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Recruiting News

Two New Names with Providence Interest from Putnam Science Academy

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A new name in the class of 2015 for Friar fans is a player who is also new to New England prep basketball. Andrew Robinson, along with twin brother Aaron, decided to do a prep year at Putnam Science Academy this upcoming season. Andrew is the more heralded prospect and he is the one that PC is showing increased interest in. The Robinson’s older brother is former Syracuse guard, Billy Edelin.

The 6’5 wing player had offers from Binghamton, Delaware, Drexel, LIU-Brooklyn, Marshall, Robert Morris, Siena and Towson after his last season at Springbrook in Maryland. He averaged a team high 17 ppg for the Blue Devils and also pulled down 6.4 rpg last season. Since announcing in late April that he will be prepping at PSA this year, he has received interest from Providence and Dayton. After speaking with a couple people familiar with his game from high school and watching some of the highlight tapes (see below), it seems like Robinson is athletic enough to play in the Big East but needs to hone his ball skills and increase his quickness. It should also be noted that Andrew is not just talented on the court. He had a weighted GPA of 4.04 at Springbrook and was the sports editor for the school newspaper.

In the July live period he will be at the Reebok Classic Breakout Camp from July 8th-11th then at the Hoop Group Summer Jam Fest from July 18th-20th.

 

The other new name is in the class of 2017 and will also be making his New England prep basketball debut this upcoming season. Hamidou Diallo is a 6’3 shooting guard from Flushing, NY. He runs with the NYC Jayhawks on the AAU circuit where he led the 15U team to the Elite 8 at the Pittsburgh Jam Fest during the April live period. He attended URI Elite camp on June 27th and attended NERR Elite 75 camp on June 30th and got an offer from Fairfield while on a recent visit there with another PC target from PSA, Mamadou Diarra. Diallo is young and still growing into his body but he’s a name that will likely become more familiar over the next couple of years to those that follow New England prep basketball.

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Recruiting News

Providence Recruit Jalen Adams Commits to Connecticut

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Providence seemed to be on the back burner of Jalen Adams’ recruitment these last few months and there was a growing suspicion that the 2015 guard liked UConn more and more. I’m not surprised by this commitment though I am a little surprised of the timing. I thought he might wait until after the July live period but it appears he didn’t want to wait.

https://twitter.com/JalenAdams25/status/483629614623756289

Adams and Donovan Mitchell seemed to be two top PC targets at one time but then the focus of the PC staff shifted towards Mitchell and away from Adams. Maybe they had a feeling he was UConn-bound all along and didn’t want to waste resources but in the last year, he has really made a name for himself nationally and has risen up recruiting boards.

 

Recruiting News

#pcbb Weekly Recruiting Update 6/27/14

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The NBA Draft showed how silly it can be by leaving a lot of very good college players off the board, including Bryce Cotton. But one thing that stuck out to me was the number of guys that got drafted who were top 100 recruits coming out of high school. It goes to show you just how important recruiting high level talent really is for programs. Obviously not every top 100 guy is going to pan out but it’s a numbers game and the more talent you acquire, the more likely it is that talent will develop and translate to on-court success. As an example, using ESPN’s top 100 high school player rankings, of the 24 non-international players drafted in the 1st round last night, 19 were in the top 100 in their class coming out of high school. Of those 19, 8 were ranked in the top 10. The 5 unranked guys were Nik Stauskas, Elfrid Payton, Doug McDermott, C.J. Wilcox and Josh Huestis.

Ed Cooley has upped the talent level at PC in his time in Friartown and this weekend he will be hosting a lot of talented recruits. 2015 recruits Donovan Mitchell and Steve Enoch will be on campus this weekend with Mitchell already at PC today and Enoch heading to URI and PC tomorrow.

With the news that Tramaine Isabell committed to Missouri on Thursday, Ed Cooley and his staff are going to have to weigh the available options against standing pat and going into the season with what they have right now. The only two names I have heard PC interested in at this point are Armel Potter and Ricky Council. I’ll profile both guys individually early next week.

We learned last week at this time that Wake Forest transfer, Tyler Cavanaugh, had received a call from Ed Cooley. Cavanaugh visited George Washington on Tuesday, per Adam Zagoria. Syracuse.com’s Donna Ditota reported last week that Cavanaugh plans to take 3 to 4 visits before deciding. CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein had this to say today:

Wake Forest transfer Tyler Cavanaugh visited George Washington this past week and is also considering Butler and Dayton. The 6-9 forward averaged 8.8 points and 3.8 rebounds last season and has two years of remaining eligibility.

Continue reading #pcbb Weekly Recruiting Update 6/27/14 →

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#pcbb Links of the Day 6/25/14

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Recruiting News

#pcbb Weekly Recruiting Update 6/20/14

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I took last week off from the weekly recruiting update but it’s back this week and there is plenty to mention. Since the last update on June 6th, Niagara graduate transfer Antoine Mason committed to Auburn which is another Spring miss for Ed Cooley and staff.

Next up is Seattle guard Tramaine Isabell who is currently on a visit at Missouri with plans to visit Providence after that and then decide. Though he told ShowMeMizzou.com “that if he likes Missouri enough, there’s a chance he might not need to take any other visits.”

The Providence Journal’s Kevin McNamara mentioned that PC had a German guard on campus for a visit a few weeks ago and UndercoverFriar revealed that player to be Tyree Chambers. That doesn’t seem to be anything more than interest and an offer was never made.

One other guard option that has been mentioned in recent weeks is 2014 guard Armel Potter. Jeff Ferrucci of ScoutFriars.com spoke with Potter last week. Potter revealed that PC hasn’t offered but is “showing high interest.” The scoring guard visited Tennessee Tech last week and is also being recruited by Appalachian State, Ball State, Iona, Niagara, Winthrop along with some other mid majors.

If I had to choose between Isabell and Potter, I would definitely take Isabell despite the rumors of him possibly having some issues qualifying because he is definitely the more talented player but Potter is a guy that can score the ball despite being undersized. We’ll see how Isabell’s visit to Missouri shakes out but I would expect interest in Potter to increase from Coach Blaney if Isabell commits to the Tigers before leaving Columbia.

One other note on the recruiting front is a potential transfer candidate in former Wake Forest PF Tyler Cavanaugh. He was granted his release this week and has already spoken to Ed Cooley who recruited him out of high school when Cooley was still at Fairfield. He never overlapped with PC redshirt Senior Carson Desrosiers at Wake but I wouldn’t be surprised if Cooley put the two in touch to discuss the transition from Wake to PC. Cavanaugh, a native of Dewitt, NY (upstate near Syracuse) told Syracuse.com’s Donna Ditota, “I want to try to come a little bit closer to home, but I want to be open to any opportunity. I just want to make sure I find the perfect fit for my last two years of eligibility.” He also said that he plans to narrow down schools to 3 schools to visit and decide within “the next couple weeks.” He would have to sit this upcoming season and would have two years of eligibility remaining. The 6’9 stretch power forward averaged 19 mpg, 7 ppg and 3.2 rpg in 64 career games for the Demon Deacons, including 28 career starts.

Continue reading #pcbb Weekly Recruiting Update 6/20/14 →

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#pcbb Links of the Day 6/13/14

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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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