Friar Basketball

Breon Pass: Football Star Turned Friar Recruit

Breon Pass Rivals.com

One of the more intriguing names to pop up on the Providence recruiting radar this summer is Breon Pass, a point guard out of Reidsville High School in North Carolina.

Pass is not only one of the top basketball players in North Carolina, he is a two-sport star at Reidsville. A wide receiver and cornerback on the football team, Pass has received gridiron interest from a number of ACC schools after winning back-to-back state titles in his sophomore and junior seasons. He caught a pair of touchdowns in the state championship of his sophomore campaign before grabbing 13 TDs as a junior.

In early June, Pass announced his decision to pursue only basketball in college, which has led to high major offers from the Friars, Rutgers, and Georgia Tech, in addition to a previous offer from North Carolina State.

The six foot lead guard put up outstanding numbers at Reidsville this season, averaging 21.1 points, 7.4 rebounds, 7.3 assists, and 3.2 steals on outstanding shooting percentages — 54% from the field, 44% from 3-point range, and 78% at the free throw line.

Reidsville finished 26-3 this season, and 12-0 in their conference. The Rams’ season ended in a tightly-contested 72-69 loss to South Granville in the fourth round of the state playoffs.

If South Granville sounds familiar, it should. Their star is another top Carolina point guard — former Friar target Bobby Pettiford, who committed to Louisville in the spring. Pass and Pettiford have known each other since they were young and are AAU teammates.

The loss to South Granville came with controversy, as a fight broke out in the stands which caused the game to be postponed with 19 seconds remaining. The two teams finished the game later that week in front of an empty gym with no fans or media in attendance. Reidsville had a chance to tie the game with a last second 3-pointer, but the shot rimmed off.

Of course, Providence has had success with star football players turned point guards in the recent past. Kris Dunn was a terrific football prospect at New London High School in Connecticut before turning his full attention to the hardwood.

Pass put up a ridiculous stat line against Salisbury this past season, scoring 50 points on 17-27 from the field to go along with 11 rebounds, six assists, and three steals.

Phenom Hoop Report ranks Pass as the 10th best player in the state of North Carolina in the class of 2021. To put that in perspective, the players they ranked 7-13 in the class of 2020 committed to Wichita State (#7 Ricky Council IV and #13 Jaden Seymour), NC State (#8 Nick Farrar and #12 Jaylon Gibson), Virginia (#9 Carson McCorkle), Florida State (#10 Quincy Ballard), and Harvard (#11 Justice Ajogbor).

Providence targeted both Pettiford (#4 on Phenom Hoops in North Carolina) and Eric Van Der Heijden (#5), but both pledged to Louisville. PC has its fingerprints all over North Carolina, however, as they continue to monitor #7 Lucas Taylor, a 6’5 shooter, and the springy 6’10 Kuluel Mading (#9).

Pass went through a lot personally over the past year, as his father passed away in the summer of 2019 at the age of 41. He was Breon’s coach at Reidsville, and also coached the track and cross country teams at the school. His loss stung the community. Curtis Pass was a talented basketball player in his own right, playing at Old Dominion and at the University of Norfolk before spending time professionally in Europe.

When asked about his decision to pursue basketball in college, Breon told highschoolot.com, “A basketball has been in my hand since day one, and my Pops grew up a basketball fan, so I just wanted to take over his legacy and make a big impact.”

Pass had a Zoom call with Ed Cooley and assistant coach Jeff Battle last week.

Here he is in action from last weekend.

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