In the first iteration of this article, I compared the 2024-2025 Friar roster to past Friar rosters under Cooley and English. You can see that below, and it painted a rosy picture for the 2024-2025 season until injuries and players holding themselves out derailed the entire season.
The next question: How far is PC from the apex of the mountain? That is the goal for all coaches, so I wanted to see just how far Providence is from a roster construction that reflects a championship roster from the point of view of recruiting rankings.
Providence isn’t as far off as many would like you to believe…
Methodology
I used the 247 Composite Ranking, which weights and blends the rankings of 247, Rivals, and ESPN (for those that don’t follow recruiting, these three companies each have their own individual recruiting rankings). By averaging the rankings, it takes a consensus view on a player from the industry. This increases the likelihood that recruiting services won’t misevaluate or “miss” on a player. This occurrence will still inevitably happen, but the Composite is a good way to find the industry view of a player from several different sources.
If a player wasn’t ranked, I gave them an objective 400 overall individual ranking and 2 star.
Additionally, the recruiting services have gotten much better at ranking international players, but there were a few players that came from overseas that didn’t have a ranking. I ranked those players as 400 and 2 stars as well for objectivity.
For those that don’t follow recruiting, the more stars that you have, with 5 being the highest, means you are a more highly ranked recruit. 5 stars are ranked higher than 4, 4 higher than 3, etc.
Lastly, I chose the last 8 champions somewhat arbitrarily, but wanted to reflect the beginning of Villanova’s dynasty run. If there is a program that PC wants to replicate and could potentially mimic, it would be the Jay Wright era Wildcats.
Providence 2024-2025 Roster
| Player | 247 Composite Ranking | # 0f Stars |
| Bensley Joseph | 106 | 4 |
| Jayden Pierre | 139 | 3 |
| Ryan Mela | 229 | 3 |
| Wesley Cardet Jr. | 108 | 4 |
| Justyn Fernandez | 150 | 3 |
| Rich Barron | 400 | 2 |
| Jabri Abdur Rahim | 38 | 4 |
| Corey Floyd Jr | 93 | 4 |
| Anton Bonke | 400 | 2 |
| Bryce Hopkins | 39 | 4 |
| Christ Essandoko | 223 | 3 |
| Eli DeLaurier | 216 | 3 |
| Oswin Erhunmwunse | 92 | 4 |
| AVERAGE | 171.77 | 3.31 |
| Top 100 Recruits | 4 | |
| Top 50 Recruits | 2 | |
| Average Team Ranking of Last 8 Champions | 137.76 | |
| Average Top 100 Recruits Per Roster for Last 8 Champions | 7 | |
| Average Top 50 Recruits Per Roster for Last 8 Champions | 2.25 |
As you can see in Part 1 of this feature series, this year’s team compares very favorably to past Friar squads. How do they compare to the cream of the crop? That depends on your perspective.
On one hand, Providence seems to be close to the average of Top 50 recruits on national championship rosters at 2 versus 2.25. That is splitting hairs. When you have this type of elite talent on your roster, it gives you the opportunity to make a run.
On the other hand, Providence falls short because it doesn’t have the depth that these other champions have. Providence has 4 Top 100 recruits on its roster, which is fantastic when comparing to other Providence squads. English and staff aren’t looking at past Friar squads, however. They want to get to the Sweet 16 and beyond. This is where the roster still needs some augmentation.
To match up against past champions, Providence would need to add about 3 more Top 100 players on this year’s roster. It shows that, while English has improved the talent on this roster, he probably needs to lift the overall quality of player brought into the program.
If you recall the Sweet 16 loss against Kansas, it was bench player Remy Martin who made the biggest impact. That bench player was ranked 84 overall in his respective class. Mitch Lightfoot came in off the bench and had 4 blocks. His ranking? 116 overall. The other bench player who got time for them? 37 overall Jalen Coleman Lands. All five of their starters were 4 star recruits as well. When you can throw waves of high end players at a team that doesn’t have that same talent level, talent will eventually prevail as the game progresses.
What this shows is that the more Top 100 players you accumulate, the less you need to rely on every single one of these players to “hit” coming out of high school. You can afford to miss on a recruit if you have 5-10 Top 100 players on your roster year in and out. If you only have 3-5 Top 100 players, you cross your fingers that every player is a success the moment they step on campus, which isn’t realistic.
