, Murray State and Virginia Tech. He seems like the kind of guy who could solidify his status as the Spring goes on and teams become more desperate for the services of mid-high major type guards.
PC was out watching 2015 Shooting Guard Arkel Ager-Lamar of St. Joseph’s HS (Trumbull, CT) along with UConn. He transferred to St. Joe’s from Shaker Heights, Ohio and was only recently cleared to practice and play with the Cadets. The 6’6 wing plays his AAU ball with Expressions Elite. Ager-Lamar visited PC unofficially on October 23rd and has interest from a few other Big East programs including St. John’s and Creighton. He also attended UConn’s Midnight Madness the week before visiting PC ahead of theirs.
In other news, JaQuan Lyle is taking an official visit to Oregon this weekend. I wonder if he’ll discuss PC with Joe Young and Brandon Austin?
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