Archives For Recruiting

Brandon Austin Picks PC!!

dave@friarblog —  November 19th, 2012 6:43 PM — Leave a comment

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.

 

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Brandon Austin To Announce Tonight

dave@friarblog —  November 19th, 2012 12:43 PM — Leave a comment

According to ZagsBlog

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.”

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Rodney Bullock Signs LOI

dave@friarblog —  November 14th, 2012 6:18 PM — 2 Comments

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.

20121114-181634.jpg

If you were waiting on a Brandon Austin commit today, you’ll have to keep waiting. According to his AAU coach, he won’t be making any announcements today.

Related

Rodney Bullock Gives Verbal to Providence

Rodney Bullock Game Highlights

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Brandon Austin Could Decide This Week

dave@friarblog —  November 11th, 2012 9:41 AM — Leave a comment

According to Adam Zagoria, 2013 wing Brandon Austin could decide between Providence, UConn, and Texas sometime this week.

ZagsBlog: Brandon Austin Close to Deciding

“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.

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2014 Guard Jared Nickens Visited Providence Today

dave@friarblog —  November 10th, 2012 9:58 PM — Leave a comment

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.

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2013 Recruits Speak About Late Night Madness Visits

dave@friarblog —  October 14th, 2012 9:09 PM — 2 Comments
recruits2

The recruits had the best seats in the house

Adam Zagoria posted two articles today about the 2013 recruits who attended Late Night Madness on Friday night. In a shocking revelation, both said IT WAS GOOD. Seriously though, do recruits ever say otherwise regarding their visits? Perhaps it would have been better if they said it was “really good” or “very good”, instead of just plain “good” or “pretty good”. Zomg we have no shot! Move on to 2014. Am I reading too much into this? Regardless, it was encouraging to hear the things Patterson had to say about Ed Cooley.

Ron Patterson

“It went good,” the 6-foot-2, 200-pound shooting guard from Brewster (N.H.) Academy told SNY.tv Sunday. “They have a nice gym. They said I would be a go-to guy, like a scorer.”

Patterson said he likes head coach Ed Cooley’s approach.

“He has a real posiitve attitude about my recruiting process,” Patterson said. “He recruits hard, he’s real cool. He’s different than other coaches.”

Brandon Austin

“It was pretty good,” the former Penn State commit told SNY.tv Sunday night.

“I liked the school, the community, the team, the coaching staff, all that.

“[Coach Cooley] said I would come right in and play up and down. Give me the ball [and] try to build a team around me and Ricky Ledo and Kris Dunn.”

“I’m a point guard,” he said. “I played the wing. I’m a point guard.”

As expected, both of these players are not deciding anything just yet. Brandon Austin is heading to UConn next weekend, and Ron Patterson will be taking an official at SMU on Wednesday.

Providence currently only has 1 more scholarship to give for next year’s class.

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Josh Sharma to Attend Late Night Madness

dave@friarblog —  October 12th, 2012 9:48 AM — Leave a comment

iPer a source, Josh Sharma will be attending tonight’s Late Night Madness festivities  Sharma is a 7 foot 205 lb. center in the class of 2015. He plays at Northfield Mount Herman High School in Massachuets, and for the Mass Rivals AAU team.

Here is a small blurb from ESPN’s scouting report back in May:

Sharma is long, mobile, and athletic with signs of being able to develop into a skilled face-up type big man. He moves with ease, covers a lot of ground quickly, and gets off his feet in a hurry

Sharma visited PC over the summer along with a ton of other local talent including Noah Vonleh, Kaleb Joseph, Matt Cimino, Jalen Adams, and Jeremy Miller. He currently has offers from PC, UMass, and Lehigh

Check out some videos after the jump:

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Aaron Falzon to Attend Late Night Madness

dave@friarblog —  October 10th, 2012 8:59 PM — Leave a comment

AaronFalzon2Another night, another Late Night Madness visitor! I hope there is going to be enough room in the new gym to house these kids. Friarblog has learned that Aaron Falzon (2015), a 6-8 PF from St. Mark’s School in Massachusetts, will join the growing list of recruits on Friday. Over the summer Cox Sports reported that Falzon was hearing from such teams as Boston College, UMASS, Duke, Ohio State, UCLA and Stanford. PC has been recruiting him since last year.

Falzon doesn’t appear to be on any national lists as of yet (ESPN only does Top 25 for that class, and I’m not sure if there are others that do), but New England Recruiting Report has him listed as the #1 PF in the 2015 rankings for Massachusetts.

From a Rivals article about the Elite 75 in July:

Aaron Falzon: Adding strength has brought another dimension to Falzon’s game that was not as prevalent during the prep season. The 6-foot-8 forward displayed a nice touch from outside, but his willingness to attack the rim and draw contact was the most impressive portion of his performance.

Falzon joins Jarred Reuter as a member of the 2015 class attending Late Night Madness.

Related

Ron Patterson to Attend Late Night Madness

Jarred Reuter to Attend Late Night Madness

Brandon Austin to Attend Late Night Madness

Kahari Beaufort to Attend Late Night Madness

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Ron Patterson to Attend Late Night Madness

dave@friarblog —  October 10th, 2012 8:25 AM — 1 Comment

bildeThe Late Night Madness visitor list continues to grow with important recruits. Brian Snow from Scout tweeted this morning that 2013 guard Ron Patterson (former Indiana commit, now at Brewster Academy) will be taking an unofficial visit to PC on Friday night.

Patterson is a crazy athletic 6-3 shooting guard who excels on the defensive end. Does the staff also see him as a point guard? If he can play great defense I don’t think we care. There is an obvious need for a backup PG, but sounds like Cooley is targeting players and not positions.

Cooley and his staff have been on Patterson extremely hard since his recruitment opened back up. Here is the timeline of events:

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Jarred Reuter to Attend Late Night Madness

dave@friarblog —  October 9th, 2012 6:50 PM — Leave a comment

JReuterI got word that Jarred Reuter, a 6-8 250 lb. power forward in the class of 2015, will also be attending Late Night Madness on Friday. He plays at Tabor Academy in Rochester, MA. ESPN had him ranked #18 in the 2015 class at one point over the summer, but he is currently out of the top 25.

He already has offers from UConn, Florida, BC, Indiana, Rutgers, and St. John’s.

UPDATE: Reuter confirmed to me on Twitter that he will in fact be attending the festivities on Friday night.

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