Who Is The Next Providence Recruit to Blow Up On The National Stage?

Kris Dunn. Abdul-Malik Abu. Donovan Mitchell. Wenyen Gabriel. What do these players all have in common? They were recruited by Providence head coach Ed Cooley before they blew up on the national recruiting scene. Dunn was being recruited by Cooley while the current Friar head coach was at Fairfield. He went from being a recruit on that level to a McDonald’s All-American. Gabriel is probably the closest to Dunn in terms of meteoric rise. Cooley and his staff have shown an uncanny ability to be able to identify these players before they start their upward trajectory as recruits. Who’s the next recruit that Providence is in early on that will blow up nationally? My guess is Aaron Wheeler in the class of 2017.

I went through the list of players Providence is recruiting in the class of 2017. Some of them have already blown up like Hamidou Diallo. Others entered the fray as well known recruits from an early age like Trevon Duval. Wheeler seems like the perfect fit because he’s a local prospect that Providence got in early on. When the Friars offered Wheeler a couple months ago following their Elite Camp his only other reported offers were from Duquesne and Rhode Island — both of the Atlantic 10. Rhode Island offered in July of 2014 while Duquesne offered in June of 2015.

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Wheeler attends St. Andrew’s in Barrington, RI and is a native of Stamford, CT. He was originally a member of the class of 2016 before transferring into St. Andrew’s from Trinity Catholic in Connecticut and repeating his sophomore year in the summer of 2014. ESPN’s Scouting Report currently describes Wheeler as “a highly talented player with great size and even better length and athleticism on the wing.” He was very active and was one of my standout performers at Providence’s Elite Camp in August. Back then I wrote:

Wheeler is a long, athletic player who is still trying to figure out what position he will play. He projects most likely as a wing player but was very accepting of coaching from Andre LaFleur during the scrimmages when LaFleur would tell Wheeler to mix it up down low and grab some rebounds. Wheeler ran with the NE Playaz program this summer and it appears he is now with the Mass Rivals. He also attended Late Night Madness in October 2014 at PC. He was ranked as the #1 player in the class of 2017 in Rhode Island and 12th in New England by New England Recruiting Report’s latest release of their rankings earlier this week. He’s a name to keep an eye on as the Friars offered him after camp on Saturday.

While his current grade of 83 by ESPN and the 4 stars they gave him means he is probably on pace to enter their top 100 — they only have a top 60 right now for 2017 — somewhere in the 75-100 range, I think he has the potential to be a top 25 player in the class. I’ll be keeping an eye on Wheeler and his recruitment over the next year to see if my prediction of him being the next Providence recruit to blow up comes to fruition and I’m guessing Cooley and his staff will be too.

Follow me on Twitter @pcbb1917

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2 responses to “Who Is The Next Providence Recruit to Blow Up On The National Stage?”

  1. […] ICYMI – Who Is The Next Providence Recruit to Blow Up On The National Stage? […]

  2. […] Rivals is bringing a number of their players on Saturday, including Aaron Wheeler (2017) — profiled last week as possibly the next breakout Providence recruit — and David Dukes (2018). Both Wheeler and Dukes attended Providence’s Elite Camp in […]

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