Providence Recruiting Update: Incoming Transfer, Still Recruiting in ’15, PC in a Top 5 & New Offers, Interest

With the first two live evaluation periods under their belts the Providence coaching staff has managed to add a player for 2016 already. That player is George Mason transfer Isaiah Jackson. They are still looking for a big man that can contribute in 2015-16 and also have continued their dogged pursuit of 2016 top target Wenyen Gabriel, while also handing out new offers and expressing interest in some new players. Finally the Friars made 2016 top-60 point guard Tony Carr‘s final list of 5. All of that in detail below.

Jackson Makes 5

Isaiah Jackson’s commitment to Providence came as a bit of a shock over the weekend. He wasn’t a name that had been associated with the Friars and his visit to Friartown on July 15th and 16th was not highly publicized or even reported. He also considered Central Florida and Houston with a visit to Houston coming right before his trip to Rhode Island. Jackson becomes the 5th player to enter the Friar program in 2015 and he will effectively join the other freshmen Ricky Council, Drew Edwards, Ryan Fazekas and Quadree Smith as a redshirt sophomore in 2016-17 after sitting out the upcoming season, per NCAA transfer rules. Jackson will have 3 years of eligibility after that.

Jackson broke his right leg landing awkwardly 18 games into his sophomore season of high school. He managed to come back and finish strong as a junior at Gainseville High School and lead his team to the 6A state semifinals and was runner-up for the Florida Dairy Farmers Mr. Basketball in 2013. That summer he transferred to The Villages Charter School to finish his high school career. He committed to Paul Hewitt and George Mason in January 2014 but opted to transfer after Hewitt was fired in March 2015. Jackson played in 31 games as a freshman at George Mason and averaged 8.7 points/game, 3.9 rebounds/game in 26.2 minutes/game. For the season he shot 34.8% from the field with a 35.6% from downtown in 87 attempts.

Jackson is a versatile player who can dribble, pass and shoot all at 6’6. This upcoming year off will give him more time to build up strength and get to know Ed Cooley’s system. Jackson will take one of the two scholarships that were open for this season. While this means the Friars only technically have 1 available scholarship right now it’s expected that Kris Dunn will be going pro after this season, Junior Lomomba is scheduled to graduate in May 2016 and could move on for his final year elsewhere and with a logjam at the guard/wing positions it’s likely someone will transfer. That’s the roster math reality of college basketball today where over 700 players transfer each year.

In the Mix with Brodricks

Cooley and his staff have continued trying to bring in another frontcourt body that can play in 2015-16 and the latest name to be attached to the Friars is former San Diego State commit Brodricks Jones. Jones recently got his qualifying SAT score and decommitted from the Aztecs in late June. He tweeted a final list of Memphis, Providence, Syracuse and UTEP and has scheduled visits to UTEP (August 1st) and Memphis (August 4th). Syracuse doesn’t seem to be a serious contender due to their impending scholarship limit and Memphis just got a commitment from a 3-star guard so they may also be in a scholarship crunch. It remains to be seen if Jones will still visit the Tigers. A source has indicated that Cooley is attempting to get Jones to visit on August 8th, which is the date of Providence’s Elite Camp.

Is the Wenyen Gabriel Recruitment Donovan Mitchell, Part Deux?

A year ago Cooley and his staff were just under 3 weeks away from having their hearts ripped out when Donovan Mitchell committed to Louisville. Cooley and his assistants had been tracking Mitchell since well before he shot up the class rankings and even attended AAU games he couldn’t play in due to an injured wrist. But, alas, Mitchell did shoot up the class rankings and attracted the attention of college basketball heavyweights like Louisville, leaving Cooley and the Friars to be reminded by Mitchell’s mother that recruiting is “not first-come, first-serve.”

Gabriel was shadowed during the early part of the second live period by Providence assistant coach Brian Blaney and Cooley was at Gabriel’s games in Springfield over the weekend. This is exactly how Mitchell was treated only jump to Louisville a month after being offered by Rick Pitino. Duke has now come calling, along with others like Notre Dame, Texas and Villanova and the recruitment of Gabriel now has a strange deja vu feeling. It might be time to Cooley to cut the cord and move on so they don’t get left at the altar again but that is easier said than done when you have invested so much time and energy building a relationship and being the first high major school to offer a scholarship. It will be interesting to see if an attention shift is made during this final live period of July.

