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Recruiting News

PC Recruiting Guide to the Second July Evaluation Period

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This will be the second of three live evaluation periods in the month of July where college coaches are allowed to attend and evaluate recruits. These three live periods are so critical as coaches can start to really focus on specific targets and maybe even have a new player catch their eye so they can offer and get involved. I’ll be taking a look at some of the major grassroots events that are in this second live period and giving you a list of PC recruits that will be in attendance at each one. This will be a working document so if/when I see a name that PC is recruiting at one of these events and I don’t have the player listed I will add him. Also, if you want to keep track of where Ed Cooley and the rest of the PC staff is during this live period, click here.

Nike Peach Jam (N. Augusta, SC) 7/16/-7/20

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Peach Jam is the culmination of the Nike EYBL circuit and acts as the playoffs. Only 24 teams qualify and there is a play-in game Wednesday to determine that 24th team. I could write up a big preview of this event but the guys at D1Circuit.com have done an absurdly good job at putting together this preview so I would be doing a disservice to try to write anything further. This is an absolute must read for all recruiting junkies especially because, as you’ll see below, there are a TON of PC recruits at the Peach Jam this year.

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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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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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Recruiting News

#pcbb Weekly Recruiting Update 4/25/14

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  • This is a huge weekend for recruiting as it is the only weekend in April that college coaches can attend events and there are a number of high profile events for them to attend. The Nike EYBL, widely considered the top AAU league in the country, has Session #1 this weekend in Sacramento. Because of the recruiting calendar, coaches won’t be able to attend Sessions 2-4 so the next time coaches are allowed to watch the EYBL is the Peach Jam in mid July. This means that if your team is playing in the EYBL, you better be playing and playing well this weekend in Sacramento or you might just fall between the cracks until July. There are also a number of other events and PC recruits are playing at many of them. Here is a list provided by CBS Sports’ Jeff Borzello:
    1. Nike EYBL Session #1 (Sacramento, CA)
    2. Adidas Gauntlet #1 (Dallas, TX)
    3. UA Pittsburgh Jam Fest (Pittsburgh, PA)
    4. UA Jayhawk Invitational (Olathe, KS)
    5. Gulf Coast Hoop Fest (Biloxi, MS)
    6. All-America Availables JUCO Showcase (Dallas, TX)
    7. Double Pump Hoop Fest (Anaheim, CA)
    8. Pangos Spring Spectacular (Las Vegas, NV)
    9. Kingwood Classic (Spring, TX)
    10. Las Vegas Tip Off Classic (Las Vegas, NV)
    11. Southern Exposure Showcase (North Augusta, SC)
    12. Adidas Spring Classic (Indianapolis, IN)
    13. Nor Cal Spring Showcase (Sacramento, CA)
    14. Nike Spring Showdown (Romeoville, IL)
  • ICYMI – Rivals.com released their final Top 150 for the Class Of 2014 yesterday. 3 of PC’s 4 commits are on the list: #61 Paschal Chukwu, #69 Jalen Lindsey and #89 Ben Bentil. When I asked Eric Bossi for his thoughts on those 3, he said the following:

In brief Chukwu is a long term stock. Love his mobility and ability to rebound and protect the rim. Has to get stronger. Lindsey has all of the physical tools that you could want. But, the motor and production have got to be more consistent. Bentil, would blossom and likely outplay his ranking if he accepts being an energy guy, a grinder and dude who saves possessions on the glass.


But, I would imagine Providence fans have to feel pretty good about the level of talent that is coming into the program.

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