Tag Archives: Providence

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:

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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:

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Links of the Day

#pcbb Links of the Day 5/9/14

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Links of the Day

#pcbb Links of the Day 5/7/14

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Bryce Cotton

Bryce Cotton to Work Out for NBA Teams This Week

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Bryce Cotton has been working out constantly in Alumni Hall both with God Shammgod and against chairs.

He will begin working out for NBA teams over the next 6 weeks leading up to the NBA Draft in the hopes of hearing his name called. The Providence Journal‘s Kevin McNamara is reporting that Cotton will have his first 2 workouts this week when he will travel to Utah on Wednesday and Sacramento on Friday.

Utah has a bunch of young guards including Trey Burke and no coach at the moment but of their bevy of young guards only Burke, Diante Garrett and John Lucas III are point guards. Garrett is Burke’s backup but has a non-guaranteed salary heading into this upcoming season and Cotton could come in and compete for the backup job in Utah because Lucas III didn’t get off the bench in April for the Jazz and is on the wrong side of 30 for a rebuilding team. To top that all off, he has a non-guaranteed contract for next season so it wouldn’t be surprising if Cotton was brought in to try to win the backup role behind Burke if the Jazz don’t take a point guard in the 1st round. ESPN’s Chad Ford has the Jazz taking Kansas C Joel Embiid with the 4th overall pick and Louisiana-Lafayette PG Elfrid Payton with the 23rd overall pick. In addition to Cotton, the Jazz will host Taylor Braun, Stephen Holt, Akil Mitchell, Mike Moser, and Ronald Roberts Jr.

Sacramento has 5’9 Isaiah Thomas as their starting point guard so I guess they aren’t afraid to give a smaller guard a chance but I’m also unsure how Cotton fits here unless Thomas leaves as a restricted free agent this summer in which case Cotton could come in to backup 2nd year player Ray McCallum. Chad Ford’s latest mock draft has the Kings taking Oklahoma State PG Marcus Smart with the 7th overall pick so this may just be a way of posturing to lower Thomas’ asking price as a restricted free agent.

The NBA Draft lottery is May 20th and the NBA Draft is June 26th.

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Big East News, Schedule

Photos and Videos: Gavitt Tipoff Games Announced

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Here is some video from the Big Ten Network, the Big East conference and there is a slideshow of photos from the Big East’s Facebook page:

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Links of the Day

#pcbb Links of the Day 5/6/14

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Big East News, Schedule

Big East/Big Ten Challenge: What This Means for the Big East

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With Kevin McNamara’s announcement on Twitter that the Big East and Big Ten conferences have agreed to begin a challenge series in the 2015-16 season, it’s fantastic news for this new version of the Big East. Scheduling strong opponents outside the conference has become critically important for all member schools because of the defections of perennially highly ranked programs like Syracuse and Louisville among others from the in conference schedule. The Big Ten is arguably the 2nd best basketball conference in the country behind only the ACC.

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Providence has been working on scheduling a Big Ten opponent for this upcoming season with Michigan being the one where negotiations seem closest to completion. Marquette plays in-state rival Wisconsin every season. Creighton and Nebraska do that same. Seton Hall and new Big Ten member, Rutgers, will be in year 2 of an 8 year series they agreed to in March 2013. Now all 10 members of the Big East will get to play a Big Ten opponent to start their season. It has been reported that each Big Ten team will play in the Dave Gavitt Tip Off at least 4 times with each Big East member playing in it at least 6 times over the course of the 8 year deal. The fact that this series will be named after the Hall of Famer, Dave Gavitt adds some special connection for Friar fans. It’s great to see that his greatness and legacy continue to carry further than just Friartown.

The games will be played in a 4 day period from Tuesday-Friday during the first week of each season in November. The Big Ten/ACC Challenge, an ESPN creation, will continue. In terms of television for these games, the coverage will be split among ESPN, Fox Sports 1 and the Big Ten Network with the home team determining which network the game will be aired on.

That takes care of the housekeeping. Now you know the details. But what does this new series mean for the Big East?

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