While the realization that both West Virginia and Providence had more immediate playing time to offer gave Joseph pause, it ultimately wasn’t enough to make him say no to his dream school.
Time to move on. Now let’s hope this just doesn’t turn out like last fall’s miss after miss on the big targets.
Florida, UConn, Miami, St. John’s, UCLA, Xavier — you have been kicked off of the Jared Terrell island. Sorry St. John’s, UCLA, Iowa State, Miami, Kentucky and Kansas State, but you have been fired from Abdul Malik Abu’s boardroom. Late last night (why does all of this recent recruiting news happen late at night?) their AAU coach Ty Boswell announced that the two 2014 prospects each cut their list to 4. The one little school that is on both of their lists? Yep, that would be Providence College.
Adding even more fuel to the incredible buzz around Friartown is the fact that both of these players will be at Providence this weekend for Ed Cooley’s Elite Camp. Several big recruiting targets will be attending the second annual Elite Camp hosted by Cooley and staff, but all eyes will be on Terrell and Abu. There have been previous rumors suggesting the two could be a package deal. Given the speed that everything has happened at thus far, and the general awesomeness of Ed Cooley, nothing would surprise me at this point. The event on Saturday already makes for a great day in Friartown. Who is down for something epic?
UPDATE: Scout.com is reporting that Terrell and Abu will be announcing their decision together at a press conference in September. Oh man.
What’s Up Friartown!? @UndercoverFriar has become a part of Friarblog and will be providing recruiting updates and analysis in columns posted to Friarblog intermittently. I intend to provide Friarblog readers with in depth recruiting information and analysis. Hope you enjoy! Go Friars!
2014 Recruiting: Tracking the “Friar Five”
Since Coach Ed Cooley’s arrival at Providence College, the excitement regarding recruiting has risen to a level never before seen in Friartown. From Ladontae Henton shortly after his hire to a top ten class in Kris Dunn, Ricardo Ledo, and Josh Fortune to this year’s recruiting class of Brandon Austin and Rajay Bullock in addition to transfers Carson Desrosiers and Tyler Harris, Ed Cooley has certainly left an impression on the world of recruiting. With that being said, avid followers of Friar basketball recruiting have looked forward to the 2014 recruiting class as where Ed Cooley could leave an even bigger mark. Given the inroads Coach Cooley made early on with 2014 recruits and the number of available scholarships (five), the 2014 recruiting class had the makings of a great one from the start.
By now most Friar fans know the potential “Friar Five” consists of 2014 recruits F Jalen Lindsey, G Jared Terrell, G Kaleb Joseph, C Paschal Chukwu, and F Abdul-Malik Abu. Coach Cooley along with associate head coach Andre Lafleur and assistant coach Bob Simon have been hard at work on the recruiting trail for a long time for each of these prospects. Each of these recruits is a consensus top 100 player nationally and has had many other schools hard after him as well. Friar fans have anxiously been waiting for lists to be trimmed and interviews to be recorded mentioning Providence as a likely destination for any of these recruits. Any combination of these five prospects would make for a great recruiting class, but the “Friar Five” or anything remotely close to it would be an incredible statement for the state of Providence College basketball and it could very well happen. Let’s take an in depth look at the recruitment of each of these players and where it stands in regards to lists and decision timelines. While four of these 2014 prospects are still deep into their recruitment, one prospect has made a decision and decided to take his talents to Friartown, forward Jalen Lindsey.
Another big 2014 recruit has listed the Providence Friars among his final choices of schools. Last night, news came out that Kaleb Joseph, a point guard ranked #51 overall by ESPN for the class of 2014, cut his list down to Providence, Syracuse, and West Virginia (Hey, that was all the BIG EAST once!). Just another day in the life of Ed Cooley.
From ESPN
“Each of the three schools on his final list also has unique things to offer, and Joseph discussed each of his final choices.
Providence stands out not just because it is local but also because the Friars will be looking to replace their leading scorer and starting point guard in 2014.
“Bryce Cotton is graduating and so I would have an immediate opportunity to fill those minutes from Day One,” Joseph said. ”
Mr. Joseph, I want you to pick PC and all, but NO ONE CAN REPLACE ICE COTTON’S MINUTES.
Anyhoo, much like the rest of these 2014 targets Ed Cooley and staff have been all over Joseph for quite some time. He’s visited a bunch since last summer, and has been seen at several games.
Big prospects from the class of 2014, power forward Abdul Malik Abu and shooting guard Jared Terrell, have had numerous suitors over the past year plus. During the busy recruiting periods, it seemed like they would both pick up offers from the top schools around the country every other day. Ed Cooley and his staff have been on both of these young men from the very start, and it has definitely paid off.
