Howard told me he currently has offers from Gardner Webb, Kennesaw St, Miami (OH), Northeastern and UT-Martin. So far he has visited Miami (OH) and plans to take an unofficial visit to Murray State on December 30th. The 6’0 lead guard runs with Stackhouse Elite on the grassroots circuit which is a team founded and coached by former NBA All-Star Jerry Stackhouse.
After a tough Friday night loss at Boston College the Providence coaching staff got out on the recruiting trail. Fortunately they didn’t have to travel too far to see some elite recruits as the Hoop Mountain Prep Classic was being held at nearby St. Andrew’s in Barrington, RI Friday through Sunday last weekend.
Ed Cooley, joined by assistant coach Brian Blaney, were front and center for Vermont Academy’s Sunday game against Commonwealth Academy. While Commonwealth Academy has a number of young, talented players on their roster including some that even attended Providence’s Elite Camp in August, the coaching staff offered 2016 Vermont Academy big man Tyrique Jones after the game.
On the 2015 front there may be another point guard target that the Friars can get involved with, Traci Carter. Carter tore his meniscus in the Spring and missed the AAU season while he recovered so his recruitment fell off a bit. Scout.com has him in their top 100 at 92nd and his 247sports composite national ranking is 139th. To compare that to another point guard Ed Cooley targeted in 2015 Justin Robinson is ranked 86th by Scout.com and 129th by 247sports composite national ranking.
Scout.com only had a top 15 before Thursday for the class of 2017 and they have now expanded the list to their top 50 players. There has been some movement within the top 15 for the players who made that cut last time and 4 Friar recruits made the cut for the top 50.
With 2015 point guard Justin Robinson committing to Virginia Tech on October 12th Friar fans have been wondering if Ed Cooley and his staff have any other targets in the class of 2015 or would they just hang on to that scholarship and move on to the 2016 class. The reality is that a coaching staff can never stop recruiting and college rosters can change at seemingly any moment so hanging on to the scholarship might mean they use it on a midyear transfer or a spring commitment. With that said, there doesn’t appear to be any targets in 2015 that Cooley and his staff have zeroed in on after Robinson. Memphis wing LaGerald Vick announced his commitment to Larry Brown’s SMU Mustangs on Wednesday and Vick will also reclassify to 2016. Vick had gotten some late interest from the Friars in August and even scheduled an official visit to Friartown but that visit was ultimately cancelled. Davon Dillard was a name being mentioned in late August but I haven’t heard much of anything about him since he transferred from Bowman Academy (IN) to basketball factory Our Savior New American (NY).
After last weekend’s flurry of visitors Ed Cooley and his staff didn’t sit at home and rest on their laurels. Cooley and his staff were spotted all over the country this past week checking in on future prospects in 2016 and 2017 but also making a point to be seen by primary 2015 target Justin Robinson. To see where the staff was this week, check out the site feature called “Where is Ed Cooley and the staff?” which is linked at the top of the page on the menu bar.
Rivals released their initial top 25 recruit rankings for the class of 2017. Only 2 Providence recruits made the initial list but in addition to the top 25 list they also graded an additional 25 players as 4 star recruits. A few Providence recruits fell into this category and would essentially be ranked somewhere between 26-50 if the list was expanded to a top 50.
pcbb1917.com - Providence College Basketball 