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Recruiting News

Recruiting Junkie Alert: Adidas Nations Games on ESPNU Tonight

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The 2014 Adidas Nations began on August 1st and will culminate with the consolation and championship games being broadcast live on ESPNU tonight at 7pm and 9pm, respectively (both EDT). The consolation game will be played at 7pm with Team Europe going up against Team Howard. The championship game will be Team Wall vs. Team Lillard. Both games will be played at Long Beach City College.

There are a handful of Providence recruits that will be in these two games tonight. Here is who to watch for and when to watch them:

Consolation Game 7pm on ESPNU

Team Howard

Championship Game 9pm on ESPNU

Team Lillard

Team Wall

Recruiting News

Catching Up After the July Live Periods

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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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Recruiting News

Recruiting News: Scout.com Class Of 2016 Top 75 Recruit Rankings Released

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Scout.com updated and expanded their class of 2016 rankings. The previous rankings only had a top 50. A number of PC targets made the list.

Scout.com’s Evan Daniels talks about one PC target who made a move into the top 10:

Simmons, at 6-foot-4, is a true combination guard that can fill the role as scorer or distributor. He’s very quick and is a high-level athlete. Much like Smith, Simmons is tough to stop in transition. He’s an improved mid-range scorer and has good vision.

To see the entire top 75, click here.

PC Recruits:

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Recruiting News

#pcbb Weekly Recruiting Update 7/3/14

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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.

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Recruiting News

#pcbb Weekly Recruiting Update 6/27/14

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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.

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Recruiting News

#pcbb Weekly Recruiting Update 6/20/14

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I took last week off from the weekly recruiting update but it’s back this week and there is plenty to mention. Since the last update on June 6th, Niagara graduate transfer Antoine Mason committed to Auburn which is another Spring miss for Ed Cooley and staff.

Next up is Seattle guard Tramaine Isabell who is currently on a visit at Missouri with plans to visit Providence after that and then decide. Though he told ShowMeMizzou.com “that if he likes Missouri enough, there’s a chance he might not need to take any other visits.”

The Providence Journal’s Kevin McNamara mentioned that PC had a German guard on campus for a visit a few weeks ago and UndercoverFriar revealed that player to be Tyree Chambers. That doesn’t seem to be anything more than interest and an offer was never made.

One other guard option that has been mentioned in recent weeks is 2014 guard Armel Potter. Jeff Ferrucci of ScoutFriars.com spoke with Potter last week. Potter revealed that PC hasn’t offered but is “showing high interest.” The scoring guard visited Tennessee Tech last week and is also being recruited by Appalachian State, Ball State, Iona, Niagara, Winthrop along with some other mid majors.

If I had to choose between Isabell and Potter, I would definitely take Isabell despite the rumors of him possibly having some issues qualifying because he is definitely the more talented player but Potter is a guy that can score the ball despite being undersized. We’ll see how Isabell’s visit to Missouri shakes out but I would expect interest in Potter to increase from Coach Blaney if Isabell commits to the Tigers before leaving Columbia.

One other note on the recruiting front is a potential transfer candidate in former Wake Forest PF Tyler Cavanaugh. He was granted his release this week and has already spoken to Ed Cooley who recruited him out of high school when Cooley was still at Fairfield. He never overlapped with PC redshirt Senior Carson Desrosiers at Wake but I wouldn’t be surprised if Cooley put the two in touch to discuss the transition from Wake to PC. Cavanaugh, a native of Dewitt, NY (upstate near Syracuse) told Syracuse.com’s Donna Ditota, “I want to try to come a little bit closer to home, but I want to be open to any opportunity. I just want to make sure I find the perfect fit for my last two years of eligibility.” He also said that he plans to narrow down schools to 3 schools to visit and decide within “the next couple weeks.” He would have to sit this upcoming season and would have two years of eligibility remaining. The 6’9 stretch power forward averaged 19 mpg, 7 ppg and 3.2 rpg in 64 career games for the Demon Deacons, including 28 career starts.

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Recruiting News

PC Recruits at the NBPA Top 100 Camp

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The NBPA Top 100 Camp in Charlottesville, VA is widely considered one of the best camps each summer. There are a lot of instructors/coaches/speakers that the players recognize including current and former NBA players and the talent pool of the campers is very deep.

Here are the PC recruits that are in attendance this week:

  • Kobi Simmons – 2016 – 6’5 PG – St. Francis HS/Atlanta, GA
  • Levan Alston – 2015 – 6’4 SG – Haverford School/Haverford, PA
  • Eric Davis – 2015 – 6’2 SG – Arthur Hill/Saginaw, MI
  • Antonio Blakeney – 6’4 SG – Oak Ridge/Orlando, FL
  • Braxton Blackwell – 6’6 SF – Christ Presbyterian Academy/Nashville, TN
  • Jalen Coleman – 6’2 SG – La Lumiere/Indianapolis, IN
  • Malik Beasley – 6’4 SG – St. Francis HS/Atlanta, GA
  • Trevor Manuel – 6’9 PF – Oak Hill Academy/Oak Hill, VA
  • Steve Enoch – 6’9 PF – Norwalk HS/Norwalk, CT
  • Cheick Diallo – 6’9 PF – Our Savior New American/Centereach, NY
  • Alex Illikainen – 6’10 C – Brewster Academy/Wolfeboro, NH

A couple of the PC recruits even got up extra early to do work on their own before camp started today: