NCAA Basketball Recruiting: Analyzing 2020 F Elijah Taylor’s final six teams

Pittsburgh Panthers

Frontcourt has been a major problem for this program who has been rebuilding from the ground up under Jeff Capel. They have a couple of solid pieces in Terrell Brown and Au’Diese Toney but will need more in order to contend for the NCAA Tournament. The Panthers are bringing in a talented three-star forward in Karim Coulibaly, coming off an impressive performance with the Mali National U19 team.

Taylor would be a solid rotation piece who can compete in the ACC right away. He might not produce much on offense for Pittsburgh right away but he can be relied upon for double-digit rotation minutes while the guards scorer the ball. For a program who’s just won three total conference games in two seasons, they can use all the help they can get.

Providence Friars

Providence has been making a lot of noise when it comes to recent pickups with perimeter players. But starting in 2020, they’ll have to focus on the frontcourt since seniors Kalif Young and Emmitt Hol will be gone. Outside of center Nate Watson, there won’t be any other rotational forwards set to return other than Noah Horchler from North Florida, who is no guarantee to take the leap playing in the Big East. There are former three-star prospects Jimmy Nichols and Kris Monroe but neither played much as freshmen this past season.

There’s a gaping hole at the power forward position, so Taylor could step right in if the Friars don’t want to play much small ball. But how he and Watson would fit is a difficult question to answer. But the program certainly needs to add some more frontcourt depth next season to remain in good standing in the Big East, who just added UConn for 2020-21.