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City 6: 2019 Recruiting Needs

07/09/2018, 11:45am EDT
By Josh Verlin

Steve Donahue (above) is ahead of the curve for 2019 compared to his City 6 peers. (Photo: Mark Jordan/CoBL)

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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The July live recruiting periods -- three five-day stretches of AAU tournaments and camps where Division I coaches can attend and scout -- that occur over the next three weeks are the last opportunity for D-I coaches to recruit en masse for the rising senior class. It’s a time when coaches make clear their top priorities but still look for hidden gems, both in the rising junior and senior classes.

Here’s a look at what each team could still use for next fall, based on their current and projected roster situation:

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Drexel Dragons
Seniors:
Troy Harper, Trevor John
2019 Commitments: None
Available scholarships: 2
Biggest Need(s): Scoring wing.
Potential Targets: Tariq Ingraham (PF/Bonner-Prendergast, Pa.), Jack Forrest (SG/Lower Merion, Pa.)

Breakdown: The Drexel roster has changed drastically for head coach Zach Spiker over the last 12 months, with five new faces on board for 2018-19, including three freshmen, a JUCO transfer and a graduate transfer, and five members of last year’s rotation -- including two of the top three scorers -- either graduating or transferring out. And though the new faces have impressive resumés, they’re still somewhat unknown quantities at this level of competition. Like Zach Walton, a 6-6 junior guard out of Edmonds (Wash.) CC, who averaged 20.8 ppg and 9.4 rpg for the Tritons last year. Or freshman like Coletrane Washington, a first team Class 4A selection out of Quaker Valley High School in the western side of the Keystone State, and Camren Wynter, a 6-2 guard who averaged 14.3 ppg and 6.1 apg during a prep year at DME Academy (Fla.).

The good news is, from a rotation standpoint, the Dragons have depth at every position. Junior point guard Kurk Lee Jr. is only entering his junior season, and both Wynter and fellow freshman Matey Juric (Lake Forest Ac., Ill.) were on-ball guards in high school who will look to spell Lee this season and next. Walton and redshirt sophomore Sam Green are both 6-6 on the wing, while up front redshirt sophomore/now-eligible Navy transfer James Butler (6-8) joins a young frontcourt that also includes junior Alihan Demir (6-8), sophomores Jarvis Doles (6-9) and Tadas Kararinas (6-10) and redshirt freshman Tim Perry Jr. (6-10). Green has shot the ball well in limited attempts (13-30, .433) but the Dragons could really use a true sniper or two for Spiker’s offense to really start clicking. That could be one of the above new faces, but for now the Dragons staff would do best to keep looking for 3-point talent off the ball. And a little more bruising size down low wouldn’t hurt, with Demir, Doles and Kararinas more stretch-bigs than interior presences.

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La Salle Explorers
Seniors:
Cheddi Mosely, Pookie Powell
2019 Commitments: None
Available scholarships: 2
Biggest Need(s): Scoring guard; Center
Potential Targets: Dahmir Bishop (G/Imhotep Charter, Pa.), Zach Crisler (LaSalle College HS, Pa.), Hakim Hart (SG/Roman Catholic, Pa.), Naheem McLeod (C/Plymouth-Whitemarsh, Pa.), Donta Scott (Imhotep Charter, Pa.), Ray Somerville (C/Shipley School, Pa.)

Breakdown: New Explorers head coach Ashley Howard worked quickly to stabilize the La Salle roster situation, adding an immediately-eligible grad transfer in BU’s Mosely, who averaged 13.3 ppg in 2015-16 but battled injuries and only played 13 games the last two seasons, as well as David Beatty (South Carolina) and Scott Spencer (Clemson), who will both sit out this year; he also kept around three of the program’s four commitments, with freshmen Jack Clark (Cheltenham), Ed Croswell (St. Joe’s Prep) and Jared Kimbrough (Neptune) sticking to the pledges they made to former head coach John Giannini.

