Tag Archives: Ed Cooley

Recruiting News

Alex Owens Announces Commitment

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Alex Owens becomes the second player in the class of 2015 to commit to Ed Cooley. Owens spent the weekend on campus and attended the Elite Camp on Saturday. He flew home Monday afternoon but not before announcing his commitment via Twitter:

Owens announced his top 3 schools on July 27th and Providence is the only visit he took since making that announcement. The other schools he was considering were Missouri and Central Florida. He had previously verbally committed to UCF in the fall of 2013. Owens adds another big body to the Friar frontcourt and currently joins PC’s other commit in the class of 2015 Ryan Fazekas.

The next step for Providence is to add a guard or two to the mix in this class and they will have 3 scholarships to do so. Don’t be surprised if they pocket one of those scholarships to try to find a transfer in the winter or spring.

Check out Alex Owen’s Friar Crystal Ball page here.

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#pcbb Links of the Day 8/11/14

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Recruiting News

2017 Guard Javon Taylor Verbally Commits to Friars

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Ed Cooley and the Friar faithful certainly needed a commitment to get the bad taste out of their mouths after Donovan Mitchell pledged to the Louisville Cardinals. I’m sure everyone was thinking the next commit would be from a player in the class of 2015. Instead, class of 2017 member Javon Taylor gave Cooley his verbal commitment after the Elite Camp held on campus on Saturday.

The Friars are hoping there will be another commitment before the weekend ends with 2015 big man Alex Owens on campus.

Check out Javon Taylor’s Friar Crystal Ball page here.

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Recruiting News

Malik Beasley Cuts List to 8

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Malik Beasley announced via his Twitter account that he has cut his list to a top 8.

https://twitter.com/malikk_5/status/497896675290402817

Beasley had a very good spring and summer at camps and on the AAU circuit where he ran with the Georgia Stars. He’s described as “a long athletic true shooting guard” by ESPN’s Scouting Report. The Georgia native is ranked 48th overall in the nation in the class of 2015 by the 247Sports Composite rankings and has visited UCLA, Georgia and Georgia Tech unofficially so far with plans to visit St. John’s unofficially over the weekend while he is in town for the Big Strick Classic at the Gauchos Gym. Beasley is also high school teammates with PC recruits Kaiser Gates (2015) and Kobi Simmons (2016).

I’m not all that surprised to see Providence not make the cut. The Friars will hopefully get some good news over the weekend with big man Alex Owens in town for the Elite Camp Saturday. Owens has Providence in his top 3.

Check out Malik Beasley’s Friar Crystal Ball page here.

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Recruiting News

Providence College Elite Camp Attendees

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Last year’s Elite Camp was very memorable because there was a lot of talk about a PC ‘Fab 5’ with Abu, Chukwu, Lindsey, Joseph and Terrell. PC coordinator of basketball ops Mike Jackson even set up a phone call for Abu, Chukwu, Joseph, Terrell and 2015 Donovan Mitchell (Lindsey was not at the Elite Camp) with former Michigan Fab Five member, Chris Webber. All of the stops were being pulled out.

Chukwu and Lindsey obviously wound up at PC (and Lindsey was already committed prior to the Elite Camp last summer) but Abu chose NC State, Joseph chose Syracuse and Terrell chose Oklahoma State then URI. Donovan Mitchell wasn’t planning on attending this year’s camp anyway due to a family reunion but I would think Thursday night’s commitment to Louisville solidifies his absence.

Here are the players that I have confirmed will be at this year’s Elite Camp by class and last name (I’ll update this if more names are confirmed):

Watch some video from last season’s Elite Camp courtesy of our friend FriarTV:

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General News

Three Freshman Won’t Make Italy Trip

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Kevin McNamara of the Providence Journal is reporting that 3 of the 4 incoming freshman will not travel with the team to Italy next week. Jalen Lindsey has become ill in the last few days and foreign born big men Paschal Chukwu and Ben Bentil have yet to be fully cleared by the NCAA Clearinghouse. As McNamara points out in his article, the Clearinghouse typically takes a longer look at foreign born players to be sure they haven’t competed in any professional capacity prior to coming to the United States.

It’s another frustrating turn of events for Ed Cooley and his staff especially because Chukwu and Bentil are both strong students and are just wrapping up a successful summer session at PC. This now means the active body contingent for the Friars in Italy will consist of 6 scholarship players and 2 walk ons. Kris Dunn will be held out of game action as a precaution andTed Bancroft has an injured shoulder  which leaves just Rodney Bullock, Kyron Cartwright, Carson Desrosiers, Tyler Harris, LaDontae Henton and Junior Lomomba as the 6 available scholarship players to go along with walk-on’s Tom Planek and Casey Woodring.

I’ll have a more in depth preview of the Friars’ Italy trip on Monday.

Recruiting News

2015 Guard Donovan Mitchell Commits to Louisville

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Well this one hurts. There really isn’t much else a coaching staff can do when recruiting a player. Ed Cooley followed Donovan Mitchell around like a shadow beginning in April 2012. When Mitchell broke his wrist last spring the Providence staff still sat and watched Mitchell’s team play while he sat on the bench in street clothes. These guys were serious about Donovan Mitchell and they were the first. Unfortunately they weren’t the last. Mitchell’s huge July this year led to a lot of attention both from the national recruiting media and some blue blood programs.

In the end it’s hard to blame Mitchell for choosing Louisville. They have had a lot of team success including a national championship in 2012 and have a recent history of developing NYC guards. Maybe we all weren’t listening when Mitchell repeatedly talked about wanting a big school or maybe we just wanted to believe he would change his mind and choose the tight knit family atmosphere that Ed Cooley and his staff have worked hard to develop. He told Scout.com’s Evan Daniels “I’m needed here and I love it.” Well he certainly was needed in Friartown but will be heading to Louisville next fall.

Check out Donovan Mitchell’s Friar Crystal Ball page here.

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