Providence’s average team ranking of 171.77 is actually comparable to other NCAA champions. It has a better (lower) ranking than the following NCAA champions over the past 8 years: 2022-2023 Connecticut and 2019 Virginia. Providence pretty much has the same exact ranking as 2021 Baylor. The difference for Connecticut, Virginia, and Baylor is the number of Top 100 recruits: 7, 6, 6, respectively.
Hurley took some fliers on international players, and he can do that because the floor of the program was so high with the amount of blue chip recruits. Providence should be encouraged by having a better average recruiting ranking than Connecticut and Virginia, but the lack of Top 100 talent doesn’t give them the wiggle room that other championship programs have.
When factoring in the 8 champions, the average recruiting ranking by team is 137.76, meaning the Friars are about 34 ranking spots away from the average. Providence isn’t far off, but has work to do. It is not so much landing elite players (which English has proven he can do), but rounding out the roster with high end talent across the board (13 dudes!). The most promising thing from this past offseason is that English seems to understand this.
Connecticut 2023 – 2024 Roster
| Player | 247 Composite | # of Stars |
| Tristen Newton | 400 | 2 |
| Hassan Diarra | 82 | 4 |
| Stephon Castle | 10 | 5 |
| Alex Karraban | 95 | 4 |
| Cam Spencer | 400 | 2 |
| Donovan Clingan | 56 | 4 |
| Samson Johnson | 57 | 4 |
| Solomon Ball | 45 | 4 |
| Jaylin Stewart | 66 | 4 |
| Jayden Ross | 81 | 4 |
| Apostolos Roumoglou | 400 | 2 |
| Youssouf Singare | 143 | 3 |
| AVERAGE | 152.92 | 3.5 |
| Top 100 Players | 8 | |
| Top 50 Players | 2 |
Connecticut pounced on the 2023 national championship and brought in a five star in Castle, 3 four star freshman, and one developmental three star. That is how you re-load a roster and continue to be a Top 10 program nationally. Hurley, in my opinion, has perfected recruiting in the portal era more than any other college coach, combining high end high school talent with elite transfer players who fit the Hurley culture.
After this back-to-back national championship, Hurley brought in via the 2024 high school recruiting class another five star and two four stars. Hurley has this thing rolling, and I love his hybrid approaching to roster building primarily via high school and filling any remaining roster gaps through the portal. To me, that is the best way to build an elite program rather than building the majority of your roster through the portal or exclusively relying on high school recruits.
Connecticut 2022-2023 Roster
| Player | 247 Composite | # of Stars |
| Tristen Newton | 400 | 2 |
| Joey Calcaterra | 428 | 2 |
| Naheim Alleyne | 366 | 3 |
| Hassan Diarra | 82 | 4 |
| Alex Karraban | 95 | 4 |
| Richie Springs | 159 | 3 |
| Adama Sanogo | 85 | 4 |
| Jordan Hawkins | 51 | 4 |
| Donovan Clingan | 56 | 4 |
| Samson Johnson | 57 | 4 |
| Andre Jackson Jr. | 53 | 4 |
| Apostolos Roumoglou | 400 | 2 |
| Yarrin Hasson | 400 | 2 |
| AVERAGE | 202.46 | 323 |
| Top 100 Recruits | 7 | |
| Top 50 Recruits | 0 |
Connecticut’s roster should give Providence a lot of hope for a variety of reasons. For one, Providence has a more highly ranked roster. That’s a great starting point. Secondly, Providence has more Top 50 recruits 2 to 0.
The difference is the number of Top 100 recruits, first off, and then the caliber of players that were starting. While the average for Connecticut’s roster as a whole is higher than Providence’s, Connecticut’s average star ranking in the starting line-up was 136.8. PC’s average star ranking in this past year’s starting line-up is 176.
In short, PC isn’t far off. Connecticut shows that you don’t need to consistently land elite Top 25, one and done talent to win a natty. Connecticut’s core was Top 50 – 150 players that may not have been good enough to leave for the NBA after one year, but spent two to three years in college developing before being ready for the professionals. They bought into the culture Hurley developed and bided their time awaiting their opportunity. This goes back to my original point on having a set in stone culture at your program where players enroll with eyes wide open.
The blueprint for national champions is getting these Top 100 recruits and convincing them to stay patient and develop in college. By the time they have spent a few years in college, they have developed physically and have translated that raw talent coming out of high school into production. We saw that with legitimately every single national champion over the past seven years (Villanova under Wright was the gold standard for this). One and done’s are great, sure, but very rarely are national champions built around one and done talent.