With only two scholarships going to be available for this year’s rising senior crop -- barring transfer -- Howard has his sights set high, going for some of the top players around. The former Villanova assistant is looking to add some serious size to the frontcourt with the 7-2 McLeod or 6-10 Somerville, either of whom he could pair with the 6-8 Kimbrough, 6-7 Croswell or 6-10 sophomore Miles Brookins to make one of the more imposing frontcourts in the A-10. And though the 6-3 Beatty and 6-6 Spencer should add some scoring punch, Howard is also chasing high-level bucket-getters like the 6-5 Bishop, 6-6 Hart and 6-7 Scott; if Howard can out-recruit several other local programs for their services, that’ll be a sign about what he’s able to do at 20th and Olney moving forward.

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Penn Quakers
Seniors:
Jackson Donahue, Tyler Hamilton, Max Rothschild, Jake Silpe, Collin McManus, Antonio Woods
2019 Commitments: Jonah Charles (Rutgers Prep, N.J.), Max Martz (Upper Arlington, Ohio), Lucas Monroe (Abington, Pa.)
Available scholarships: N/A
Biggest Need(s): Center
Potential Targets: Jordan Dingle (SG/Blair Academy, N.J.), Jack Forrest (SG/Lower Merion, Pa.)

Breakdown: Penn coach Steve Donahue is well ahead of the curve when it comes to the 2019 class, with now three commitments from rising seniors following Charles’ pledge just this past week. That gives him three wing scorers in the same group, though Charles -- a 6-4 sharpshooter -- has a different game than Monroe, a 6-5 point guard whose versatility is his biggest asset, and the 6-6 Martz, who’s also a knockdown 3-point shooter but a ‘3’ compared to Charles, who’s more of a ‘2.’ They’ll all join a deep group of wings when they arrive to campus, one which will be led by current rising junior Ryan Betley but also will include current rising sophomores Jelanie Williams and Eddie Scott, plus incoming freshmen Alex Imegwu and Bryce Washington. They’re still open to taking one more, and the 6-4 Forrest has been a target of the Penn staff for a couple years at this point.

Up front there’s a little more room. The Quakers have three talented power forwards projected to be on the 2019-20 roster with then-senior A.J. Brodeur, junior Jarrod Simmons and sophomore Michael Wang all standing around 6-8 or 6-9, but outside of 7-3 Mark Jackson -- who didn’t play a single minute last year and might never be a significant member of the rotation -- there’s no center in the group. They’ve been involved with Maxwell Lorca-Lloyd, a 6-10 big man out of the same prep school (Northfield Mt. Hermon) which Brodeur went to, but even if they don’t add anybody else this class, it’ll still be a successful haul for the defending Ivy League champs. With 2020 a crucial year in their recruiting cycle, look for the Penn staff to pay a little more attention to the rising juniors this July.

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Saint Joseph’s Hawks
Seniors:
Chris Clover, Markell Lodge
2019 Commitments: None
Available scholarships: 5
Biggest Need(s): Everything
Potential Targets: Tyler Bertram (SG/Vermont Academy, Vt.), R.J. Blakney (SF/St. Maria Goretti, Md.), Zach Freemantle (F/Bergen Catholic, N.J.), Nah’shon Hyland (SG/St. George’s Tech, Del.), Donta Scott (SF/Imhotep Charter, Pa.)

Breakdown: The Hawks were already in something of a tight roster situation for this season, with only 10 players projected on the squad following the early transfer of Gerald Blount. Then news came in a couple weeks back that rising junior Nick Robinson would also be leaving after a breakout close to his sophomore season, meaning that now Phil Martelli has a roster that currently only has nine scholarship players, including two who are coming off season-long injuries. And with two scholarship seniors on the roster -- Chris Clover and Markell Lodge -- there’s a whole lot of room in St. Joe’s 2019 class. Things got a little bit on Monday, with the news that immediately-eligible South Florida grad transfer Troy Holston Jr. will spend his final two years on Hawk Hill.

The only position that the Hawks are really set at for the next few years is at point guard, with Lamarr Kimble back after a broken foot for his redshirt junior year and freshman point guard Jared Bynum, a 5-9 dynamo from Georgetown Prep (D.C.) looking like a mainstay in the rotation already in early practices. The arrival of Delaware transfer Ryan Daly will add some more scoring punch next fall, but the Hawks still need more talent on the wings beyond Daly and current redshirt sophomore Charlie Brown. They’ve been heavily involved with shooters (Bertram, Hyland) and athletes (Blakeney) alike, plus the 6-8 Freemantle and 6-7 Scott for more versatile/frontcourt types. The frontcourt situation is more stable, however, with rising sophomores Taylor Funk and Anthony Longpré teaming with rising junior Pierfrancesco Oliva to form a strong trio; if St. Joe’s doesn’t land a big man for 2019, the priority becomes much higher in 2020.

