Friar Basketball

7 Things You Should Know About Alex Owens

AlexOwens_august2014

You have to hand it to Ed Cooley and his staff, they don’t linger on bad news very long. If Cooley has established anything in this program in the past three years it is a sense of resiliency. We saw it on the floor a year ago when potentially crippling losses turned into mere roadblocks on the way to a Big East Championship, and the summer prior when Providence’s top recruiting target committed to North Carolina State after the Wolfpack had just established contact that summer.

What was to be a pressing, athletic team in 2013-14 turned into a grind-you-out champion. Abdul Malik Abu heading to NC State meant we’d have to wait a little over a month for a comparable (some may say better) player in Ben Bentil pledging to the Friars.

It’s been just four days since Donovan Mitchell committed to Louisville after being pursued so heavily by Cooley and Co., but in that time PC has picked up a pair of commitments in 2017 guard Javon Taylor and the punishing Alex Owens, a 6’8, 245 pound power forward from Florida.

Not a bad recovery at all.

Here are 7 Things You Should Know about Alex Owens:

1. He’s a rebounder — one of the best in the class of 2015, according to some observers. Playing for Oak Ridge High School in Florida last year Owens averaged over 17 points and 15 rebounds a game, and he’s had some eye popping rebounding numbers throughout his career.

Owens ripped down 16 rebounds in the 2013 Peach Jam Finals and had a 32 point, 30 rebound game this past January versus Osceola. He led a talented Each 1 Teach 1 team in rebounding this summer on the EYBL circuit, and averaged almost 10 rebounds per game last summer playing up an age group.

2. ESPN ranks him as the 16th best power forward in a deep class of bigs in 2015. They have him rated higher than the likes of Raymond Spalding (Louisville), Marcus Derrickson (Georgetown) and Jarred Reuter (Virginia).

Providence went heavy on power forward targets this offseason (Reuter, Steve Enoch, Esa Ahmad and Alex Illikainen were among the biggest names) and landed a bull in Owens.

Suddenly, the Friars have the makings of a circa 2005 Pittsburgh frontcourt with Bentil, Owens, 7’2 Paschal Chukwu and even the 6’7 Rodney Bullock who can swing between the 3 and 4 spots.

The Friars haven’t been this physically imposing since the 90s.

3. He had 24 points and 17 rebounds against #1 Montverde Academy last year.

4. His AAU team was loaded this summer, with ESPN’s #2 overall player Ben Simmons, #16 Antonio Blakeney, 7’5 Tacko Fall and fellow PC recruit, guard Barry Brown. His best offensive outing for them in EYBL play was a 21 point night (9-12 shooting) against CIA Bounce out of Canada.

5. He can pass too.

6. Owens was thought to be an LSU lean as recently as May after he de-committed from Central Florida. Nine analysts at 247sports.com took a stab at predicting where Owens would land and not one picked the Friars. Florida, LSU and Central Florida all received votes.

7. His AAU team won the prestigious Peach Jam last summer.

 

Email: kevin.farrahar@friarbasketball.com

Twitter: @Kevin_Farrahar

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