2016 Corey Manigault Expected to Get Release from Pitt, Friars Likely to be Involved

On Monday, it was reported that Jamie Dixon would be mutually parting ways with Pittsburgh and that Dixon would be named the new head coach at TCU, his alma mater. The move comes as the annual coaching carousel is heating up across the country. Coaches changes are now a viable sector of college basketball recruiting and with Providence in need of size in their frontcourt, Ed Cooley will be looking at all avenues to fill that void.

Dixon leaving means the recruits that committed to him may want to look elsewhere. One such recruit is Corey Manigault, a 6’9 big man who played at Paul VI in Fairfax, VA. Manigault confirmed to pcbb1917.com that he will re-open his recruitment and is just waiting on getting his release from Pittsburgh. Providence is expected to be one of the many schools in pursuit of Manigault, who ran with Team Takeover on the Nike EYBL circuit last spring and summer. Manigault and his Paul VI team — a school current Friar Quadree Smith attended for a period of time — made it to the VISAA Championship game but fell by 4 points to Episcopal HS.

UPDATE:

Latest on 2016 Corey Manigault: he is going to wait and see who Pitt hires before making any decisions #pcbb #gofriars

— Mike Hopkins (@pcbb1917) March 23, 2016

The competition should be severe for Manigault. He had offers from Georgetown, Maryland, Miami, VCU, Virginia Tech, Xavier and others. Top 150-caliber big men are a scarcely available commodity in late March, so it can be expected that teams who lose players to transfer or the NBA Draft will also now be interested in a player like Manigault.

Cooley was clear in his postgame comments following the team’s loss to North Carolina in the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament. He spoke of adding size and a wing scorer and mentioned that “we could add two more [commitments], maybe three.” The current scholarship situation for next season shows the Friars with just 1 open scholarship with the vacancy created by Kris Dunn leaving for the NBA. Adding two or three would mean another player or two would have to leave from the current roster.

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Mike Hopkins

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