Friar Basketball

Providence Contacts Marcus Santos-Silva

Marcus Santos Silva

One of the most intriguing players on the New England prep scene from the past few years was Marcus Silva-Santos, an undersized power forward out of Taunton, MA who played for BABC on the AAU circuit and did damage at Vermont Academy alongside Jordan Nwora and Christian David at Vermont Academy.

BABC has produced a seemingly endless string of undersized, undervalued four men, most recently that group included Georges Niang, Bonzie Colson, and last year’s national rebounding leader Kevin Marfo.

There was a lot to like about Santos-Silva’s game, but with Providence getting a commitment from class of 2017 center Dajour Dickens during his junior year, and Nate Watson a few months later, Santos-Silva was never a priority for the PC staff.

Santos-Silva committed to VCU in the fall of his senior year and went on to have a highly-productive three year run in Richmond.

The biggest statistical game of his career came in the 2019 Atlantic-10 Tournament when he went off for 26 points and 22 rebounds in a loss to URI. He had proven to be quite the thorn for the Rams, notching games of 19 points and 12 rebounds, and 17 points and seven boards against them earlier in his sophomore year.

The powerful lefty has seemingly been at his best against the toughest competition. He ripped down 16 boards against Texas that sophomore year, and as a junior he kicked off his season with a 21 point/18 rebound outburst before terrific efforts against LSU (17/11), Purdue (19 points in 26 minutes), Tennessee (22/11), and Dayton (12/17).

Santos-Silva recently announced he would be transferring after his junior season, and as Adam Zagoria reported, Providence has been one of the schools in touch with him.

He took part in Providence’s Elite Camp in 2016, and is obviously very familiar with recent PC pledge Brycen Goodine (a fellow BABC product), as well as locals David Duke and AJ Reeves.

Whether that will be enough to truly get PC in the running is unclear at this point. As Zagoria noted, the list of schools reaching out is a long one, including Arizona State, Texas Tech, Penn State, Purdue, Ole Miss, Maryland, Virginia Tech, Miami, PC, Boston College, Georgia, Seton Hall, Miami, Tulsa, Arkansas, Western Kentucky, Illinois, Marquette, and Wake Forest.

Given his production, and the fact that he is ready to contribute right away (given he is immediately eligible), it is no surprise that half the Eastern Seaboard is in pursuit.

Santos-Silva is apparently hoping to graduate in three years after taking classes this summer (per ESPN’s Jeff Borzell0) and play right away next year, regardless of the NCAA’s ruling on making first-time transfers immediately eligible.

He averaged 12.8 points, 8.9 rebounds, and shot 56% from the field as a junior. He also grabbed 3.0 offensive rebounds per game.

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