Friar Basketball

The Latest on Kyron Cartwright

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Kyron Cartwright’s Compton High School sits roughly 3,000 miles away from the campus of Providence College. A great distance yes, but not one without a common connection.

Cartwright, a 5’11 lefty point guard, was recently released from his letter of intent to attend Loyola Marymount following last week’s firing of LMU head coach, Max Good. Now seeking greener pastures, his high school coach, Anthony Thomas, may have just the relationship to help him get there.

Back in the early 1980’s Thomas was playing summer league basketball for a west coast AAU organization called Slam n Jam. At the time, Slam n Jam was widely considered one of the major AAU programs in the area. On Thomas’ team was current Providence College assistant coach, Andre LaFleur. Unthinkable back then, but their relationship still holds strong to this day, and it could be the reason behind PC landing it’s fourth member of the 2014 class. A class in great need of a guard. cooley2fingersup

“I’ve been talking to Coach LaFleur since before Kyron even signed with LMU last November,” said Thomas late Thursday night. “As soon as he [Kyron] asked for his release I called up Coach LaFleur to see where they stood at point guard.” It wasn’t long after that conversation before PC was back in the mix with the Compton left hander.

“I had talked to them before but after I got my release from LMU, I started talking to them again and they said they really needed a point guard,” Cartwright shared.

Now roughly a week later, Cartwright found himself taking his first official visit to Providence College.

After landing in Providence on Thursday, Cartwright met with the Providence staff and was given a tour of PC’s campus and facilities. He was shown the renovated Alumni Hall as well as the student-athlete section of the Concannon Fitness Center. When asked what his initial thoughts were, Cartwright replied, “It was good, I liked it. The campus is nice. It’s a little different than what I am used to, coming from the west coast. It was more open and less students than what I’ve seen at other schools but I liked it.”

In terms of what other schools are pursuing him, Cartwright said that he is hearing from Grand Canyon University and Cal State Bakersfield but his coach was quick to point out that other schools are beginning to call. Thomas noted, “There are teams that are still in the tournament that are going to start calling. A lot of the coaches, that I’ve heard from, can’t believe that he is available. UNLV has been calling. A lot of schools are calling but they know he is visiting Providence, so when they found that out, a lot of people were like, ‘well if he’s going to look at Providence, they’re probably going to get that done’.”

Last night, I asked Cartwright if he would be ready to commit to Providence should Ed Cooley extend the scholarship offer. He politely replied that he would definitely consider it, but it would be the type of decision that he would want a day or two to think over. As for his head coach, Thomas stated, “He wants to play at a high level. He liked LMU because he liked the coaches and the eduction at LMU, but he knew he needed to go to a bigger situation. I would say that Providence is the frontrunner but I know that he is one of the best available point guards in the country right now, so things are going to get hot if it doesn’t happen soon.”

Getting a guard for next season has been no secret for Ed Cooley. In Kevin McNamara’s article for the Providence Journal, Cooley said, “We have to add a couple more pieces…Hopefully we can get Kris Dunn healthy, recruit a couple more guards, add Junior (Lomomba) to the mix, add the freshmen frontcourt guys to the mix.”

Cartwright certainly fits the description. His head coach labels him as a warrior, one who has great vision in the open court and can make every pass. Tyler Hendrickson, who covers California high school basketball for GazettesSports.com, echoed Thomas’ comments by saying Cartwright is a pass first point guard and does a very good job utilizing his speed and athleticism to push the ball up the floor. Hendrickson said, “I have gotten to see him play quite a bit and there has really been a gradual improvement from him every year. He is an even-keeled kind of guy on the floor, he’s not really a “rah rah” guy but he has really improved his leadership over the years, now being a senior.”

From what I have learned, where Cartwright struggles the most, is shooting from long range and taking care of the basketball. Hendrickson pointed out, “Sometimes he can get a little bit ahead of himself and turn the ball over too much because he wants to get out, run and press.” He did go on to add that he doesn’t foresee it being a major problem and that good coaching can help him eliminate transition turnovers in the future. Cartwright, on his shooting ability added, “Inconsistent shooting from three point range is what I would say is my biggest weakness but it’s something that I have been working on for sure.”

Should Cartwright make a decision in the coming days, it should come as no surprise if he chooses the Friars. I had great conversations with Tyler Hendrickson, Coach Thomas and Cartwright. Should PC gain the commitment, FriarBasketball.com will have plenty more to share on the 5’11 Californian native.

Email Craig: craig.belhumeur@friarbasketball.com
Craig on Twitter: @Craig_Belhumeur

One Comment

  1. Joe

    March 28, 2014 at 7:00 pm

    Cartwright certainly fits the description. His head coach labels him as a warrior, one who has great vision in the open court and can make every pass. Tyler Hendrickson, who covers California high school basketball for GazettesSports.com, echoed Thomas’ comments by saying Cartwright is a pass first point guard and does a very good job utilizing his speed and athleticism to push the ball up the floor. Hendrickson said, “I have gotten to see him play quite a bit and there has really been a gradual improvement from him every year. He is an even-keeled kind of guy on the floor, he’s not really a “rah rah” guy but he has really improved his leadership over the years, now being a senior.”

    Don’t know about anyone else but this description screams Vincent Council to me.

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