Carson Crawford, a 2027 wing from Florida, has set up a fall visit with Providence for October 19th. The product from Fleming Island high school, adjacent to Jacksonville, is a 4 star wing. 247 has him as 69th overall, while the 247 Composite has him ranked slightly better at 54th overall.
Crawford will be pursued by a plethora of ACC and SEC schools. Providence is currently competing with the likes of Florida State, Georgia, and Ole Miss, and I’m certain other southeastern schools will jump into the mix for the Top 75 wing.
We profile his game and recruitment below.
Career to Date
Crawford is building quite a historic reputation in Northeast Florida and particularly the Jacksonville community. This past year he had a record 50 point scoring output that caught the eyes of the locals, setting a high school record for points scored.
This Jacksonville region is an area that has produced high end D1 talent like Patric Young and Grayson Allen, to name a few.
Crawford has been transparent about his dream school of playing for the hometown state school Florida Gators. It seems that if Florida offers, he will be theirs to lose, but Todd Golden is building quite a juggernaut in Gainesville, and they may overlook a high school recruit that isn’t a Top 10-25 recruit. That sounds outlandish to say that a team may turn away a Top 75 recruit, but that is often the case with these blue blood, Top 5 programs. Hopefully Providence can be the beneficiary.
Play Style
Crawford is an above the rim athlete at 6’7. He not only has the leaping ability, but he has the length and size to go along with it. Crawford has been clear about wanting to make the NBA, and his body type is a perfect fit for the positionless modern NBA wing.
With Crawford’s size and leaping ability, he is a plus rebounder from the wing. Mike mentioned during his Day in the Life Camp that Hodgson and staff want 4 rebounders on the glass offensively. Crawford would seem to be a good fit for this playstyle.
On top of his rebounding prowess is a guy who doesn’t mind operating offensively in the post. Sometimes you get these twitchy wings who only want to play at the perimeter in a half court set and then dunk in transition. Crawford doesn’t mind generating offense off the glass and using his athleticism and size to score with hook shots and put backs in the post.
AAU Success
Crawford is playing for the Florida Rebels on the EYBL circuit. They are a really strong AAU team with a few other Friar recruits in Cayden Daughtry and Oneal Delancy. While playing for the Rebels, he’s shooting 36.4% from deep, averaging 11.5 points per game, and 8.4 rebounds. That 36% from deep isn’t an anomaly from the tape I’ve watched. He has a smooth stroke and appears to be able to score at all three levels.
Summary
Hodgson has ties to the southeast recruiting region due to his time at Alabama, Arkansas State, and USF, and he is clearly making that an area of emphasis with his 2027 offers. It feels like every other offer in this class is to a Florida recruit. I looked up the 10 best players in Florida for the 2027 class, and Providence has offered 5 of the 10. We’ll see if his recruiting ties can bring a few players from the Sunshine State up to Friartown. A strong first year at Providence will do wonders for Hodgson’s ability to land elite talent regardless of where they play high school basketball.
We’ll keep everybody up to date on all things recruiting. Go Friars!