Harry Froling Schedules Wake Forest Official Visit, Lists 10 Schools

On a day full of less than encouraging news for Wake Forest recruiting, there was a hint of potentially good things to come. That news came in the form of 4* PF target Harry Froling announcing his top 10 schools, one of which is Wake Forest. Now you may be thinking 10 schools is a long grocery list of programs that could potentially be places Mr. Froling ends up playing his college ball, and earning a spot on an initial list like this usually isn’t anything to get overly excited about. But this list came in a package with additional news that the talented Australian big man would also be taking an official visit to Wake Forest as well in the coming months. Other schools that he listed were Oregon, Oregon St, Boise St, Colorado, Kansas St, Miami, SMU, Creighton, and Illinois, but he is still very open in his recruitment and willing to add to the list if other suitors get involved.

I would consider SMU as our biggest threat in the group given that his twin sisters play for the women’s team and he has likely already visited campus and gotten familiar with the school. SMU is reportedly very interested in adding Froling to their 2016 class and I would label them as one of the favorites for the remaining 4 official visits. I thought Louisville would be a serious contender for Froling last month after their offer, but they did not make the most recent cut and I consider that a positive for our chances. Wake finally has an opportunity to land a 4* recruit and not have to beat out any of the blue bloods or powerhouse programs to get him, which is a refreshing feel to the competitive 2016 cycle.

Australian 2016 forward focused on 10 schools, sets official visit to ACC program http://t.co/PEnRdKCPfm

— CollegeBasketbllTalk (@CBTonNBC) August 18, 2015

But who is Harry Froling and what do you need to know about him? The first thing you should know is he’s from a very athletic family and one with a love for basketball. As I said earlier, his twin sisters play college ball at SMU and are entering their sophomore seasons there, while his parents both played professional basketball in the Australian leagues for multiple years. Harry played AAU this summer for Team LivOn on the Adidas Circuit and had strong performances in the Adidas Summer Championship in late July. In this showcase, Froling averaged nearly a double-double with 11.7 PPG, 9.3 RPG, and 2.0 APG over three games with his best performance being a 15 point, 10 rebound game shooting 63% from the floor and 83% from the line. He also represented Team Asia Pacific in the Adidas Nations tournament earlier this month and was one of the team’s leading scorers alongside former PF target Matthew Freeman who recently committed to Oklahoma. He averaged 12.8 PPG, 7.3 RPG, 2.0 APG, and 1.3 BPG while shooting 54% from the field and 41% from downtown against top competition. Those numbers put him in the top 20 for the tournament in scoring (20^th), rebounding (10^th), and blocks (9^th). But if summer stats don’t mean anything to you and you need something to base them on, here’s what Top 50 PF target Javin DeLaurier finished the showcase with: 9.2 PPG, 7.6 RPG, 1.8 APG, and 1.0 BPG.

In terms of an initial comparison for Froling’s game, the easy answer would be to deem him similar to Dinos based on the fact that he can stretch the floor and plays more on the wing than in the post. At the same time, I think he’s a slightly more dynamic scorer than Dinos was coming into college and he’ll be able to contribute on the boards a lot more in his freshman season. Javin DeLaurier is being labeled by many as a top "high motor, hustling PF prospect" and Froling finished just one spot below him on the rebounding leaders list at the end of the Adidas Nations showcase. I think you could play him at the 3 and go big with the lineup or the 4 and feel totally comfortable that he won’t be pushed around on the low block. He’s a prospect that can give some diversity to your lineups and gameplan and recruits like that are always more valuable than their ranking may indicate.

Harry Froling of Townsville, Queensland is a skilled big man with potential as well. Has range out to 3. #adidasnations

— Nima Zarrabi (@NimaZarrabi_) August 2, 2015

So where do we go from here? Froling scheduling his official visit to Wake Forest is encouraging and I think is an indication that Danny Manning knows he must seal the deal with a recruit of his caliber to give this class some momentum. The good news is that the Deacs are the only visit planned at the moment. The bad news is that the fact that Froling lives in Australia means he may try and take all his official visits in one full swoop when he visits the US in September/October. That will make it harder for Wake to get him on campus and earn his commitment on the spot before visiting other schools, which is an approach all programs nowadays try and take advantage of (Ex: Miami with Rodney Miller and MSU with Eli Wright). Even still, it is very good news that Harry Froling will be coming to Winston-Salem and checking out our beautiful campus for himself. He is a player that has a lot of upside and I would love to see him rep the Black and Gold at the next level. He doesn't have an official highlight tape, but below is one of his games from the Adidas Nations tournament a few weeks ago. He is number 131 on the team in silver. As always, stay tuned to Blogger So Dear for more recruiting updates throughout the 2016 recruiting cycle.

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