Kansas 2021-2022 Roster
| Player | 247 Composite Ranking | # of Stars |
| Bobby Pettiford Jr. | 96 | 4 |
| Joseph Yesufu | 400 | 2 |
| Christian Braun | 127 | 4 |
| Dajuan Harris Jr. | 94 | 4 |
| Kyle Cuffe Jr. | 117 | 4 |
| Jalen Wilson | 53 | 4 |
| Remy Martin | 84 | 4 |
| Zach Clemence | 50 | 4 |
| KJ Adams Jr. | 75 | 4 |
| Ochai Abaji | 139 | 4 |
| David McCormack | 36 | 4 |
| Mitch Lightfoot | 116 | 4 |
| Jalen Coleman-Lands | 37 | 4 |
| AVERAGE | 109.54 | 3.85 |
| Top 100 Recruits | 8 | |
| Top 50 Recruits | 3 |
Providence fans know this team all too well. Both teams were playing extremely well, and the depth of the Jayhawks won out in the second half.
The reason it is so important to accumulate top end talent is because even Top 100 players don’t all hit. The following players in the Top 100, for one reason or another, never lived up to their ranking at Kansas: Zach Clemence, Bobby Pettiford Jr. When you have 5 other Top 100 players, you can afford to “miss”. That’s the point I’m trying to get across.
Baylor 2020 – 2021 Roster
| Player | 247 Composite Ranking | # of Stars |
| Flo Thamba | 244 | 3 |
| LJ Cryer | 100 | 4 |
| Jordan Turner | 154 | 3 |
| Adam Flagler | 400 | 2 |
| Mark Vital | 89 | 4 |
| Jared Butler | 97 | 4 |
| Matthew Mayer | 93 | 4 |
| MaCio Teague | 400 | 2 |
| Davion Mitchell | 58 | 4 |
| Zach Loveday | 161 | 3 |
| Dain Dainja | 91 | 4 |
| Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua | 400 | 2 |
| AVERAGE | 190.58 | 3.25 |
| Top 100 Recruit | 6 | |
| Top 50 Recruit | 0 |
This team is an outlier amongst the last 7 national champions. The last 7 national champions averaged just a shade over 1 transfer starter/team. The theme over the last 7 teams was the core of the roster was homegrown with transfers serving as gap fillers for any holes in the roster. Baylor is the outlier at 3 transfer starters. It shows that there is more than one way to skin a cat. I think we’ll see more national championship teams have more transfer starters as the years progress due to the prevalence of the transfer portal, but that is still to be determined.
Providence compares favorably with 2 Top 50 recruits versus Baylor’s 0; however, Baylor has more Top 100 recruits and an overall better ranked roster.
Virginia 2018 – 2019 Roster
| Player | 247 Composite Ranking | # of Stars |
| Kihei Clark | 378 | 3 |
| Braxton Key | 66 | 4 |
| Kyle Guy | 38 | 4 |
| Ty Jerome | 48 | 4 |
| Deandre Hunter | 87 | 4 |
| Kody Stattman | 344 | 3 |
| Marco Anthony | 251 | 3 |
| Mamadi Diakate | 37 | 4 |
| Jay Huff | 65 | 4 |
| Jack Salt | 299 | 3 |
| Franchesco Baddochi | 311 | 3 |
| Francisco Caffaro | 148 | 4 |
| AVERAGE | 172.67 | 3.58 |
| Top 100 Recruits | 6 | |
| Top 50 Recruits | 3 |
The premise around this team is that it was an overachieving squad whose sum was greater than the individual parts. That may be due to Virginia’s loss to a 16 seed the year prior, Virginia being a highly academic school first and foremost, etc.
The reality is that this team had a bunch of KILLERS on its team from a rankings perspective. The rankings back that up. What helped push this team over the top was that a lot of these highly ranked recruits decided to hang around Virginia for a couple years rather than bolting prematurely to the NBA. That seems to be a theme with these championship squads.
