The pursuit for a 2026 high school point guard to succeed Daquan Davis marches on. Providence was in hot pursuit of Amir Jenkins before Jenkins reclassified to the 2025 class and committed to West Virginia. There was legitimate interest in New York guard Jermel Thomas initially, but Thomas ended up landing with St. Louis. I got the sense of recent (and this is strictly my opinion) that the interest in Thomas subsided due to the emergence of another 2026 guard that Providence began to hone in on as “their guy”.
That guy is Ryan Moesch.
The crafty 6 foot point guard from New York, who plays for Cushing Academy and Middlesex Magic, burst onto the scene this summer with eye opening performances and statistics. While his AAU performances have made him more of a national recruit, he has been a scoring dynamo his entire high school career.
Moesch is planning on visiting Providence on August 30th, and most Friar fans are hoping Moesch becomes the first 2026 high school commitment. For those who don’t know Moesch’s game, this article will serve as a means to become familiar with his game and what he’d bring to the Friar program.
Moesch Recruitment and Rankings
Despite Kim English landing multiple Top 50-75 nationally ranked recruits in his short time at Providence, I still think Providence is the type of school and program that needs to “get in early” before a recruit blows up nationally. That is why I am so bullish on the chances Providence has with Moesch. The Friars are his first high major offer, and I’m hopefully Moesch commits to Providence before a plethora of high major schools see the vision of what Moesch can be for their program.
Moesch’s offers don’t reflect his ranking and skillset. The way Moesch is talked about is almost like a “Rudy-esque” figure, a try hard point guard maximizing his potential. In reality, Moesch is a 4 star, Top 150 nationally ranked player and considered a Top 15 point guard in the nation for his class. The 247 Composite Rankings has him as the 12th overall point guard in the nation. For reference, Anthony Brown is 14, Jermel Thomas is 24.
This kid is a blue chip recruit, but the offer list doesn’t reflect that, which I’m happy about in this instance. The competition for Providence right now appears to be Siena and a slew of A10 schools. I’m a bit shocked other schools haven’t jumped in. For instance, Moesch grew up in the shadow of Syracuse’s campus. Them not offering a local kid is a bit of a headscratcher, especially with his resume, but I’m not complaining.
Marquette is another obvious school to throw out there for the Tyler Kolek comparison. You don’t have to squint hard to see the similarities. Beyond being pass first points who can orchestrate an offense with ease, Kolek also played for the Middlesex Magic.
This is all to say I applaud Providence for not hesitating on pulling the trigger on an offer. For all the hand-wringing about Kim English last year, I think his eye for prep talent is off the charts. This is the same guy that offered and landed Ryan Mela and Rich Barron, two recruits without many other high majors pursuing them. They ended up being All-Freshman in the Big East. English can spot talent, so he has the benefit of the doubt in my eyes even if other high majors aren’t knocking down Moesch’s door.
Playing at Cushing Academy now is a “win” for Providence, as the staff can see him more, he can more frequently attend home games at the AMP, etc. If he were to have stayed in upstate New York, I’d imagine he’d explode his senior year and Cuse would come calling with an offer. Never say never, but their window of opportunity to land the hometown kid may be shutting.
Analyzing Moesch’s Game
Providence hasn’t had a pure point since Kyron Cartwright, and I’m looking forward to potentially having a table setter for the rest of the roster. Despite what Pitino says, there are still true point guards needed in this game, and Moesch is one of them. We saw too many times over the past two years an inability for somebody to effectively run English’s offense, and I’m hopeful that Moesch is the remedy to that. Even heading into this year, there are concerns with how the offense will perform without a “true point”. Providence has scoring guards that can play the point, but I don’t think you can necessarily label somebody on the current roster whose best asset is being the lead guard and distributing to his teammates. That is why Moesch would be a valuable addition because he’d bring something to this roster that it currently lacks.
There are drawbacks to Moesch’s game. He lacks the ideal height and build to play in the Big East. He’s undersized, simply put. Defensively, he’ll probably get picked on in half court sets by bigger guards, but you hope that your coaching staff can scheme around. The positives that Moesch brings on the offensive end outweigh any negatives on the defensive end.
Moesch coming in and learning under Davis will be good for him. Davis is a defensive pest and will force Moesch to hone his craft as a pure point.