Tonight, each recruit announced their top 10 list of schools, with the Providence Friars making the cut in both cases. It has been rumored for quite some time that the Massachusetts natives and Expressions Elite (AAU) teammates would be a package deal, creating a fantastic inside / out combo for any recruiting class.
Here are their lists of schools (via @HoopdreamsMag)
Abdul Malik Abu
NC State
Florida
Kansas State
Miami
Kentucky
Iowa State
UConn
Providence
UCLA
St John’s
Jared Terrell
Florida
UConn
Cincinnati
Providence
Miami
OSU
St Johns
UCLA
URI
Xaiver
Interestingly enough, the only teams involved from the New Big East are the Friars, St. John’s, and Xavier (for Terrell only).
2013 recruit Brandon Austin announced he will be attending Providence College per his Twitter account tonight. He picked the Friars over UConn and Texas.
ESPN has the 6-6 point forward ranked #71 in the class of 2013.
Ed Cooley has made Austin a top priority over the last couple of months, and was able to give him something other schools were maybe not willing to — time at the point guard position. With Council graduating this year, Kris Dunn was the only true point guard set to be on the roster (although Bryce Cotton is growing tremendously here). Austin brings not only that skill, but even more length and talent overall. This is truly a monster get for the staff.
Here is the timeline of events that led the talented young man from Philadelphia to Friartown:
9/8/12: Took unofficial visit to Providence
9/10/12: Providence no longer involved (per ZagsBlog)
10/2/12: Providence becomes a serious contender again after a possible in-home visit from Cooley goes very well.
10/12/12: Attended Late Night Madness
What a day for Friartown after all of the doom and gloom with conference realignment. Crumbling BIG EAST? WHO CARES. As of right now, Ed Cooley has all 13 scholarships for next year accounted for. Check out this roster:
2013-2014 Projected Roster
Kris Dunn
Ricardo Ledo
Brandon Austin
Bryce Cotton
Josh Fortune
Kadeem Batts
LaDontae Henton
Carson Desrosiers
Tyler Harris
Sidiki Johnson
Rodney Bullock
Lee Goldsbrough
Brice Kofane
If everyone stays healthy and gets to campus, Ed Cooley will have the exact opposite problem that he has today. The talent will simply be one of the longest, deepest rosters that PC has ever seen.
Former Penn State commit Brandon Austin will decide tonight between Providence, Texas and UConn.
“Providence, Coach [Ed] Cooley. Him and Coach Cooley have developed a rpetty good relationship. Just as far as how he thinks he can help him and help him develop, Brandon is very receptive to it. People have tried to negative recruit by saying they have Kris Dunn and Ricky Ledo. If they have those three [next year], they will be pretty good.”
Today is the first day of the early signing period, meaning recruits can officially sign and deliver their letters of intent.
This afternoon at Kecoughtan High School down in Virginia, Friar commit Rodney Bullock gave his official pledge to play at Providence College next year. The 6-7 forward, who plays at the same high school Josh Fortune hails from, gave Ed Cooley a verbal on October 3rd after visiting that previous weekend.
Ed Cooley on Bullock from PC’s official press release:
“I believe Rodney Bullock is a great rebounder who really pursues the ball,” Cooley stated. “He also has the ability to score from all over the court. Rodney creates matchup problems for defenders. Most importantly, he brings the type of character and winning attitude that we want to have at Providence College.”
Here he is signing his official LOI with his other classmates (image courtesy of Kecoughtan assistant coach Aaron McNair on Twitter). Bullock is the one on the right.
“Providence, Coach [Ed] Cooley. Him and Coach Cooley have developed a rpetty good relationship. Just as far as how he thinks he can help him and help him develop, Brandon is very receptive to it. People have tried to negative recruit by saying they have Kris Dunn and Ricky Ledo. If they have those three, they will be pretty good.”
Austin is 6-6 and ranked #71 in the class by ESPN, and #73 by Rivals. Ed Cooley is able to sell immediate time at the point guard position for him, giving the Friars a possible leg up.
Assuming the roster and commits all hold, Ed Cooley has one remaining scholarship for next season. Adding Brandon Austin would create an incredibly deep, long, and talented group for the 2013-2014 season.
Jared Nickens, a 6-6 wing in the class of 2014, took an unofficial visit to Providence today according to his tweet. Maybe Cooley should have tried to put a uniform on him and seen if anyone would notice.
Last year Nickens played at St. Patrick’s in NJ, but he reclassified to 2014 and moved to Westtown School in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
He visited Syracuse over the summer and Rutgers for Midnight Madness in October, and has offers and interest from a variety of BIG EAST schools. According to Rivals Nickens has offers from Fordham, Penn State, Seton Hall, SMU, Temple, Towson, and VCU — Georgetown, Syracuse, Notre Dame, Villanova, and Virginia also have interest. Providence offered on August 30th.