Villanova 2017 – 2018 Roster
| Player | 247 Composite | # of Stars |
| Jalen Brunson | 23 | 4 |
| Colin Gillespie | 207 | 3 |
| Eric Paschall | 210 | 3 |
| Phil Booth | 75 | 4 |
| Donte DiVencenzo | 120 | 4 |
| Omari Spellman | 19 | 4 |
| Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree | 100 | 4 |
| Jermaine Samuels | 46 | 4 |
| Mikal Bridges | 86 | 4 |
| Tim Delaney | 186 | 3 |
| Dylan Painter | 158 | 3 |
| AVERAGE | 111.82 | 3.64 |
| Top 100 Recruits | 5 | |
| Top 50 Recruits | 3 |
North Carolina 2016 – 2017 Roster
| Player | 247 Composite | # of Stars |
| Nate Britt | 118 | 4 |
| Theo Pinson | 15 | 5 |
| Kennedy Meeks | 58 | 4 |
| Justin Jackson | 9 | 5 |
| Isaiah Hicks | 16 | 5 |
| Joel Berry | 30 | 4 |
| Tony Bradley | 26 | 4 |
| Brandon Robinson | 58 | 4 |
| Seventh Woods | 46 | 4 |
| Kenny Williams | 92 | 4 |
| Luke Maye | 161 | 3 |
| AVERAGE | 57.18 | 4.09 |
| Top 100 Recruits | 9 | |
| Top 50 Recruits | 5 | |
This team blows all other national champions away (from this sample set of 7 champions) when it comes to Top 100 Recruits, Top 50 Recruits, and Average Ranking. The upside to the transfer portal and waiver to play immediately for smaller schools like Providence is that you won’t see these Goliaths as frequently as you previously did. The reasoning for that is because kids now are less inclined to bide their time and can transfer and play instantaneously. I personally hate this development, as I like seeing a player come in raw as a freshman and gradually develop at one school over the years, but it has no doubt benefited Providence.
Villanova 2015 – 2016 Roster
| Player | 247 Composite | # of Players |
| Jalen Brunson | 23 | 4 |
| Kris Jenkins | 76 | 4 |
| Josh Hart | 78 | 4 |
| Eric Paschall | 210 | 3 |
| Phil Booth | 75 | 4 |
| Donte DiVencenzo | 120 | 4 |
| Ryan Arcidiacano | 63 | 4 |
| Daniel Ochefu | 48 | 4 |
| Mikal Bridges | 86 | 4 |
| Tim Delaney | 186 | 3 |
| Darryl Reynolds | 360 | 2 |
| AVERAGE | 120.45 | 3.64 |
| Top 100 Recruits | 7 | |
| Top 50 Recruits | 2 |
SUMMARY
When I started out on this exercise, I thought to myself, “This Providence team has a lot of highly ranked recruits. How do they compare to other PC squads?”. That led to Part 1. Part 2 (this article) is a progression off that to see how close Providence is from the apex.
I think English is going to build something special here off the foundation Cooley laid, and I believe his recruiting efforts are a primary reason why. He knows the importance of landing caliber recruits and is making a huge effort to bring these folks in. If he lands one or two of these Top 50 recruits to pair with some of the talent already in place, it is how he levels up Providence to a place many Friar fans haven’t seen in quite some time.
As shown in this study above, Providence isn’t that far off.
Providence Crier Recruiting Articles
Crier Recruiting Corner – Introducing 2025 Center Oswin Erhunmwunse – https://theprovidencecrier.com/2023/12/03/crier-recruiting-corner-introducing-2025-big-oswin-erhunmwunse/
Recruiting Rankings Matter, Part 1: https://theprovidencecrier.com/2023/11/29/the-providence-crier-recruiting-feature-recruiting-rankings-matter-part-1/
Rankings Do Matter: Analyzing the Final Four Rosters by Recruiting Rankings – https://theprovidencecrier.com/2021/04/03/stars-in-fact-do-matter-analyzing-the-final-4-rosters-relative-to-recruiting-rankings/
2025 Recruiting Primer, Version 3.0 – https://theprovidencecrier.com/2023/04/30/2025-providence-college-high-school-recruiting-primer-version-1-0/
2024 Recruiting Primer, Version 8.0 – https://theprovidencecrier.com/2023/03/27/providence-college-basketball-recruiting-class-of-2024/
2024 Luke Bamgboye – https://theprovidencecrier.com/2023/09/18/crier-recruiting-corner-introducing-2024-big-man-luke-bamgboye/
Eli DeLaurier Commits to Providence & Reclassifies – https://theprovidencecrier.com/2023/09/06/eli-delaurier-reclassifies-and-joins-friars-for-upcoming-season/
Ryan Mela Commits to Providence – https://theprovidencecrier.com/2023/08/01/friars-add-3-star-wing-ryan-mela-to-2024-recruiting-class/
3 thoughts on “Recruiting Rankings Matter, Part 2: How Far is the Roster Talent from Championship Quality?”