Gantt verbally commits to Providence
Cooley phone call pushed 6-foot-7 wing to join Friars
PROVIDENCE – What pushed Greg Gantt to verbally commit to the Providence College men’s basketball program was a phone call he received from head coach Ed Cooley.
The Friars had been tracking Gantt for quite some time, yet there was a recent AAU showcase tournament that featured Gantt and his grassroots program, Team Felton, that Cooley couldn’t attend. The reason: Cooley had a summer hoops camp on PC’s campus that required his undivided attention.
“Cooley contacted Greg to let him know he had to be there for that obligation but he would be there the next time,” said Fred Cannon, director of Team Felton. “Once that gesture was made, that pretty much sealed the deal for Greg.”
In Las Vegas with Cannon and the rest of the Team Felton squad, Gantt on Friday announced via his personal Twitter account that he’d verbally committed to the Friars. The 6-foot-7, 195-pound combo forward from North Carolina becomes the first member of PC’s Class of 2019. He was originally scheduled to take an official visit to Providence in September along with visits to Texas and Florida.
Now, the trip to PC will be the only official one that Gantt will take. With Cannon in the same room Thursday night, Gantt called Cooley to let him know of his intentions to become a Friar.
“The communication between Greg and Cooley and (assistant coach Jeff) Battle has always been good. Those guys were great during the process and have been very present throughout Greg’s career,” Cannon said when reached Friday afternoon. “He still had two more official visits that he wanted to determine. In the process of figuring those two out, the love the Providence staff showed him made a strong impression on him.”
Gantt has been in the fold with Team Felton since he was in the eighth grade and he’s heading into his senior year at Trinity Christian School. Gantt should shine at the high-school level this coming season after two teammates, Joey Baker and Au’Diese Toney, elected to reclassify to the Class of 2018 in an effort to join their respective college programs now. Baker is at Duke, while Toney is committed to Pittsburgh.
“Greg’s growth has been pretty easy to follow. He played 17 and under [for Team Felton] all throughout high school. He never got a chance to be a dominant kid in his age group. He had to work for everything,” Cannon said. “In turn, that made him mentally and physically tough. By 10th grade, you started to see improvement. This year, it was drastic and you saw that with all the college offers that came in during April.”
To that end, Gantt reportedly received scholarship offers from Louisville, Clemson, and Georgia Tech in the same day. Last month, he tweeted that Providence was part of his final nine choice schools along with Texas, Florida, Clemson, Pittsburgh, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama and Vanderbilt.
“He truly trusted the process, but he also did it the hard way,” Cannon said. “We’re very proud of him.”
Labeled a four-star recruit, Gantt’s skill set is exactly what Cooley has been coveting on the recruiting trail over the past few years – the ability to play multiple positions and serve as an interchangeable piece.
“I think Greg is a kid who has the potential to be almost a triple-double type once he reaches his full potential,” Cannon said. “He’s very selfless and doesn’t care about the limelight. He just gets the job done. They’re getting a kid who’s very versatile. Once he puts 15 to 20 pounds on that college frame, he’ll be even better.”
Cannon says that Team Felton has a policy that if a player feels strongly about one particular school and is also being courted by others, it’s probably best to put a capper on the process.
“We don’t want to waste other college’s time and resources if you know in your heart where you want to go,” Cannon said. “With Greg, he knew he wanted to go to Providence at a certain point. He felt good about making the decision and definitely just went with it.”
One of the things that Gantt told Cannon on Friday morning that he was very relieved to be done with his recruitment.
“Now he can get back to real life. You’re getting constant text messages and phone calls from all these schools. The recruiting process can be overbearing at times,” Cannon said. “Now you know exactly what your future is going to be for the next four years. It takes a big burden off the kid and he can enjoy the last part of high school knowing what his next phase holds.”
With Gantt in the fold, Cooley and his staff can devote even more attention to their other main 2019 target, 6-foot-7 forward Akok Akok, who is also hearing from UConn and Syracuse.