Tag Archives: Donovan Mitchell

Providence Continues Pursuit of Highly Ranked Recruits

Ed Cooley is not scared of a little competition. And to be clear, going toe-to-toe with schools like Kansas, Louisville, Maryland, NC State and others of that ilk isn’t the kind of thing that would normally be classified as “little competition”. Cooley has been fearless when taking on larger and more established programs when he and his staff identify a recruit they really want. If you’re a fan of a program not named Duke or Kentucky, then you’re probably used to losing recruiting battles, especially when schools like Duke and Kentucky get involved. Cooley doesn’t care. He’s going to keep his head down and keep building a relationship with the player, the player’s parents, coaches, handlers, siblings, grandparents, dog walker, etc.

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Providence Among 2017 Nate Watson’s Final Seven Schools

Arguably Providence’s top priority recruit in the Class of 2017 announced his final seven schools via his Twitter account on Tuesday and the Friars made the cut. 2017 Nate Watson released a final seven of Kansas, Maryland, Miami, NC State, North Carolina, Providence and Wake Forest.

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#pcbb Links of the Day 10/23/15

Who Is The Next Providence Recruit to Blow Up On The National Stage?

Kris Dunn. Abdul-Malik Abu. Donovan Mitchell. Wenyen Gabriel. What do these players all have in common? They were recruited by Providence head coach Ed Cooley before they blew up on the national recruiting scene. Dunn was being recruited by Cooley while the current Friar head coach was at Fairfield. He went from being a recruit on that level to a McDonald’s All-American. Gabriel is probably the closest to Dunn in terms of meteoric rise. Cooley and his staff have shown an uncanny ability to be able to identify these players before they start their upward trajectory as recruits. Who’s the next recruit that Providence is in early on that will blow up nationally? My guess is Aaron Wheeler in the class of 2017.

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2016 Wenyen Gabriel Cuts List to 5

Wenyen Gabriel may have been the largest stock-riser in the class of 2016 this grassroots season. The 6’9 combo forward possesses an offer list that reads like a who’s who of college basketball elite. Then there is Providence and Ed Cooley. Cooley has been on Gabriel the longest of any high major school. Providence became Gabriel’s first high major offer back in July 2014. Gabriel’s only other offer at that time was from in-state New Hampshire. On Wednesday Gabriel cut his list down to a final 5 schools. That list is comprised of Duke, Kentucky, Maryland, Providence and UConn, according to a tweet from Adam Finkelstein.

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Providence Recruiting Update: July Recap, Stock Risers & Wenyen Gabriel

The three live evaluation periods of July are now in the books and the Providence coaching staff logged some heavy frequent flier miles tracking their coveted recruits. Ed Cooley spent much of his time sitting front and center at all Mass Rivals games. Rivals features a number of Providence targets but the grand prize in 2016 is Wenyen Gabriel. Gabriel got the Donovan Mitchell treatment in July. More on that later. Some other Friar prospects took some major steps forward and the influence of newly-hired assistant coach Jeff Battle is becoming more clear as new names are added to Providence’s stable of targets.

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#pcbb Links of the Day 7/27/15