Garwey Dual is transferring from Providence, providing a predictable ending after a truly unique recruitment

In many ways, the incredible rise, subsequent freshman season, and eventual transfer of Garwey Dual could serve as a perfect case study of the current landscape of college basketball in 2024. Dual went from overnight sensation and elite recruit to the transfer portal after a freshman season that fell short of expectations in Providence.

The 6’5 point guard, originally from Houston, had one of the most unusual recruitments of any player in the class of 2023 — skyrocketing from a player that averaged just six points per game coming off of the bench for a public high school team in Indiana as a junior, to being ranked among the top 50 players in his class by that spring.

Dual did not have a Division 1 offer by the time his junior season ended, but saw his stock explode playing for an independent AAU club in George Hill All-Indy after squaring off with powerhouses like The Family and the NJ Scholars. 

Just that quickly, Dual’s name was squarely on the map. Three months after the end of his junior season, he was in Spain as one of 35 players invited to compete for a spot on Team USA’s U17 World Cup squad. 

In an era in which every last dribble is captured on film by someone, Dual’s rapid rise was a true rarity — and the Friars were at the forefront of his recruitment.

Providence assistant Jeff Battle saw tape of Dual that spring, then head coach Ed Cooley liked what he saw, and the PC staff moved quickly. They were Dual’s first college visit in June following his junior year, and he committed shortly after.

Dual cemented himself as one of the top prospects in the class of 2023 after transferring to Southern California Prep — a program that the former Friar staff went all-in on, getting a commitment from Dual, and signing power forward Drew Fielder and shooter Donovan Santoro from in the fall. 

Dual glided his way to the rim at SoCal Prep, rarely taking an outside shot because he found his way into the paint at will. He scored on either floaters or athletic finishes at the rim, but more often drew multiple defenders and dropped off no-look passes to his talented bigs. He could be exhilarating to watch. 

Providence fans held their breath a bit with Dual throughout his senior year, as he was the only member of the SoCal trio not to sign a letter of intent in November. Was he still leaving his options open?

He visited Providence in March for the final home game of the season, a shockingly feeble effort from the Friars against Seton Hall. 

A few short weeks later, Ed Cooley was off to Georgetown and Dual decommitted from PC as soon as news broke. No one thought Dual would ever don the black and white at that point.

If Dual is to leave behind a positive legacy at Providence, it would be his re-recruitment last spring after Kim English was hired. English made a point to head to California to meet with Dual and the SoCal trio immediately after the ink dried on his contract, and English made a significant statement when he was able to keep Dual a PC commit just three weeks after starting in his new gig.

The new staff at Providence loved his defensive potential, and English praised Dual’s spatial awareness and upside last summer.

The hype train went off the tracks in August when The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie, a national writer with no ties to Providence, slotted Dual into the #10 spot in his mock draft in August. 

Friartown has come a long way in terms of expecting freshmen to step in and be a program savior (nor has the program needed a freshman to do so over the past decade plus), but that didn’t stop Providence fans from dreaming big about adding a potential NBA draft pick to the outstanding duo of Bryce Hopkins and Devin Carter.

Dual’s freshman season provided little in terms of impact on the floor, however. He looked terrific in the second game of the season against Milwaukee, scoring 14 points, dishing out four assists, to go along with three steals and two blocks, and most encouragingly, shooting 3-4 from beyond the arc. Dual added seven points, three rebounds, and three assists before getting ejected for throwing a punch against Kansas State in a tournament at the Bahamas later that month, but the underlying story of that one was how much clunkier the Friar offense looked without injured point guard Jayden Pierre.

Dual had a solid Big East opener against Marquette with seven assists, and seemed to find his footing in the Big East Tournament, but he closed out the year with averages of 18 minutes, 3.3 points, 1.9 assist, and 1.3 rebounds per game on 33% shooting from the field, 25% from three, and 66% at the free throw line.

Beyond the numbers, Dual seemed to struggle to find situations in which he could go into attack mode, and rarely broke down defenses in the way that so many had envisioned after watching him do so at the AAU and prep levels. Perhaps that shouldn’t have been as much of a surprise as it was considering he is playing in the oldest era in college basketball history and didn’t turn 19 until last week.

Shortly after his nineteenth birthday, news broke that both Dual and Santoro were transferring from Providence. Neither transfer came as a surprise. Santoro could not crack a rotation begging for shooters, while Dual’s freshman season fell short of the expectations of many, likely himself included. 

In the end, Providence would have benefited from pairing a more seasoned point guard with Pierre this year. Dual flashed at times, but very much looked the part of a freshman who was only a year and a half removed from coming off the bench and not playing with the ball in his hands at Carmel High School in Indiana. 

Still, moving forward with Pierre and Dual was a decision virtually no one questioned last spring, nor should they have. During tenuous times, English made a pair of statements after Pierre returned from the transfer portal, and Dual made the unlikely choice to give the young coach a chance when Cooley, Rick Pitino, and the staffs from Texas and Dayton also made a push. 

Dual turned out to be more potential than production at this early stage of his development, and in this age of college basketball, where things stand today is most often the result for a player with so much notoriety behind him.

In the short term, this could even be the best result for both parties. Dual will have no shortage of suitors in this market, while Providence may be better next year with a point guard that can both play alongside and spot minutes behind Pierre.

Still, there is a level of disappointment in not getting the chance to see how Dual would have developed under English — and a greater sense of disappointment that in today’s college basketball landscape the news of Dual’s transfer is anything but a surprise.

Garwey Dual will go down in Friar lore as the player who came to Providence on a most unusual path, rising to recruiting stardom overnight, and then shocking everyone when he took a shot on English and his staff just three weeks after meeting him. As unusual as the result of his recruitment was, the ending felt oh-so predictable in college basketball in 2024.