Tag Archives: Rivals

Recruiting News

#pcbb Weekly Recruiting Update 6/6/14

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With most AAU events for the spring already behind us, many of the top players attended individual camps last weekend. The most notable of those camps was the invitation only Pangos All-American Camp. While the dynamic is a bit different at an individual player camp than an AAU team event, the cream still rises to the top. More on that later. This was also a big week for ESPN and Scout to release updated player rankings for the classes of 2015, 2016 and even 2017. Scout only jumped into the mix with their updated class of 2015 rankings but there was a fairly significant amount of movement and also a few PC recruits made their debut or were no longer part of the top 100. For the Scout 2015 rankings, click here. For the ESPN 2015 rankings, click here. For the ESPN 2016 rankings, click here. For the ESPN 2017 rankings, click here.

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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.

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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.
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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:

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Ed Cooley, Recruiting News

2014 USA Basketball Men’s U18 National Team Training Camp Invites Announced

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The invitees have been announced for the USA Basketball Men’s U18 National Team training camp which will be held in Colorado Springs from June 10th-19th. Ed Cooley is on Billy Donovan’s staff this year and the talent of the players invited to camp is impressive. 10 players are in the class of 2014 and all are already signed with their respective schools for next season. 11 players are members of the class of 2015 with 4 of them already verbally committed to schools. That leaves 7 uncommitted guys. Of those 7, PC has been mentioned with Isaiah Briscoe of Roselle Catholic (NJ).

It’s unclear if Briscoe will end up making the team as there are a lot of talented guards in training camp but at the minimum, this opportunity will give Cooley 9 days to coach Briscoe and start to build a relationship with the young man. He is currently ranked as the 19th best player in the class of 2015 by ESPN and Rivals while 247Sports ranks him at 17th best. Along with Providence, Briscoe claims offers from Arizona, Baylor, Cincinnati, Connecticut, DePaul, Florida, Florida State, Indiana, Miami (FL), Michigan, Ohio State, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Seton Hall, SMU, St. John’s Syracuse, UCLA, Villanova and Virginia with interest from Kansas and Kentucky.

If that list appears daunting, it’s because it is. I would classify Briscoe as a long shot for PC but Ed Cooley has a real opportunity to build a relationship and give Briscoe a feel for how he would be coached by the Friar’s head man.

Opportunities like this one are why Cooley being involved in USA Basketball is so huge for himself and the Providence program. It gets his name out there and gives him a chance to coach some of the top talent in the USA while maybe even building a relationship with a recruit or two along the way.

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Recruiting News

#pcbb Weekly Recruiting Update 5/2/14

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Last weekend was a massively important weekend for recruits and coaches alike because it was the only live evaluation period that coaches can attend until the 3 that are in July. For some players, they were the ones that needed to make an impression and get noticed by a coach. For other players, it was more about a coach making an impression and being noticed in the stands by that player. Unfortunately the timing of the end of the season banquet in Providence kept head coach, Ed Cooley off the road last weekend but his assistants were out in full force spread all across the country. To that end, I’ve added a new feature to this site. You can find the link at on the left side of the top menu. It’s called “Where is Ed Cooley and the staff?” and it has a map of the USA with markers to indicate a coach being on the road somewhere. Check it out and give me your feedback. As for where the assistants were during the only live period of April: Andre LaFleur was out in Sacramento for the EYBL Session #1, Bob Simon was in Dallas for the Adidas Gauntlet and Brian Blaney was in Pittsburgh for the Hoop Group Jamfest. Here is a list of events that will be happening this upcoming weekend even. Even though coaches can’t be there, the media and scouting services still can so there will be plenty of updates next Friday. List courtesy of Jeff Borzello at CBSSports.com:

Before I get into last weekend’s AAU action, there is some more immediate recruiting going on for the class of 2014.

  • 2014 PG Larry Austin will visit Xavier this weekend but Providence is strongly in the mix and Austin will take an official visit next weekend to Friartown.

  • Wednesday, 2014 PG Devonte’ Graham cut his list down to 2 schools, Kansas and NC State. On Friday he committed to Kansas.

https://twitter.com/im_dat_kid_dtae/status/461534464498487296

  • On Thursday, 2014 PG Shelton Mitchell got his release from his NLI with Wake Forest. His former lead recruiter was Jeff Battle who is a good friend of Ed Cooley’s I would expect to see PC mentioned with Mitchell.

  • Also on Thursday, it was announced that Kansas PG Naadir Tharpe would be seeking to transfer closer to home because of some medical issues with his daughter.

  • Last Friday Jared Terrell getting his release from his NLI with Oklahoma State became official. The 2014 SG is said to want to be closer to home and the 3 schools expected to be involved were Boston College, Providence and URI. Rumors are that Terrell will visit PC and BC next week and make a decision. My guess is Boston College gets him because of Preston Murphy taking an assistant position with the Eagles on new coach, Jim Christian’s staff.

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