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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

Who is Cooley Gonna Call?

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Starting at midnight on June 15th, coaches can begin making unlimited phone calls (among other methods of communication) to members of the class of 2016. Prior to this date contact was pretty well regulated for members of that class. Who a coach calls on June 15th will be a pretty good indication to the player and fans of a particular program what player(s) are being made a priority for 2016.

Ed Cooley will be out in Colorado coaching the USA Basketball U18 squad until June 26th but here are four candidates from the class of 2016 to get a call from Ed Cooley on June 15th:

Braxton Blackwell

Jalen Lindsey’s former teammate at CPA in Nashville, Braxton Blackwell is having a really solid AAU season running with the Atlanta Celtics who compete in the Adidas Grassroots events. So far during the Spring, Blackwell and the Celtics have played in Dallas, Indianapolis and Orlando.

He is a consensus top 30 player in the class of 2016 per the ranking services. Rivals has him at 29th and ESPN has him at 25th.

Miles Bridges

Another former teammate of Jalen Lindsey’s, though this time from Huntington Prep in West Virginia, Miles Bridges has had one of the better Spring AAU seasons of anyone in the country in the class of 2016. He is running with The Family on the AAU circuit and he has carried them at times throughout the Nike EYBL season. His numbers from the 16 games he played in the EYBL regular season are 14.1 ppg on 46.7% from the field 6.7 rpg 1.0 spg, 1.4 bpg in 27.9 mpg. He has hit a number of game tying or winning shots and had a 17 point, 15 rebound game against Team SCAN in May in Hampton, VA.

Bridges has shot up the player rankings in the class of 2016 as well. He cracked the top 10 in the ESPN rankings released on June 4th, coming in at number 8 overall in the class. The Rivals list has him at 33rd but it was released March 28th which was about a month before the Spring AAU season began. I would expect him to rise rapidly on their list if he keeps playing like he has.

Joshua Langford

Another player that may be getting a call from Ed Cooley is Blackwell’s AAU teammate, Joshua Langford. Langford is a force. Plain and simple. He is a consensus top 25 player in the class right now and has finally been able to fully showcase his game after dealing with some injuries. He was Mr. Basketball in Alabama as a freshman in 2013. His high national ranking is largely due to his past play and reputation but he is now fully healthy and reinforcing that ranking. ESPN moved him up to 11th while Rivals has him at 21st.

Kobi Simmons

If you haven’t noticed by now, the Atlanta Celtics are LOADED on the AAU circuit. Kobi Simmons is teammates with Blackwell and Langford on that Celtics squad. PC has offered 4 out of the 5 starters from the team (Kaiser Gates is another highly ranked 2016 player) and with good reason. Simmons is a big play-making point guard, measuring 6’4. He was on the 2013-14 USA Basketball Men’s Developmental National Team and recently was in Treviso, Italy playing in the Adidas EuroCamp. He is ranked 28th by Rivals and 29th by ESPN in the class.

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Links of the Day

#pcbb Links of the Day 6/11/14

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  • Zagsblog.com – Adam Zagoria – Antonio Blakeney Excited for USA Basketball, Remains Open in Recruitment
  • ScoutFriars.com ($) – Jeff Ferrucci – Recruiting Wrap: Antoine Mason
  • Next Up Recruits – Kyle Mills – Miles Bridges is a Beast
    • 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

    #pcbb Weekly Recruiting Update 5/23/14

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    Some exciting new site features are in the works regarding recruiting and I hope to have everything built and ready to go before the July live period. Keep an eye out.

    Effective 12:00am on Thursday we are now in a recruiting dead period. The dead period will last until next Friday, May 30th. For more information on the recruiting calendar and what a dead period means, click here. Being a dead period doesn’t stop the AAU circuits from continuing. This is another weekend where Nike EYBL and Adidas Gauntlet will both be in action and there are also a few other events taking place over the Memorial Day weekend. Here are all of the events this weekend courtesy of CBS Sports’ Jeff Borzello:

    May 23-25

    May 23-26

    May 24-26

    There are a two guard names that the Friars have apparently are now focusing on for their 1 available scholarship left in the 2014 class. One would be an incoming freshman while the other would be an incoming senior who would be immediately eligible with 1 year left. The incoming freshman is Tramaine Isabell who was recently released from his National Letter of Intent at Washington State. It’s a bit of a bizarre released because he signed with the prior coaching staff and when the new coach came on board, Isabell re-committed to them a month ago. There are rumors that Isabell may have grade issues and could be at risk on not qualifying and that’s why the new Wazzu staff “pushed” him out. Providence certainly has not had good luck with the NCAA clearinghouse recently so this looks like it could be a risky proposition though they have offered along with Auburn (who may now be out because of 2 recent guard commitments this week) and Missouri. Isabell also tweeted out the below picture indicating that God Shammgod is in contact with him.

    https://twitter.com/oTrillMaine/status/468116803018035201

    The other name is Antoine Mason.
    Continue reading #pcbb Weekly Recruiting Update 5/23/14 →

    Recruiting News

    #pcbb Weekly Recruiting Update 5/16/14

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    Another weekend of competition where coaches cannot observe but that hasn’t stopped them from offering a lot of players. You’ll see below the guys that PC has offered lately. Nike EYBL continues action for the 2nd weekend in a row with Session #3 in Hampton, VA on route to the Peach Jam in mid-July. The Adidas Gauntlet picks up where it left off in the April live period with session #2 in Indianapolis this weekend. PC is heavily involved with many elite players that are playing in both the Nike EYBL and the Adidas Gauntlet. Those two AAU circuits are widely considered to be the two best in terms of talent and organization. Here are all of the events this weekend courtesy of CBS Sports’ Jeff Borzello:

    May 16-18

    May 17-18

    • Other big news from last weekend is that the Friars never got Larry Austin on campus due to a death in his family. He then committed to Chris Mack and Xavier on Saturday so that’s another 2014 guard off the Friars Big Board.

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    Recruiting News

    #pcbb Weekly Recruiting Update 5/9/14

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    This weekend is another in which college coaches are not allowed to be on the road evaluating players but there will still be a lot of high major talent playing. The most notable tournament of the weekend will be the Nike EYBL Session #2 in Dallas. There are other tournaments with PC recruits this weekend including the Hoop Group Providence Jamfest and the Wallace Prather Memorial Classic which is hosted by the Atlanta Celtics who feature two 2016 PC recruits in Braxton Blackwell and Joshua Langford. Here are all of the events this weekend courtesy of CBS Sports’ Jeff Borzello:

    May 9-11

    May 10-11

    Other big news for this weekend is that the Friars will have a 2014 PG recruit on campus. Larry Austin, the former Tennessee commit, visited Xavier last weekend and will take in Friartown this weekend. Craig Belhumeur at FriarBasketball.com spoke to LA’s high school coach, Blake Turner, who told him that a visit to Cal, where former Tennessee head coach Cuonzo Martin was just hired, is still in the cards at a later date. Another source told me that Austin may also visit Kansas State but Turner told me that visit is “possible, but not 100% confirmed.” You just never know with 18 year olds but Larry, his coaches and his family have been methodical since he got his release from the Volunteers so my gut tells me he will consider all options carefully and I believe it’s likely he takes all of his scheduled visits before deciding. For those that have been asking for some video on Larry Austin, enjoy below:

    Continue reading #pcbb Weekly Recruiting Update 5/9/14 →