New Offers and Interest

Kamar Baldwin

• Class of 2016
• Apalachee HS
• Hometown: Winder, GA
• Point Guard
• 6’2 175 lbs
• AAU Team: Atlanta Celtics

Baldwin plays on an extremely talented Atlanta Celtics grassroots team alongside players like Kobi Simmons and Braxton Blackwell. He recently told 247sports.com’s Andrew Slater that “Providence, Butler, Ole Miss, Richmond & Clemson are hardest after him.” He is planning official visits to Butler and Ole Miss during the month of August. He is currently ranked 184th nationally by 247sports.com’s composite national ranking.

Jeff Dowtin

• Class of 2016
• St. John’s HS
• Hometown: Washington, DC
• Point Guard
• 6’3 165 lbs
• AAU Team: DC Blue Devils

Dowtin only has interest from the Friars currently while he has had a bunch of mid-major offers for some time, including the Rhode Island Rams. Providence was first mentioned with Dowtin during the first live period when he attended the Under Armour All-American Camp in Charlotte. The DC native ran with the DC Blue Devils on the Under Armour Association circuit but they fell in the first round of the UA Association Finals last week in Atlanta.

Quentin Jackson

• Class of 2016
• Carlisle School
• Hometown: Raleigh, NC
• Point Guard
• 6’4 195 lbs
• AAU Team: SEBL

If it seems like the Friars are chasing a lot of 6’3 or 6’4 point guards it’s because they are. Clearly a recruiting priority for the class of 2016 is replacing Kris Dunn with the assumption that Dunn will enter the NBA Draft after this next season. Jackson, like Dowtin, Carr and another Jeff Battle recruit Davion Mintz fit a type of lead guard that mirrors Dunn’s body type and all, save Carr, are not universally ranked in the top 100 right now. They all seem to be trending up though. Jackson has recent offers from Charlotte, Cincinnati, LSU, Mississippi State and Rutgers all since July began. He’s long guard who ran on the adidas Gauntlet circuit with Stackhouse Elite in April and the first live period of July before switching to SEBL, coached by his father. Jackson’s father is a former player and coach at NC State. Back in late April Jackson told WildcatReport.com what he is looking for in a school and when he wants to make a decision:

“I’m looking for a place with high education and high basketball,” he said. “On the basketball side, I don’t expect a job to be given to me; I just want the opportunity to earn the role. And I’m looking for a place I can make the biggest impact.”

He hopes to make a decision over the summer so he “doesn’t take any distractions into his senior year.”

Jalen Johnson

• Class of 2016
• Wesleyan Christian
• Hometown: High Point, NC
• Wing Forward
• 6’6 170 lbs
• AAU Team: Team Wall

Johnson runs with Team Wall on the adidas Gauntlet circuit and was at the adidas All-American camp last week where I got a chance to see him play in person. He is a lefty wing that threw down a few thunderous dunks, both in transition and off rebounds. He also hit a few open 3-pointers in game action at the camp. Johnson is a 3-star recruit right now and came in at 145th in the latest Rivals.com top 150 in the class of 2016.

There were some other new recruits that received offers or interest from the Friars these last 2 weeks. They can be found here in the class of 2016, here in the class of 2017 and here in the class of 2018.

Tony Carr Includes Friars in Top 5

Providence recently made Tony Carr’s top 11 and then a few days later on July 17th he cut his list down again, this time to a top 5. The Friars join Maryland, Penn State, SMU and Temple in that top 5 for the very talented Philly guard who runs with Team Final on the Nike EYBL circuit. Carr wasn’t able to play in the Peach Jam during the first live period or at any events or camps in the second live period due to a hip injury. His status for the final live period is still up in the air but that hasn’t stopped his recruitment from heating up. This is from the article at CityOfBasketballLove.com where Carr announced his final 5:

Now that he has his final five schools set, the next step for Carr is to plan his official visits, and how many he’ll take.

He’s already been on the campus of schools like Temple and Penn State numerous times, and he’s not yet sure whether or not he needs to see them again (even officially) before he makes his final choice, “more than likely” at the end of August or early September.

“The deciding factor is going to be where I’m most comfortable at,” he said, “and where I can go in and play my game from my freshman year, the best fit for me and my family.”

Keep an eye out for Carr to try to schedule an official visit to Providence during the month of August. Carr, a top 60 consensus player in the class of 2016, would be a fantastic replacement for Dunn.

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Mike Hopkins

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