Brewster Academy’s Alpha Diallo to Visit Friartown

Earlier in the week I wrote about Providence’s Spring recruiting heating up. With the calendar now turned to April, Ed Cooley and his staff will be pushing to get recruits to campus. One such 2016 recruit got a visit from Cooley on Wednesday and by Friday, Alpha Diallo decided to set a visit to Friartown. Jason Smith, Diallo’s coach at Brewster, announced on Friday that an official visit date has been set for Diallo to visit Providence. The Harlem, NY native will be on Providence’s campus April 8th and 9th, according to Smith’s tweet.

Alpha Diallo spent his final year of high school at Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro, NH after he was forced to sit out his junior season at Abraham Lincoln HS in Denver, CO due to a Colorado High School Athletic Association rule violation — a silly rule that was enforced too harshly from what this writer can surmise.  Diallo is ranked 121st nationally by 247Sports composite national ranking. ESPN has him ranked 94th in the class, while Rivals has him 110th.

Diallo entered this time last year as an unheralded and largely unrecruited wing player. The only offer reported as of April 2015 by VerbalCommits.com was from Manhattan. Since then Diallo has blown up after a very good showing on the grassroots circuit in the spring and summer of 2015. He took a little time to get his feet wet in game action, but once he hit his stride, he quickly drew attention from high major programs. Diallo’s breakout performance came while playing for Team Africa in the adidas Nations tournament beginning on July 31st. His first two games had scoring totals of 14 points and 11 points, respectively. He really turned it on during the team’s final 4 games when he scored 20, 24, 24 and 30 points.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG4ocSv8N5Q]

Diallo is a wing player at 6’6 who possesses guard skills and a high basketball IQ. He plays with a measured pace and doesn’t seem to ever get flustered with the ball. Diallo’s recruitment has been fairly deliberate and that’s intentional. He wanted to wait for the coaching carousel to spin before making any final determinations on a destination. Diallo took an official visit to VCU back in October and that combined with the Providence visit account for 2 of 5 allowable officials.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tmEWh0BkEw]

He has said in the past that he wants to sign during the Spring signing period, which begins on April 13th and runs until May 18th. My gut says he’ll take all 5 visits before deciding which school offers early playing time and the best fit, two key factors he has mentioned in multiple articles over the last few months.

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Mike Hopkins

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