New Big Man Transfer? Friars Reach Out to Ben Stanley

Back in the end of May Providence held their first ever Season Ticket Holder Virtual Town Hall. They had assistant coaches Jeff Battle and Bob Walsh field questions on recruiting to PC and what they look for in basketball players. As a member of Section 234 Row N it was a no brainer that I was going to attend. It was really a cool night to get a peak behind the curtain and have these guys answer recruiting questions from the fans. A phenomenal question was posed by yours truly to the guys.

What are we going to do with the last scholarship? Are we going to get a guy for this year or save it for the next recruiting class? Well about a little over a month later we may have our answer.

Hampton University forward Ben Stanley shocked the HBCU sports scene when he put his name in the transfer portal Tuesday night. The rising junior big man averaged 22 ppg, 7.4 rpg and 1.5 blocks per contest. Stanley was considered the best returning HBCU player and possibly the top returning player from the Big South Conference. Ed Cooley likes to get on transfers quickly so it was no surprise that the Friars were one of the first teams to reach out to Stanley.

I am all for the Friars using their open scholarship for 2020-2021 to land this guy. At 6-6 he may be undersized for a big man but he makes up for it as he is built like a house. He reminds me of a Craig Smith or DaJuan Blair type player. I saw one tweet out there that said he was “bulldozer in the paint”… sign me up for that!

It also makes total sense for the Friars too. Ed Croswell is the only returning traditional big man after Watson and Horchler graduate. Pairing both of them together would be fantastic.

One of my most trusted reporters on the CBB scene is Paul Biancardi. Here is what he had to say about Stanley.

As you can see the competition is fierce with the teams who are already involved with the Hampton big man. With a guy entering the transfer portal this late with this much productivity you know the big boys are going to jump in. However this seems like a no brainer for the Friars and would be a massive recruiting win for Ed and staff. Hampton also now has Dajour Dickens, who transferred there from Old Dominion after his brief stint in Friartown, so it would only be fair if they gave us Ben Stanley in return.

-The Crier

EXTRA

I’d be remiss to just end my article without giving you all some tape on Ben Stanley so here it is!