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Temple Owls
Seniors:
Shizz Alston Jr., Ernest Aflakpui
2019 Commitments: None
Available scholarships: 2
Biggest Need(s): Guard, outside shooting
Potential Targets: Dahmir Bishop (G/Imhotep Charter, Pa.), Hakim Hart (SG/Roman Catholic, Pa.), Josh Pierre-Louis (G/Roselle Catholic, N.J.), Donta Scott (SF/Imhotep Charter, Pa.)

Breakdown: This is a key class for Aaron McKie, and he’s not even head coach yet. The Owls’ coach-in-waiting takes over from Fran Dunphy at the end of the 2018-19 season, but the former NBA Sixth Man of the Year is running point for Temple’s recruiting efforts from here on out. And so, with local schools involved with nearly every prospect Temple is targeting for 2019, it’s McKie’s chance to show how he does when pitted head-to-head against Howard and Martelli for the likes of Scott, Bishop and Hart, among others. Ultimately, though, McKie’s recruiting success won’t just be based on how well he recruits in Philadelphia, but the region; most of the Owls’ roster tends to come from NYC and Baltimore/DC, and McKie will have to assemble a staff capable of recruiting the expanded region.

The graduation of Alston next spring will somewhat be offset by the eligibility of Kennesaw State transfer James Scott, a St. Benedict’s (N.J.) product who averaged 17.3 ppg as a sophomore and will sit this season out. And there’s plenty of depth in the current rising sophomore and junior classes, which account for 10 of the 13 scholarships on the roster this year. The biggest thing lacking is a true knockdown shooter on the wings; Quinton Rose is a big play-maker, Alani Moore is a 5-11 combo guard, Nate Pierre-Louis is a 6-4 energy guy who made a third of his 3-pointers as a freshman. Adding another scorer like Bishop or Hart would give McKie a lot of weapons to work with when he takes over the reins.

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Villanova Wildcats
Seniors:
Phil Booth, Joe Cremo, Eric Paschall
2019 Commitments: Eric Dixon (Abington, Pa.), Justin Moore (DeMatha, D.C.)
Available scholarships: 2
Biggest Need(s): Best available
Potential Targets: Bryan Antoine (SG/Ranney, N.J.), Cole Anthony (PG/Archbishop Molloy, N.Y.), Josh Green (SF/IMG Academy, Fla.), Scottie Lewis, (SF/Ranney, N.J.), Seth Lundy (SF/Roman Catholic, Pa.), Isaiah Wong (G/Bonner-Prendergast, Pa.)

Breakdown: Winning two out of three national titles has given Villanova a bit of a boost in recruiting. Imagine that. And spots are limited -- Jay Wright never likes to have 13 scholarship players on the roster, tending to stay at 11 or 12 with several walk-ons. This year’s group will have 12 scholarship players; with three scholarship seniors and two players already committed, that leaves one spot left at the moment, and no obviously early NBA draft entry candidates to suggest that Wright and his staff would need more. And they’re set up and down the board, at point guard (Jahvon Quinerly and Collin Gillespie), wing (Brandon Slater, Jermaine Samuels) and forward (Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree, Dixon).

So that leaves Wright and Co. in the position to take the best player they can get with that last spot, and they’re after some good ones. Anthony is the best prospect to come out of NYC in some time, the No. 3 overall prospect in the ESPN Top 100 rankings for 2019 and the son of former NBA point guard Greg Anthony is a 6-3 guard with his pick of schools. The 6-5 Antoine and Lewis, ranked No. 9 and 10 in the ESPN rankings, are both rising seniors at the Ranney School and with Team Rio; either the sharpshooter (Antoine) or hyper-athletic wing (Lewis) would fit in perfectly in Nova’s system. Or they could grab a local product, like the 6-5 Lundy or 6-3 Wong, both of whom are getting national-level offers.  


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