Time to recap the week that was in Friartown:
Bensley Joseph Decision this Upcoming Monday
Yesterday it was announced Providence point guard target Bensley Joseph would be making his decision this upcoming Monday July 27th at noon. I never felt great about this considering it was clear he was our backup plan considering we had the virtual visit the day that Bobby Pettiford chose Louisville over us. Going into the weekend I really don’t think the Friars have a shot at landing him. Another local Friar recruit and now BC commit Gianni Thompson is pitching him hard to Chestnut Hill, while there seems to be momentum for him to land at Miami. I found it ironic that Joseph’s top 5 schools are all teams that have been in the Big East, unfortunately it appears he will choose a school that is no longer in the conference.
247’s Crystal Balls Continues to Hate the Friars
If you aren’t following along the website 247 sports does what’s called a crystal ball, where writers will predict the destinations for hoops and football recruits. Over the years the Crystal Ball hasn’t been so kind to the Friars and that continued this week. Mentioned that Miami has a lot of momentum to land Bensley Joseph, thats because I’ve seen several crystal ball predictions with high confidence he will land there. Another person that ended up on there frequently this week was Friar target Eric Van Der Heijden and the school of all places was Louisville. Several writers including Jerry Meyer (director of recruiting at 247) have high confidence that EVDH will land at Louisville. It would be a real gut punch if Chris Mack were to land 3 guys that the Friars were heavily involved in. The good news is EVDH doesn’t appear yet at this point to be in decision mode so there is still time for the Friars to close the deal. Also Crystal Balls aren’t the end all be all, remember David Duke’s predicted destination was VA Tech. So while it isn’t set in stone it appears the Friars will continue to strike out on the recruiting trail.
247’s Updating Rankings for Class of 2022
Earlier in the week BOC wrote about 247’s update to the class of 2022 and which targets the Friars have identified.
https://theprovidencecrier.com/2020/07/23/updated-247-rankings-class-of-2022-a-northeast-feel/
I’m pretty shocked from watching Corey Floyd Jr tape he dropped to #101 in the rankings but it could be a blessing in disguise. For starters the class of 2022 has been viewed by many to be much stronger than 2021 or 2020. Also the fact he isn’t rated as high as some Roselle Catholic players in the past the Friars will probably have a legit shot at him.
The recruitment battle for 2022 big man Donovan Clingan should be intense between PC and UConn. If you haven’t heard the story about the big man from Bristol, CT take a read.
It seems safe to assume Clingan will want to play close to home so he can continue to be close to his family. PC and UConn have already been in contact with him and the stars are aligning for this to be a two team race. When PC lost Akok Akok to UConn it didn’t seem like a big loss because he enrolled early, they were in the American and now he’s coming off a ruptured achilles. However make no mistake the loser in the pursuit for Donovan Clingan will have to face him at least twice a year for the years to come.
-The Crier