Tag Archives: Ed Cooley

Recruiting News

Recruiting News: ESPN Updated Class Of 2016 Top 60 Recruit Rankings

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ESPN updated their class of 2016 rankings from the top 25 to the top 60 today. Providence is involved with more than 10% of the ESPN top 60.

Similar to Adam Finkelstein yesterday with the class of 2015, Reggie Rankin offered “Ten things to know about the ESPN 60”. The below are excerpts where a PC recruit is mentioned by Rankin:

3. There are some big-time wing scorers in the Class of 2016. These bucket-getters attack defenders and are difficult to deal with when they have the ball in their hands. Shooting guards Malik Monk and Josh Langford, small forwards Mario Kegler and V.J. King and SG Tyus Battle lead the top 20 players.

5. Combination forward Miles Bridges and point guardDennis Smith are fresh faces in the top 10 because of their consistent production. A few dominant performances this spring on the travel circuit clearly separated them from their peers.

8. There’s a lot of variety and versatility in the 2016 class. Many players can play and excel at two positions, both in the post and on the perimeter. A few examples are Bridges, Omari Spellman, Amir Coffey, Vance Jackson and Kobi Jordan-Simmons.

To see the entire top 60, click here.

PC Recruits:

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Recruiting News

Recruiting News: ESPN Updated Class Of 2015 Top 100 Recruit Rankings

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ESPN updated their class of 2015 rankings from the top 60 to the top 100 and there was a decent amount of movement. Adam Finkelstein offered “Ten things to know about the ESPN 100” to give some insight to how they make their choices and where some spots stand.

To see the entire top 100, click here.

PC Recruits:

Continue reading Recruiting News: ESPN Updated Class Of 2015 Top 100 Recruit Rankings →

Recruiting News

Niagara Graduate Transfer Antoine Mason to Visit PC per Jon Rothstein

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Jon Rothstein tweeted late last week that Niagara transfer Antoine Mason had cut his list down to 3 schools: Auburn, Boston College and Providence.

  That report was refuted by both Antoine and his father, Anthony.

  Well it appears Rothstein didn’t just make this source up out of thin air as he is now reporting that Antoine Mason has scheduled 3 visits: Auburn on June 6-7, Providence June 8-9 and Boston College will get the final visit with no date set yet.

The reasons for the Masons refuting of the initial report last week is unclear but perhaps they wanted to hold the door open for other schools to make their final pitch before announcing the visits. Whatever the reason, someone obviously let the cat out of the bag last week to Rothstein and he looks vindicated after not backing down from the initial report.

The timing of this visit is critical for Providence as head coach Ed Cooley plans to get on a plane for Colorado Springs, CO to begin his stint with USA Basketball on June 9th.

I’ll be breaking down the pro’s and con’s of these 3 schools from Mason’s perspective in an article for ScoutFriars later this week.

UPDATE 12:05pm: Jeff Borzello wrote the following about an hour ago:

“I think the official is Auburn and the others [are] unofficial,” Mason told CBSSports.com in a text message.

With so many schools showing interest, Mason could take a few more trips.

“I have more, just haven’t set them up,” he said. “I’m still narrowing the list.”

There is no set timetable for a decision.

Recruiting News

Providence Recruits at Pangos All American Camp

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Ed Cooley and his staff have worked extremely hard and are involved with the most highly ranked players that I can ever remember at one time. The AAU circuit is slowing down a bit for the next few weekends and individual camps will take the forefront. This weekend is the Pangos All American Camp in California which has featured some big names over the years including two current PC players – Kris Dunn and Jalen Lindsey. As of yesterday’s posting of the weekly recruiting update I didn’t have the roster for this invitation only camp but it came out late last night. Here are the Providence recruits who are there this weekend:

Class of 2015

  • Justin Jenifer – 5’10 PG – Milford Mill Academy (Baltimore, MD)
  • Isaiah Briscoe – 6’3 SG – Roselle Catholic (Roselle, NJ)
  • Malik Beasley – 6’4 SG – St. Francis (Alpharetta, GA)
  • Bennie Boatwright – 6’8 SF – Village Christian (Sun Valley, CA)
  • Kaiser Gates – 6’8 – SF – St. Francis (Norcross, GA)
  • Steve Enoch – 6’10 PF – Norwalk HS (Norwalk, CT)

This year’s Top 50 and Top 25 Games will be televised live on CBS Sports Network on Sunday June 1st from Long Beach City College with the Top 50 game being at 3pm and the Top 25 game at 4:15pm.

