Providence Recruiting Update: In-Home Visits & Visits to Friartown

I hope everyone had a lovely Labor Day Weekend and people are ready for the fall to begin. Something that will begin this week is a recruiting period. That means — starting on September 9th — coaches can visit players at their homes and schools. That hasn’t been able to occur since April 22nd. The Providence coaching staff will be very busy on September 9th as they have plans to visit a lot of recruits, either at their homes or at their schools. There are also two more Friar targets that will get attention on and off campus from the Providence coaching staff. More on all of that below.

North Carolina Wing Schedules Visit

Providence may appear to be all set at the small forward/wing position but coaches can never stop recruiting, especially versatile players. North Carolina native Jalen Johnson told Pat Lawless of madehoops.com that he has scheduled an official visit to Providence from September 18th-20th. Johnson also told Lawless that Providence, along with Florida, Texas Tech, Tennessee, Miami, South Florida and USC are recruiting him the hardest right now. The 6’6 wing ran with Team Wall on the adidas Uprising circuit and plays at Wesleyan Christian during the high school season. He was supposed to visit Florida over the LDW but had to re-schedule that visit. A date is not set as of this writing.

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Johnson is an athletic lefty who has improved his outside shooting to complement his highlight-reel plays in the open floor. I saw him play at the adidas All-American camp in July and he was a player that stood out each time I watched a game he was playing in. He definitely needs to add weight to his frame and work on his right hand but he is a very intriguing player. Ed Cooley certainly loves lefties. Johnson is currently ranked 150th in the class of 2016 by 247sports.com’s composite national ranking.

Providence to Visit Harris In-Home

Johnson’s Team Wall teammate Jalen Harris will get an in-home visit from Providence coaches on September 13th, per a tweet by Jamie Shaw of PhenomHoopReport.com. The 6’1 lead guard plays for Word of God Christian Academy in North Carolina during the high school season. With Team Wall on the adidas Uprising circuit Harris averaged 13.7 points/game, 4.7 assists/game and 3.1 rebounds/game.

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DePaul became the first high major to offer Harris back in January and he has since received interest from the likes of Virginia Tech, NC State, Kansas and Arkansas. During July he also got offers from Buffalo and Wright State. Harris took an official visit to Buffalo on September 4th.

News and Notes

• Providence will visit 2016 F Wenyen Gabriel at his home on September 9th. Duke and Maryland are also scheduled to visit on the 9th while Kentucky and UConn will visit his school on the 10th.
• Providence will visit 2016 PF Kevin Marfo at Worcester Academy on September 9th.
• Providence will visit 2016 CG Shamorie Ponds at his school on September 9th. Ponds is scheduled to visit Providence beginning on September 11th. Chris Mullin and Greg McDermott are also visiting Ponds at Thomas Jefferson on Wednesday. Richard Pitino will visit there on Thursday.
• Providence will visit 2016 PF Sedee Keita on September 9th.
• 2017 wing Kimani Lawrence transferred to New Hampton from Cushing Academy. He was recently cleared to begin playing again after suffering a broken foot in July.

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Mike Hopkins

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