The Providence Crier

The search for more frontcourt help marches on for Kim English and the Providence Friars. It came out earlier today that 6’9 Kentucky forward Lance Ware is on a visit to Providence College. A reserve big for the Wildcats in his three years at Lexington, Ware is hoping for a fresh start after being relegated to spot minutes off the bench. Providence fans are hoping to strike gold again with the Kentucky to Providence pipeline.

The 2024 high school recruiting class is going to be the first recruiting class for Kim English at Providence that truly has his fingerprints all over it. The 2023 class, comprised of Garwey Dual, Donovan Santoro, and Richard Barron, is a mix of commits that the former head coach had in the fold as well as English’s own recruits.

Two premiere 2024 recruits from the DMV area are officially visiting Friartown this weekend in Point Guard Daquan Davis and Center Patrick Ngonba II. Both are nationally known recruits that would be foundational pieces for any 2024 recruiting class.

Ngonba II is being pursued by programs throughout the country for obvious reasons. We break own his recruitment, play style, and how he would fit with the Friars.

When Kim English took the Providence College head coaching job, he instantly started recruiting. One of the first offers he handed out as head man of the Friars is 2024 guard Daquan Davis. Davis plays at St John’s College High School in DC and is a Baltimore native. This fits a theme of English aggressively recruiting the DMV area. Davis plays for Team Take Over on the AAU circuit, alongside big man Patrick Ngonba II. Both are visiting on an official visit this weekend.

Although the 2025 class won’t enroll in two years, it is never too early to look ahead to future recruiting classes. Kim English in his short time as Providence head coach has been incredibly aggressive offering 2025 prospects.

Below, we list out the 2025 recruits who have either received an offer from Providence or have had Providence show interest. Just like our other recruiting articles, we’ll continue to monitor the offer list and update this article as more offers inevitably come in.

If you are looking for recruiting articles for the most immediate high school class, we have a robust 2024 High School Recruiting Primer here: https://theprovidencecrier.com/2023/03/27/providence-college-basketball-recruiting-class-of-2024/

Understandably lost in the whirlwind of 2024 Five Star Somto Cyril taking an official visit to Providence Tuesday – Thursday of last week was Kim English continuing to pound the recruiting pavement. Providence, as of this writing, has only one roster spot available for the upcoming season, and English astutely understands that the Friars are lacking frontcourt depth behind Josh Oduro. Thus, English isn’t putting all his eggs in the Cyril basket and is allowing recruits the opportunity to take that last remaining scholarship.

The news came out Friday morning that Kansas frontcourt player Zach Clemence would be taking an official visit this weekend. This was kept under the radar, and I can appreciate that approach by the staff after the Ike news of him visiting became known two weeks prior to his visit date. As we all know, that visit was eventually cancelled for reasons we aren’t privy to, and Ike is now part of the Gonzaga basketball team. English may have learned from that experience and wanted to keep all future visits under wraps so that other collegiate programs don’t know who their primary competition is for recruits like Cyril and Clemence.

Having Cyril and Clemence visit back-to-back is ironic because you couldn’t find two players in the frontcourt whose games are so vastly different from each other. While Cyril is your modern big man that can rim run and protect the basket with a somewhat limited offensive game in the half court set, Clemence is the polar opposite. He doesn’t possess the athleticism or shot-blocking ability of Cyril, but is the type of stretch forward that can beat you from beyond the arc. He also possesses a nice half court offensive game.

We break down Clemence’s game and how he would fit with Providence.

To the surprise of many, Bryant Graduate Transfer Guard Charles Pride took a visit to Providence last week after a Zoom call with Kim English a few days earlier. As of this writing, Providence has only one scholarship available that is being held for a frontcourt player; however, a scholarship could open up depending on what transpires with Alyn Breed. Head Coach Kim English appears to be covering all his bases with bringing Pride on campus. This is good contingency planning by the head ball coach.

If a scholarship is to open, Pride would elevate the scoring ability on the Providence roster. It remains to be seen if Pride will accept a reduced role as a bench player on an NCAA tournament team like Providence or if he is looking to play major minutes at a power conference team that may have some holes on their roster. Regardless, Pride will be transferring up and would be a valuable addition to a vast majority of rosters.

Below, we break down Pride’s recruitment, his game, and how he’d theoretically fit on the Providence roster.

Kim English is swinging for the fences in his first season as Providence College Head Coach. It leaked out this past weekend that 2024 Top 50 Somto Cyril of Overtime Elite (originally from Nigeria) will be taking an official visit to Providence April 25th – 27th. Cyril, a 7 foot 240lb mountain of a man, is a 2024 recruit, but does graduate in May. There are rumors that he may reclassify to 2023 class, which would make a lot of sense given that Providence’s exclusive gap to the 2023-2024 roster is a true 5 man that can play above the rim offensively and protect the basket defensively.

If Providence can somehow land Cyril (either for the 2024 or 2023 class), they land an immensely athletic and talented big that I personally haven’t seen on this Friar roster since I started following them in 2007. He’s that much of a unicorn of a big man, and Providence fans shouldn’t overlook how crucial it is for Kim English to even get a big man of this caliber on campus.

Below, we break down Somto Cyril’s recruitment, his game, and how he’d fit on the Providence roster.

Richard “Bull” Barron has followed Kim English to Providence. Barron, originally a George Mason commitment, got out of his National Letter of Intent and made his intentions clear on playing at PC shortly thereafter. Barron joins Donovan Santoro in the 2023 recruiting class.

What is the Providence program getting in Barron? We discuss his game and how he fits within the Friar program.

Kim English is bringing a few friends with him to Friartown. On Saturday Davonte “Ticket” Gaines became the third George Mason player to find his way to Friartown via the transfer portal. Gaines originally started his career at Tennessee, where Kim English was an assistant, and spent his last two seasons in Fairfax.

Kim English is looking to load this Providence roster up with high end talent to make a push for a Big East crown in 2023-2024. The Cal Baptist product, originally from Tasmania, Australia, hit the transfer portal earlier in the offseason and has been the crown jewel of most “transfer portal rankings”, routinely listed in the Top 5 of transfer talents. With the revealing of Armstrong’s Final 4 choices of potential destinations including Creighton, Xavier, Gonzaga, and Providence, PC is making a push to further augment the backcourt.

Below, we discuss Armstrong’s game, how he would fit on the Providence roster, and what landing him would mean for the Friars.