Unintended Consequences - Kevin Stacom
Kevin Stacom, Sports Analyst
Unintended Consequences - Kevin Stacom
During a post-game press conference at the AMP following a dramatic win by St.John’s via a last-second tip-in vs Providence College two seasons ago, somehow a question about recruiting was posed to Coach Rick Pitino in the context of the advent of the NIL era.
It was noted that the resurgence of their program was being propelled by mostly experienced transfer Portal acquisitions, many of whom would be graduating that year, and what his general plans were for the future.
Pitino’s answer, although logical, was still a shock to the system: "Well, we’re NOT recruiting any high school players.” He went on to explain briefly how difficult it is to compete at a high level in the evolving world of college basketball with a number of 18- and 19-year-olds vs. 22- and 23-year-old experienced players.
Fast forward to the present time.
Providence College Coach Bryan Hodgson announced recently the signing of Clyde Walters, a 6’7” 190 lb, a very talented true freshman small forward, straight out of high school, from Pinson, Alabama, who was able to reclassify and be eligible for this upcoming 2026-2027 season.
It appears to be more of a Red Auerbach player draft/acquisition mindset of “best player available” over “need”, as Walters will be joining a fairly deep roster at that position with Miles Byrd (6’6”), Leonardo Marangon(6’7”), Ryan Mela (6’7”), Dink Pate (6’8”).
From the PC website:
“Clyde is a player that I have known for many years and he will be a great addition to our roster…I have followed his development since I was an assistant (at Alabama) and I feel that Clyde has a tremendous upside… We believe he is an athletic, versatile player, who will excel on both ends of the floor.”
After watching what little film I was able to see of Walters, I’d have to agree with Coach Hodgson’s assessment. Not to veer off into an impromptu scouting report, but Walker appears to be another punctuation point on a theme of the type of player Hodgson seeks to build his team around.
Walters’ AAU Alabama Fusion stats:
19.9 points; 8 rebounds; 3.4 assists; 1.8 steals
He looked great in open-court situations, as the coach mentioned: very quick and athletic getting to the hoop, with great length; shot it well, especially creating his own midrange; was active defensively; and, most impressively, was a very good, and at times creative, passer.
All these new acquisitions are long and athletic, can get out and defend multiple positions, and seem to have a very good feel for the game.
It’s getting fun to think about all the possible interesting combinations of lineups that will be at Coach Hodgson’s disposal.
But the main reason for highlighting Walters' signing was to illustrate the almost anomaly it's become in terms of collegiate basketball roster construction to sign a true freshman right out of high school.
Walters will be the only player in that category on Providence College’s roster this upcoming 2026-2027 season.
The only other freshmen on the team this year will be John Jackson, a redshirt freshman, and Leonardo Marangon, an international player from Italy who has played professionally in Europe and will turn 21 in November.
Providence is not an outlier in this trend, as foretold in Rick Pitino’s aforementioned prescient statement.
A quick look at the other BIG EAST schools’ rosters tells a similar story, especially among the current top tier of the league, in terms of signing star high school players who will be “true” freshmen this year:
UConn-2
St.John’s-1
Villanova-1
Providence-1
Georgetown-1
Butler-2
Creighton-2
Seton Hall, Xavier, DePaul, Marquette, all 3
A total of 22 players are incoming for an 11-team league (list subject to change).
This, of course, is not only occurring in the Big East but in all Power Conferences throughout the country- the Big Ten, SEC, Big 12, ACC. They have the resources and the motivation to secure the best mature, experienced talent available through the Portal from a pool of players who are in a constant state of free agency (players predominantly on 1 year deals).
And like in the Big East, the majority of these select incoming freshmen recruited by these conferences are very highly ranked by a number of nationally recognized media-based and blog scouting services, the vast majority at least top 100 ranked players.
Obviously, this reliance on the portal and the increasing lure of international talent into college basketball has created an increasing choke point on the once normal steady flow of talented high school players into the college ranks.
