Brown men's basketball has received a verbal commitment from 6'6" forward Paul Newman for the freshman class of 2017.
Newman is from from Roman Catholic High School in Pennsylvania and will do a post grad year at St. Andrews next year before joining the Bears in 2017, according to ESPN's Adam Finkelstein.
Newman was also part of Nike Team Final, an elite travel basketball program based in Philadelphia.
Newman will join David Erebor as part of the 2017 freshman class.
Erebor is a 6'9" forward from Maryland who committed to Brown in September of 2015.
Who Else is Brown Looking at
The Bears are also part of a mix of teams interested in 6'9" forward Jarrod Simmons from Cushing Academy in Pennsylvania.
Simmons is listed as a three star recruit by ESPN and is also being recruited by Providence, VCU, St. Bonaventure and Texas.
Simmons would be part of the 2018 freshman class.
Brown is also in the mix for Barrington, Rhode Island's Matt DeWolf, a 6'9" forward playing at Northfield Mount Hermon School
DeWolf is also being recruited by Dartmouth.
Like Simmons, DeWolf would also be part of the 2018 freshman class.
Brown Basketball
This past season, the Bears went 8-20 overall and 3-11 in the Ivy League.
At the end of the season, they lost forward Cedric Kuakumensah, the Ivy League's All-Time blocked shots leader, to graduation.
Following the upcoming 2016-17 season, the Bears are set to lose a slew of players to graduation including Steven Spieth, JR Hobbie and Tavon Blackmon.
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After skipping out on the NBA and returning to school, Dunn averaged 16.4 points, 6.2 assists and 5.3 rebounds per game for PC, leading them to the second round of the NCAA Tournament as a redshirt junior.
"It's tough to see a young man that has grown up in front of my eyes in Kris and what he's meant to our organization, and to see where he was, and now where he's at, and then where he's going. You know, you look at it where, damn, you're like a dad seeing somebody grow up in front of your eyes. I can't tell you how much I love this kid and this team, what they've meant to Providence and what they've meant to me this year. I'm going to really miss them," said PC Head Coach Ed Cooley after Dunn played his final game as a Friar.
The Friars went 23-10 overall this season, and 10-8 in the Big East, making the tournament for the third straight season.
The Rams had a year to forget due to injuries to star players E.C. Matthews and Hassan Martin. However, they still managed to go 17-15 overall and 9-9 in the A-10 due in large part to Jared Terrell.
Jared Terrell averaged 13.6 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game for the Rams this season, reaching double figures in scoring in 13 of URI's final 14 games.
In those 13 games, Terrell had at least 20 points in 6 of them.
Terrell was named to the USBWA All-District one team at the close of the regular season.
After averaging just 6.4 points per game as a freshman, Ben Bentil averaged 21.2 points per game overall and 22.9 points per game in conference play, making him the leading scorer in the Big East.
Bentil is the 7th Friar all-time to lead the league in scoring and the fourth Friar in the last six seasons to do it.
Bentil was named the Big East's Most Improved Player, joining Kadeem Batts (2013) and Herbert Hill (2007) as Friar recipients of the Big East Most Improved Player Award.
"Cedric blocked shots at a high rate his entire career and he got a chance to play right from the start, he started as a Freshman. For someone to break that record, they are going to have to really produce, but they are also going to need chance to play right away," said Brown men's basketball coach Mike Martin.
He is the only player in Ivy League history to score 1,000 points, grab 900 rebounds and block 200 shots.
In his senior season, Kuakumensah averaged 14 point and 9.2 rebounds per game for the Brown Bears while also blocking 2.7 shots per game.
"He's met alot to our program in so many ways," Martin added.
Martin averaged 2.5 blocks per game overall this season and 2.4 in conference play, putting him atop the league leaders for the third straight season. The 2.5 blocks per game is 18th best in the country.
Martin finished his season with 65 blocked shots, ranking him sixth in program history for most blocks in a season.
Earlier in the season, Martin moved into the #2 spot on Rhode Island's all-time blocked shots list, passing current assistant coach Antonio Reynolds Dean.
Martin now has 248 career blocked shots, 10th most among active NCAA Division I players and second among active juniors.
Offensively, Martin averaged 12 points per game for URI before going down with a knee injury that bothered him all season. Martin did not play in URI's last four games.
North Providence's Marcel Pettway became only the second player in program history to earn the NEC Rookie of the Year award, after Alex Francis did it in 2011.
Pettway started the last 22 games for Bryant and finished his freshman season averaging 11.4 points per game, fourth best among league rookies. Pettway shot 59.7 percent from the field on the season and recorded 8 double-doubles, including a career high 26 points and 11 rebounds against Fairleigh Dickinson.
The 8 double-doubles are tied for most by a freshman in Bryant's division I history.
"It's great to recruit a local player who is able to do great things right away. Marcel plays very mature for his age, makes few mistakes, he can pass out of double teams and contrbutes on the offensive and defensive glass," said Bryant Associate Head Coach Happy Dobbs.
Ed Cooley led the Friars to a record of 23-10 overall and 10-8 in the Big East Conference.
Providence advanced to their third straight NCAA tournament where they defeated the University of Southern California in the first round. The win was PC's first NCAA Tournament win since 1997.
After averaging just 6.4 points per game as a Freshman, Sophomore Ben Bentil averaged 21.2 points per game overall and 22.9 points per game in conference play, making him the leading scorer in the Big East.
After a breakout season, Bentil has declared for the NBA Draft, at least just to test the waters. He is not signing with an agent, leaving him eligible to return to Providence next season.
"We support Ben and as he goes through this process. We believe this will enable him to gain valuable experience and have better knowledge about when it will be best for him to pursue his dreams of playing in the NBA," said PC Head Coach Ed Cooley.
Senior guard Quarry Greenaway led Johnson & Wales averaging 25.8 points per game and earned D3 All-American Third Team honors. He is the first Wildcat player to do so since 2012.
Along with Tom Garrick, Greenaway led the Wildcats to the D3 Sweet 16 where they fell 101-85 to Tufts.