Recruiting News

#pcbb Weekly Recruiting Update 5/30/14

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Effective 12:00am on Saturday the recruiting calendar shifts back to a quiet period. The quiet period will last until July 5th when the rest of July turns into a dead period except for the 3 weekends designated as evaluation periods for the coaches to attend AAU events. For more information on the recruiting calendar click here.

With the Nike EYBL finishing up Session #4 in Minneapolis last weekend, that marks the end of the “regular season” portion of the EYBL. Of the 16 teams that advanced to the “finals”, a bevy of Providence recruits made it to the Peach Jam which will be played July 16th-20th. This weekend is a bit quiet on the AAU circuit. The most notable events this weekend are the Pangos All-American Camp and the Mary Kline Classic. The Pangos All-American Camp is held in Long Beach, CA and is an invitation only camp and the last Friars to attend are Kris Dunn and incoming freshman Jalen Lindsey. The official roster is not out but PC targets that attended last year are Braxton Blackwell, Kaiser Gates, Isaiah Briscoe, Malik Beasley, Antonio Blakeney and Alex Illikainen. I would guess there will be more PC targets in attendance this year as Ed Cooley and his staff are involved with a ton of highly ranked players for 2015 and 2016. This year’s Top 50 and Top 25 Games will be televised live on CBS Sports Network on Sunday June 1st from Long Beach City College with the Top 50 game being at 3pm and the Top 25 game at 4:15pm.

The other notable event this weekend is the Mary Kline Classic which will be played Saturday. The MKC is now in it’s 4th year and is played in honor of “The Recruit Scoop”, Alex Kline’s mother, Mary, who passed away from cancer. This event has raised $55,000 for cancer research in the first 3 years and is a fantastic cause. This year’s game will be played at West Orange High School in West Orange, NJ at 6pm. There will be many notable names playing but notable Friar names that will be there are Ben Bentil playing in the Senior game and PC recruits Rawle Atkins, Cheick Diallo, Unique McLean and Donovan Mitchell who will all be playing in the Underclassmen game. In addition to the Senior and Underclassmen games, there will be a dunk contest and three point shooting contest. All 4 events of the MKC will be streamed live at www.thesfbn.com with limited time On Demand viewing also available after the live events end.

Continue reading #pcbb Weekly Recruiting Update 5/30/14 →

Josh Fortune

Impact of Josh Fortune’s Transfer

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The news came down late Friday afternoon before Memorial Day Weekend and was a big shock to me when I saw it but Josh Fortune is in fact transferring from Providence College.

@Craig_Belhumeur

 

While some Friar fans are brushing off the news, this cannot be seen as anything but bad for an already thin backcourt for Ed Cooley’s 2014-15 squad. While I agree with people who say Fortune isn’t an irreplaceable player in terms of skill set, when you look at losing him in the context of the current roster situation, he’s pretty damn irreplaceable.  Right now, PC has the following guards on the roster:

  • Kris Dunn
  • Kyron Cartwright
  • Junior Lomomba
  • Casey Woodring

So just to recap the above – there is a point guard coming off a 2nd shoulder surgery who will not be rushed back, an incoming freshman backup point guard who was previously committed to Loyola Marymount and is ranked around the 45th point guard in the class of 2014, a transfer from Cleveland State who sat out last season and has a reputation as a defensive specialist and rim slasher and a walk on who saw a total of 10 minutes last season all in garbage time.

Losing Bryce Cotton and Kadeem Batts was tough enough but now the Friars are losing another player who averaged over 30 minutes per game in Fortune. Ed Cooley will now have to replace 103.5 minutes per game out of 200 from last season. PC will only have 3 players returning who played meaningful minutes last season in Henton, Harris and Desrosiers.
Continue reading Impact of Josh Fortune’s Transfer →

Links of the Day

#pcbb Links of the Day 5/24/14

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