Giplaye Joining Coleman at Providence

New England Recruiting Report | Thursday, July 9th, 2009

For college coaches, recruiting is a two-step process, evaluating prospects and then selling your program.  Coaches can build their programs by developing a niche in either area and Providence College may have just scored a major recruiting victory by out-evaluating other high major programs and landing Ron Giplaye. 

“He’s the best low post scorer we have ever had in our program other than Mike Bradley,” said BABC founder and head coach Leo Papile.  “His body of work over his career has been transient.  He has such a knack for scoring in the low post, his rebounding numbers are uncanny, and he’s a big guy who retrieves his own misses.” 

That’s high praise from Papile when you consider the caliber of low post players to come out of the BABC program over the years with the likes of Patrick Ewing, Torin Francis, and Alex Oriakhi. 

Another former BABC player who Giplaye is often compared to is Jeff Adrien.  Like Giplaye, Adrien was a player who was flying under the radar for some reason just prior to his final year.  But after a break-out performance at the Nike Peach Jam Tournament, UConn decided to pull the trigger.  Adrien went on to be a three-time All Big East performer for the Huskies.   

Giplaye’s break-out performance came earlier this spring at the Nike Memorial Day Classic.  His tremendous weekend culminated with a match-up against Jared Sullinger, a consensus top 5 player in the national class of 2010.  According to all accounts, Giplaye dominated Sullinger, showing just how good he can be when committing himself to playing in the paint.   

“Ron is a block to block, back to the basket horse,” said Papile, “and you ride that horse into the ground.  That’s how we do business and Ron has benefited from that and I think Providence is going to benefit from that as well.” 

Giplaye’s career has already been a long and distinguished one as he has been a part of some very special BABC teams over the last four years.  Even at that, his best basketball may still be ahead of him. 

“People forget he started for us as a freshman,” said Papile.  “He’s only 18.  People think he’s 30 because he’s been around so long.”

Much of Giplaye’s success has come side by side with Gerard Coleman, who committed to Friars last month.  Like Giplaye, Coleman is another player who has thrived at the national level, as was evident this week when he led his team to the championship at the Lebron James Skill Academy, scoring 19 points in the final. 

Now that duo will once again team up, this time looking to bring the Friars back to prominence in the Big East.