Tag Archives: antonio blakeney

#pcbb Weekly Recruiting Update 9/19/14

After the last couple of weeks being pretty quiet after the commitment of 2015 guard Drew Edwards this upcoming weekend is a big one in Friartown. Not only will Edwards be taking his official visit to Providence this weekend but he will be joined by the first player to commit to Ed Cooley in the class of 2015, Ryan Fazekas. But the most important visitor this weekend and a player that Edwards and Fazekas will try to help recruit is 2015 point guard recruit Justin Robinson. This will be Robinson’s 3rd official visit with the first two being at local schools Virginia Tech and Maryland. Robinson plans to take his other two visits after this weekend in Providence but Ed Cooley and the Friar Faithful are hoping that Robinson will give Cooley a commitment before returning home on Sunday.

Continue reading #pcbb Weekly Recruiting Update 9/19/14

Catching Up After the July Live Periods

Now that the July live periods have come and gone the PC staff will be doing the same thing as the players they were on the road watching all month: evaluate where they stand with players.

The coaching staff will have meetings to discuss where they think they stand with players just as those players will have meetings with their families, mentors and coaches. Players have already begun cutting lists and Providence has even made their way onto some of those lists. Here is a catch up of where Providence stands after the three July live evaluation periods:

Lists Cuts and Commitments Elsewhere

2015 Donovan Mitchell

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PC Recruiting Guide to the Third July Evaluation Period

This will be the last of three live evaluation periods in the month of July where college coaches are allowed to attend and evaluate recruits. These three live periods are so critical as coaches can start to really focus on specific targets and maybe even have a new player catch their eye so they can offer and get involved. I’ll be taking a look at some of the major grassroots events that are in this third live period and giving you a list of PC recruits that will be in attendance at each one. This will be a working document so if/when I see a name that PC is recruiting at one of these events and I don’t have the player listed I will add him. Also, if you want to keep track of where Ed Cooley and the rest of the PC staff is during this live period, click here.

Note: All teams are 17U unless otherwise noted.

Las Vegas Fab 48 (Las Vegas, NV) 7/24-7/27

This is likely where you will see Ed Cooley and the PC staff spending a lot of time because Donovan Mitchell will be at this event. Mitchell isn’t the only one though and the staff will likely be able to go between the Fab 48, the Adidas Super 64, The 8 Tournament and the Las Vegas Classic as the events are all within easy driving distance of each other.

Game times are local to Vegas.

Continue reading PC Recruiting Guide to the Third July Evaluation Period

Second July Live Evaluation Period PC Recruiting Recap

With the way these July live evaluation periods are from Wednesday through Sunday each of these weeks, I thought it would be best to change around the weekly recruiting updates from Friday’s to Monday’s until these live periods end. To see the preview that I put together and updated throughout the second live period, click here. This recap looks similar to the preview except I give some info from each event and how the recruits played. To see where Ed Cooley and the rest of the PC staff were during the second live period, click here.

Nike Peach Jam (N. Augusta, SC) 7/16/-7/20

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Continue reading Second July Live Evaluation Period PC Recruiting Recap

PC Recruiting Guide to the Second July Evaluation Period

This will be the second of three live evaluation periods in the month of July where college coaches are allowed to attend and evaluate recruits. These three live periods are so critical as coaches can start to really focus on specific targets and maybe even have a new player catch their eye so they can offer and get involved. I’ll be taking a look at some of the major grassroots events that are in this second live period and giving you a list of PC recruits that will be in attendance at each one. This will be a working document so if/when I see a name that PC is recruiting at one of these events and I don’t have the player listed I will add him. Also, if you want to keep track of where Ed Cooley and the rest of the PC staff is during this live period, click here.

Nike Peach Jam (N. Augusta, SC) 7/16/-7/20

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Peach Jam is the culmination of the Nike EYBL circuit and acts as the playoffs. Only 24 teams qualify and there is a play-in game Wednesday to determine that 24th team. I could write up a big preview of this event but the guys at D1Circuit.com have done an absurdly good job at putting together this preview so I would be doing a disservice to try to write anything further. This is an absolute must read for all recruiting junkies especially because, as you’ll see below, there are a TON of PC recruits at the Peach Jam this year.

Continue reading PC Recruiting Guide to the Second July Evaluation Period

#pcbb Weekly Recruiting Update 7/3/14

With Friday being the 4th of July I am releasing the weekly recruiting update a day earlier than normal. This weekly update will return to it’s normally scheduled Friday next week. This will be the final recruiting update prior to the first July live period which begins at 5pm on July 9th. For more information on the recruiting calendar over the next few weeks, check out this page.

News came down Wednesday afternoon that Josh Fortune was transferring to Colorado. This ends one of the more bizarre and confusing player transfers I’ve ever seen and I doubt the real reasons will ever be truly made public. Whatever the reasons, it seems Fortune was looking for a fresh start and he will get that at Colorado which is much further from his home than Providence, for what that’s worth.

Fortune leaving has left a bit of a hole at the shooting guard position. After the various swings and misses this spring, Ed Cooley and his staff are apparently on the fence about bringing someone in at this late stage. I’m told that Armel Potter is anxious to have the PC coaches watch him play live which is something that hasn’t happened as of yet. Potter is mulling over possibly playing somewhere during the July live periods but no decision has been made on that. I was told that Potter hasn’t spoken with Cooley yet but I get the sense that if Cooley calls with an offer, Potter will be on the next plane to Friartown. The former Florida Atlantic commit has offers from Appalachian State, Ball State, Iona, Niagara, Tennessee Tech and some other mid majors.

Continue reading #pcbb Weekly Recruiting Update 7/3/14

#pcbb Weekly Recruiting Update 6/27/14

The NBA Draft showed how silly it can be by leaving a lot of very good college players off the board, including Bryce Cotton. But one thing that stuck out to me was the number of guys that got drafted who were top 100 recruits coming out of high school. It goes to show you just how important recruiting high level talent really is for programs. Obviously not every top 100 guy is going to pan out but it’s a numbers game and the more talent you acquire, the more likely it is that talent will develop and translate to on-court success. As an example, using ESPN’s top 100 high school player rankings, of the 24 non-international players drafted in the 1st round last night, 19 were in the top 100 in their class coming out of high school. Of those 19, 8 were ranked in the top 10. The 5 unranked guys were Nik Stauskas, Elfrid Payton, Doug McDermott, C.J. Wilcox and Josh Huestis.

Ed Cooley has upped the talent level at PC in his time in Friartown and this weekend he will be hosting a lot of talented recruits. 2015 recruits Donovan Mitchell and Steve Enoch will be on campus this weekend with Mitchell already at PC today and Enoch heading to URI and PC tomorrow.

With the news that Tramaine Isabell committed to Missouri on Thursday, Ed Cooley and his staff are going to have to weigh the available options against standing pat and going into the season with what they have right now. The only two names I have heard PC interested in at this point are Armel Potter and Ricky Council. I’ll profile both guys individually early next week.

We learned last week at this time that Wake Forest transfer, Tyler Cavanaugh, had received a call from Ed Cooley. Cavanaugh visited George Washington on Tuesday, per Adam Zagoria. Syracuse.com’s Donna Ditota reported last week that Cavanaugh plans to take 3 to 4 visits before deciding. CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein had this to say today:

Wake Forest transfer Tyler Cavanaugh visited George Washington this past week and is also considering Butler and Dayton. The 6-9 forward averaged 8.8 points and 3.8 rebounds last season and has two years of remaining eligibility.

Continue reading #pcbb Weekly Recruiting Update 6/27/14