Speaking to an old friend and longtime NBA agent Eric Fleisher, now heavily involved in representing college players, he relayed to me the latest crazy creative piece of player acquisition executed by LSU’s newly rehired basketball coach Will Wade -The signing of Maccabi Tel Aviv forward Marcio Santos, a native of Brazil, who went undrafted in 2023, had summer league stints with the Atlanta Hawks and Orlando Magic, and the last few years has been playing in Europe, most recently in Israel. He’ll be 24 years old when the season begins this year, and Eric estimates he was making between 3 and 4 million Euros last year in Israel.
America is a great Country!
Will the NCAA challenge? Their track record in the courts has not been good.
So, as the money and therefore elite talent migrate increasingly to the top tier of the College game, what is happening to all the very good players who would have, up till recently, been in line for a “Major” or “Mid-Major” Division 1 scholarship to play basketball in college?
Well, after speaking to a couple of experienced local AAU directors, it appears, not surprisingly, that the backlog at the top has created pressure downward in their direction.
Nick Light is the Director and co-founder of the AAU program Rhode Island Elite. He takes a lot of pride in having been able to place a number of young guys into Division 1 and 2 programs. To illustrate the point, he gave me an example of a much-improved player in his program, Diing Maiven. Maiven is originally from Auburn, Maine, attended the Knox School in Long Island, and has played AAU for Nick’s RI Elite.
A scouting report lifted from New England Recruiting Report:
“He plays above the rim. He moves well defensively. He can guard multiple positions and create problems with his length and bounce.” They rated him as Maine’s #1 prospect.
In Light’s opinion, not that long ago, there would have been a lot more attention paid to Diing Maiven by higher-level programs. He thinks he’ll do very well at Fairleigh Dickerson, where he will be playing this upcoming year, and most likely, because he is such a hard worker, will eventually set himself up for a bigger opportunity and payday in the near future.
According to both Fleisher and Light, the smarter Mid-Major programs have actually caught on and, instead of fighting the realities of the new NIL transfer world, are actively marketing themselves as legitimate, viable stepping stones, in providing players with a platform to develop and showcase their skills with the goal of achieving a better opportunity and subsequent financial reward.
Todd Quarles, whose business success has for years allowed him to devote a lot of his time to assisting a lot of kids and young men through his highly successful AAU Expressions Elite program, echoed a lot of the same observations about the changes in high school recruiting. It was Todd’s AAU program that Cooper Flagg attended, coming down from Maine at a very young age, seeking better competition than afforded in his home state.
In his opinion, there is not the same intensity and emphasis that Colleges previously put into high school recruiting. He mentioned that he thinks they’re missing the boat on at least doing their homework on a lot of these players, since a good number of them will eventually move up the food chain; they will want to know more about their personalities, work ethic, etc to help them determine if they would be a fit for their programs and schools down the road.
If the college coaching fraternity needed any more confirmation of their commitment to emphasizing acquiring older, more experienced players, there was never a more blatant testimony than the two freshmen one and done players, Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey on Rutgers, in the season before last, who went #2 and 5 respectively in the 2025 NBA Draft, but failed to even make the NCAA Tournament in the process.
Not to oversimplify, a lot of the NCAA teams that went deep into the later rounds had a lot of freshmen one and done level talent: Cameron Boozer (Duke), Darryn Peterson (Kansas), AJ Dybantsa (BYU), Caleb Wilson (UNC), Keaton Wagler (Illinois), Darius Acuff Jr., (Arkansas), Kingston Flemings (Houston), Kao Peat (Arizona).
But the bulk of those rosters are fortified by a majority of key, mature upperclassmen, many of whom took a very circuitous route to their high-level destinations.
Increasingly, it seems many very good players will be, temporarily at least, under-recruited and will need to persevere in relative obscurity before ultimately reaching their goals.
Anton Bonke’s journey from a South Sea Island Nation(Vanuatu) to a junior college, to PC, to UNC Charlotte, to Michigan State might be a bit out of the norm, but nonetheless a great illustration of what the age of NIL has wrought.
But in the meantime, it appears Providence's first-year coach Hodgson has added another deep piece, in the rare elite high school acquisition of Walters, to an already well-assembled roster.
Should be a very interesting and entertaining 2026-2027 season!