While Moesch doesn’t have the ideal size and measurables, he makes up for it with craftiness and the ability to manipulate pace of play. He can shift gears when handling the rock, which keeps his defender uneasy because the tempo shifts he exhibits are such a rare trait. He also has found creative ways to finish at the rim, which shows self-awareness when it comes to lacking the size to play above the rim and challenge his opponents. Having a bag of unorthodox finishes at the rim is a necessity if he wants to be an effective guard at the Big East level.
Moesch is incredibly effective in the half-court pick and roll setting, where he can find his big rim running to the hoop or suck the defense into the paint and kick out for an open 3. He doesn’t seem to panic under pressure, which is a necessity when operating in tight quarters from the three point line in. Davis will also help Moesch improve this skillset in practice, as the on-ball defense is honestly probably Daquan’s best basketball trait to date. Iron sharpens iron.
Moesch is an effective shooter from deep and elite scorer, obviously another prerequisite for the English offense. If he can be a 35-40% three point shooter at the collegiate level, while maintaining his ball-handling abilities, he really becomes a complete threat on the offensive end as the defender has to honor his ability to knock it down from deep.
Summary
Providence has a lot going for it in this recruitment. As of this writing, and with a visit looming next weekend, you’d have to think Providence is squarely in the driver’s seat to win Moesch’s commitment. Moesch plays for an AAU program that produced Ryan Mela. Cushing Academy has historic ties to Providence. Most important, Providence is the highest major offer Moesch currently has, and the appeal of a New York kid playing in the Big East has to be there.
Things can pivot quickly (see Amir Jenkins and West Virginia), but I’m hoping that Providence puts the full court press on Moesch to be the first commitment of the 2026 class, and the point guard of the future for the Friars.
Go Friars.
Providence Recruiting Articles
Crier Recruiting Corner – Introducing 2026 F Quinn Costello – https://theprovidencecrier.com/2025/06/24/crier-recruiting-corner-introducing-2026-f-quinn-costello/
2027 High School Recruiting Primer, Version 2 – https://theprovidencecrier.com/2025/06/17/2027-high-school-recruiting-primer-version-1-0/
Crier Recruiting Corner – Introducing 2026 F Alex Egbuonu – https://theprovidencecrier.com/2025/06/25/crier-recruiting-corner-26-f-alex-egbuonu/
Peteris Pinnis Commits to Providence: https://theprovidencecrier.com/2025/05/13/friars-add-latvian-big-pinnis-to-2024-2025/
Duncan Powell Flips to Providence: https://theprovidencecrier.com/2025/04/21/duncan-powell-flips-commitment-from-georgetown-to-providence/
Jaylin Sellers Commits to Providence: https://theprovidencecrier.com/2025/04/05/friars-end-historic-day-by-landing-ucf-guard-jaylin-sellers/
Jason Edwards Commits to Providence: https://theprovidencecrier.com/2025/04/04/friars-land-talented-vanderbilt-guard-jason-edwards/
Stefan Vaaks Commits to Providence: https://theprovidencecrier.com/2025/04/04/friars-recruiting-overseas-best-kept-international-secret-stefan-vaaks-joins-the-friars-for-2025-season/
Crier Recruiting Corner: Jason Edwards:https://theprovidencecrier.com/2025/04/04/crier-recruiting-corner-introducing-vanderbilt-guard-jason-edwards/
Daquan Davis Commits to Providence:https://theprovidencecrier.com/2025/04/02/second-time-is-the-charm-one-time-friar-commit-daquan-davis-transfers-to-providence/
Crier Recruiting Corner – Introducing Cole Hargrove: https://theprovidencecrier.com/2025/04/01/crier-recruiting-corner-introducing-drexel-forward-cole-hargrove/
Retention Attention: https://theprovidencecrier.com/2025/03/22/retention-attention-whos-in-whos-out-in-providence/
What Went Wrong 2024-2025 Season: https://theprovidencecrier.com/2025/03/12/what-went-wrong-this-season/
Crier Recruiting Corner: Abdou Toure: https://theprovidencecrier.com/2025/03/03/crier-recruiting-corner-introducing-2026-connecticut-wing-abdou-toure/