Oswin Erhunmwunse Reclassifies to 2024
The Big O will join the Friars for the 2024-25 season
What was rumored for so long became official on Monday evening, consensus top 30 recruit in the class of 2025 Oswin Erhunmwunse, officially reclassified to the class of 2024 and will suit up for the Friars this upcoming season. With Oswin taking up the 13th and final scholarship for Kim English’s second season, the 2024-25 roster is officially set.
It’s unclear where Oswin will officially slot into the recruiting rankings now that’s he’s reclassified up a year, but he promises to still be one of the highest ranked recruits Providence has seen in at least a decade. Although this move had been rumored for some time, it still speaks volumes of the trust that Oswin and his team have put into Kim English and his vision for the Program. I see 3 major impacts to the news of Oswin’s committment.
The front court depth issues that plagued the Friars last season are no more.
The truth is, Providence played significant minutes with 6’7, 185 pound Ticket Gaines at center last season. Even more alarming, the truth is that once Bryce Hopkins went down for the season, Gaines was probably the Friars’ second best center! The lack of size cost Providence dearly last season (at Butler, vs. St John’s, at UConn, etc.) and was clearly a priority for Kim English this offseason. Providence had one of the smallest rosters amongst any team in the Power 6 last season, but after an offseason full of revamps, the new front line will feature 7’2 Anton Bonke, 7’0 Christ Essandoko, and 6’10 Erhunmwunse. Problem solved.
To have a head coach that identifies a roster construction issue, and then proactively acts to identify and secure a solution, is a refreshing change of pace from the former regime.
I expect Erhunmwunse to see real minutes as a freshman.
Call me crazy but I just have a difficult time believing that a top 30 recruit in the class of 2025, a player who has been skyrocketing up college and pro scouting boards as the current AAU season has gone on, is coming to Providence to be the 11th guy of the bench. Seems far fetched.
Now of course, there’ll be a fierce competition between Erhunmwunse, Christ Essandoko and Anton Bonke for minutes (damn would I love to be a fly on the wall to see those battles during practices). But assuming Erhunmwunse holds his own, I expect him to be a legitimate part of the rotation by the time Big East play roles around. Usually it is the case that I’m against guys reclassification. Unless you are a truly generational prospect, the difference in physicality between going up against high school guys and even the worst D1 players is often times too much for guys to handle right away. This is especially true for big men as post players almost always take longer to develop their skills when compared to guards. However, Erhunmwunse is not a traditional back-to-the-basket big man. As you can see in the highlights above he is more of a rim running / lob threat on offense, while being an absolute menace on the defensive end. This is a skill set that should transition rather seamlessly to the college game while Oswin’s offensive post game continues to develop.
There will be a renewed emphasis on recruiting the high school class of 2025
Providence went from having literally the top rated 2025 recruiting class in the country with Jamier Jones and Oswin Erhunmwunse, to just having a damn good recruiting class headlined by Jamier Jones. That’s totally fine for now, and there’s still a long way to go with respect to the recruiting process for many of the top 2025 recruits. A few 2025 names to watch as the calendar flips to July are Tee Barltett, Efeosa Oliogu, Jalen Reece and yes, Jaylen Harrell (who recently postponed his recruitment decision as more schools started to get involved, we’ll have more on that later this summer).
Take these On3 projections with a grain of salt, especially this far out, but I’d be surprised at this point if the Friars didn’t land one of the 4 names mentioned above.
