Providence’s first public appearance at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center for the 2016-17 season is about a week away when the Friars will play an exhibition game against Canadian school Carleton University on October 29th. The season being right around the corner doesn’t mean that the Providence coaching staff has taken their foot off the pedal on the recruiting trail, though. Providence extended an offer to a 2019 big man this week and has recently expressed interest in some new names in the class of 2018. Let’s learn more about these new Providence targets.
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.
June 15th at 12:00am marked the first time that coaches could directly contact members of the class of 2018 — rising high school juniors. Ed Cooley and his staff worked the phones all day and reached out to a number of targets. Aside from the fact that the NCAA doesn’t seem to mind teenagers having their phones begin to blow up at midnight on a weeknight, Brian Snow of Scout.com had an interesting perspective on the importance of these June 15th calls:
It’s been awhile since I last put out a recruiting update post, but that doesn’t mean Ed Cooley and his staff haven’t been on the trail searching for players for 2016 and beyond. In fact, Cooley was on the recruiting trail on Wednesday as he traveled North to Brewster Academy for 2016 forwards Alpha Diallo and Taurean Thompson. Cooley and his staff have also kept an eye South and have arranged an official visit with 2016 big man Isaiah Whaley. Associate head coach Andre LaFleur was down on Long Island on Sunday to take in action at the Shooting Stars Showcase event held at Long Island Lutheran.
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