Friar Friday News & Notes, Including a God Shammgod Update

Here are some Providence news and notes from the week, including a God Shammgod update, Providence’s upcoming visitors, an updated Scout.com 2019 recruit rankings, and more.

God Signs an Extension

God Shammgod left Providence for a job in player development with the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks last July. After a successful year in Dallas in which Shammgod has received credit for the improvement of Harrison Barnes, the Mavs locked up the former Friar with a 4-year contract extension. While Barnes’ improvement is noteworthy for the Mavs after they signed him to a 4-year, $94.4 million contract, what may be motivating the Mavericks to keep Shammgod around is Dennis Smith, Jr. Shammgod and Smith have a prior relationship from Smith’s high school days and he is expected to be the point guard of the future after being taken 9th overall in April’s NBA Draft.

Duke Sets Official Visits

Providence native and top 2018 Friar target David Duke, who begins an official visit to Florida today, scheduled visits to Virginia Tech (9/29) and Villanova (10/5) this week. Though no visit to Providence was set, Duke lives minutes from the campus and has been there numerous times. It isn’t final that Duke won’t take an official visit to Providence and either way I wouldn’t sweat that detail. As I wrote in my Monday Friar Mailbag, I still feel confident about Providence’s position with Duke. Friar fans have to exercise some patience and allow these visits to play out. I expect this recruitment won’t go into November without a commitment.

Providence to Get Visit from Top-20 2019 Big

Looking ahead to 2019, the Friars will host one of the best big men in that class for an unofficial visit on October 6th, per Julius Kim.

Five-star Armando Bacot will attend Duke's Countdown to Craziness. Will take unofficials to Villanova on 9/30 & Providence 10/6 pic.twitter.com/FyxsVShDNd

— Julius Kim (@jkimconsulting) September 16, 2017

Armando Bacot plays for Trinity Episcopal in Richmond, VA and for Team Loaded VA on the adidas circuit. Providence assistant Ivan Thomas has been the point person for Bacot, who already holds offers from the likes of Duke, Kansas, North Carolina and Villanova. Providence offered last August. Bacot will be tough to pull for Providence, but it’s never a bad thing to get a 5-star recruit onto your campus and that’s what the Friars will do the first weekend in October.

Friars Staff on the Recruiting Trail

The Providence staff continues to hit the recruiting trail as the first day they can officially practice for the 2017-18 season quickly approaches. On Monday a Providence coach was in Maine at Gould Academy to see 2019 Mass Rivals big man Wildens Leveque. The Friars offered the 6’9 forward while on campus for an unofficial visit on August 31st.

Rutgers was at Gould Academy in Bethel, ME yesterday to visit our guy 6'9 forward Wildens Leveque. Providence visited Monday. On the rise! pic.twitter.com/d4nuQN5bA5

— Rivals Nation (@RivalsNation) September 20, 2017

Providence also had a coach at Putnam Science Academy in Connecticut on Monday to see 2019 Akok Akok and 2020 DeMarr Langford, both also of Mass Rivals. The latter is in fact the younger brother of Providence freshman and former top-40 recruit Makai Ashton-Langford. Akok figures to be a priority recruit for Providence in the 2019 class.

Thank you Providence, Tulane, Holy Cross, Miami Ohio and CCSU for stopping in today! #PSAhoops

— Putnam Science MBB (@PSAhoops) September 18, 2017

On Wednesday, Ivan Thomas was down in Maryland to see 2020 guard Elijah Wood. Wood recently transferred to Bethesda-Chevy Chase HS and is already ranked in the top-40 in the Class of 2020 247Sports Composite National Ranking.

Providence will be in today to see 2020 BCC wing Elijah Wood. St. Joe's will be in Friday

— Julius Kim (@jkimconsulting) September 20, 2017

Scout.com Updated 2019 Top 100 Released

Scout.com released an updated Class of 2019 Top 100 on Tuesday and there were several Friar recruits among the ranked:

• #8 – Balsa Koprivica
• #9 – Chol Marial
• #21 – Armando Bacot
• #23 – Joey Baker
• #24 – Josh Nickelberry
• #36 – Aidan Igiehon
• #40 – Jalen Lecque
• #43 – Isaiah Stewart
• #48 – Kofi Cockburn
• #57 – Akok Akok
• #72 – Bryce Wills
• #73 – Karim Coulibaly
• #76 – Khalif Battle
• #93 – Aundre Hyatt

Student Season Tickets Officially Sold Out

Providence announced on Thursday that their 1,500 student season ticket allotment had officially sold out. Consider that Providence only has about 4,000 students, getting nearly 40% of them to buy season tickets is an impressive feat. A big shoutout should be given to Alex Vescera in the ticket office, Senior Associate AD Steven Napolillo and everyone in Providence Athletics. I hope to have more on this story next week.

We are officially SOLD OUT 1⃣5⃣0⃣0⃣ @PCFriarsmbb student season ticket holders ✔️ #gofriars pic.twitter.com/AlHsShIBp0

— Friars Ticket Office (@FriarTickets) September 21, 2017

ESPN’s Fran Fraschilla Talks Big East

Fran Fraschilla was on the Big East Shootaround talking about the Big East:

CBSSports.com Ranks Top 5 Games in Big East

Matt Norlander at CBSSports.com ranked the top-5 games in each conference for the 2017-18 season and the Friars appeared twice on the Big East’s list. Norlander considers Providence vs Creighton on January 20th and Providence vs Seton Hall on February 21st to be 2 of the top 5 games being played among Big East foes. Click here to read the full article and see why Norlander picked those two Providence games.

New Floor Design at the Dunk

Last week’s Friar Friday article told you about a re-design of the floor at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center. This week the new floor was debuted on the Dunk’s Snapchat account. I wrote about it earlier this week, but here’s the picture of the new floor in case you missed it:

YurView to Broadcast Some PC Games

Providence announced on Friday that YurView will broadcast a total of four men’s basketball games this season, in addition to 11 men’s hockey games. YurView, which is the re-brand of Cox Sports local channels, can be found at channels 4 and 1004 (HD) for Cox cable subscribers. The four games YurView will broadcast are the season opener on November 10th against Houston Baptist, November 29th against Rider, the Big East opener against St. John’s on December 28th and the February 10th game against DePaul. The release also indicates that two other games — vs. Seton Hall on February 21st and vs. St. John’s on March 3rd — could be added to the schedule.

Follow me on Twitter @pcbb1917

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Mike Hopkins

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