Jayden Epps announced Monday afternoon that he pledged to Ed Cooley and the Providence Friars. Epps is a 6-1 combo guard out of Virginia and can really score the basketball. Jayden picked PC over the other finalists NC State and Florida. There are also rumblings he could reclassify and join the squad for this upcoming season, which is a massive development given the recent departures of Monroe, Gantt, and Nichols. With the Friars having three players transfer out of the program over the past 2 weeks, Cooley was quick to restock the cupboard. He certainly did with Jayden Epps.
Friar Fit/Game Analysis
Epps is great at beating his man off the dribble and then is a very crafty and creative finisher at the rim. The ability to take his man 1 on 1 and win is something that this past Friars team didn’t have enough of. Epps isn’t known as a great shooter but it is something he made mention he had been working on when discussing his potential schools.
If you watch the second video the work seems to have paid off as he has a ton of confidence shooting from deep. He appears poised to be a dynamite scorer at the college level and if you look at some of the teams that won multiple games this NCAA Tournament guard play has been at a premium.
Player Comparison
Providence: Bryce Cotton
Commitment Impact
This is just a big way for the Friars to kick off the offseason with a guy they can develop to be a very productive player. Don’t discount the fact that this Cooley landing his Plan A recruit, something he hasn’t done since he landed Greg Gantt several years ago. On top of this, Epps is just an absolute stud of a recruit and nationally ranked player. 247 has him as the 64th player nationally, while Rivals has him at 106 nationally. This is one of the more highly ranked players in the Cooley era, and Cooley and the staff should be applauded for landing a player of this caliber.
What’s Next
It will be interesting to see where the Friars go from here, as they are certainly not done with adding players. From a high school recruiting standpoint Friar fans will now turn their attention to Bobby Pettiford. He’s another explosive guard that may be more in the pass first mindset than Epps. This means they can pair nicely alongside each other.
Also, look for PC to at least add another player via the Transfer market, something they’ve done each of the last 3 seasons. We are targeting them adding a 3 and D wing or a pure shooter.
Conclusion
It is not every day Providence lands a 4 star recruit. Today was a massive day for the Friars, and everybody should be extremely excited to have Jayden Epps in the mix moving forward. This is the type of guy that ups the talent level on the roster and continues to keep Providence in the upper echelon of the Big East.
The Providence program has arisen from the low points of the season end and have a ton of positive momentum with this commitment and the return of Horchler and Watson.
Great recruit to start with..welcome Jayden to the friars family