Garwey Dual is a Friar...This Time it's for Sure
What seemed so unlikely three weeks ago is now reality for Kim English and Providence.
Garwey Dual’s commitment to Providence, and how his recruitment ended in this manner, will go down as one of the most unlikely journeys from prized recruit to Friar in program history.
At this time a year ago, you would have been hard-pressed to find anyone outside of Houston or Indianapolis who knew the name Garwey Dual. Dual transferred from George Bush High School in Houston to Indiana powerhouse Carmel for the 2021-22 season — his junior year. Carmel won Indiana state titles in 2019 and 2021, and likely would have won a third straight title had the 2020 postseason not been canceled.
Their seniors enjoyed a 16-0 career postseason record before falling in the state tournament last year. As a result, the new kid from Houston was not featured in their offense and found himself in and out of Carmel’s starting lineup throughout the season.
The 6’5 guard did not have a Division 1 offer early last spring (unsurprisingly, considering he averaged six points per game at Carmel), but saw his stock absolutely explode in April and May playing for George Hill All-Indy, an independent grassroots program that is not affiliated with the Nike, Under Armour, or Adidas circuits.
While George Hill All-Indy does not participate in a Nike, Under Armour, or Adidas tour, they played big-time competition last spring, including a pair of Nike EYBL elites in Detroit-based The Family and a NJ Scholars group featuring a pair of five-star prospects. Dual more than held his own in each of those contests, helping to raise his national profile. He then found himself ranked in On3.com’s top 50 by June.
Dual’s enormous spring led to him being one of 35 players that competed for a spot on Team USA’s U17 team in last summer’s World Cup in Spain, an utterly remarkable feat for a player who did not have a Division 1 scholarship offer three months prior.
While only starting to ascend, Dual made his first official visit to Providence in late June. It would be his last. Dual committed to PC shortly after the trip, putting an early end to a recruitment that would have only heated up last summer.
Eric Bossi of 247 Sports raved about Dual after his commitment: “Big, athletic and tough as they come, Dual saw his recruitment skyrocket this spring thanks to his play with George Hill All Indy. His slashing to the rim, excellent defense and motor put him on the map and while he knew that he had a chance to earn offers, Dual never saw things happening so quickly and on such a big level.”
Bossi continued, “A quiet and humble kid who has let his game speak loudly, Dual would rather show what he's capable of on the floor than talk about it.”
Ed Cooley and his coaching staff were thrilled. Jeff Battle had discovered Dual, showed Cooley film of him, and Cooley loved what he saw and wanted to get him on campus as soon as possible. Cooley valued Dual’s size and positional versatility defensively. The staff liked that with his size Dual wouldn’t be taken advantage of on the defensive end.
They believed Dual was a very good fit for PC not only because of his skill set, but personality-wise as well. You’ll hear “humble” and “hard-working” often when those in the know describe him, and Providence’s former coaches believed from a make-up perspective he would appreciate the environment at Providence and how he would be coached and developed. They felt that at Carmel there was an element of Dual having to wait his turn, but also that perhaps the Carmel staff didn’t fully know what they had in him.
A top tier Big 10 program had Dual on campus for their elite camp in early June 2022. Their assistants really liked Dual, who twisted his ankle and didn’t play much during their camp. The assistants on this staff didn’t push their head coach on Dual right away. After watching him in the days following his commitment to Providence, they were kicking themselves and shared with the PC staff that they thought the Friars had stolen one from the Midwest.
Dual later announced his decision to transfer to Southern California Academy, where he would play alongside fellow PC commit Drew Fielder on the high school team, as well as other top talent like five star guard AJ Johnson. Another PC commit, Donovan Santoro, was at SoCal as part of their prep team.
Dual did little to hurt his stock this season at SoCal, but Friar fans looked on somewhat dubiously after he declined to sign his letter of intent in November, while reiterating that he was still fully committed to PC.
He was a mismatch at the prep level: a 6’5 point guard who glided his way into the paint and adjusted mid-air with tremendous body control. Dual has a terrific floater that he makes at different distances and angles, and simply couldn’t be kept out of the paint. He gets his big men easy buckets regularly.
Despite growing skepticism that he would end up at PC after not signing in November, we followed him at Friar Basketball and provided notes and highlights through the year.
There was the 14-point, 8-assist, 4-rebound effort on 5-7 shooting from the floor and 4-4 at the free throw line in an overtime win over St. Frances of Baltimore at the DMV High School Season Tip Off.
He went for 20/5/5 in a victory over Hillcrest in the Chick-fil-A Classic. He led the event in steals and shot 7-9 from the field at 5-5 at the free throw line in the win over Hillcrest.
Dual finished with 14 of SoCal’s 48 points in a 48-42 victory over powerhouse Oak Hill Academy. He shot 6-7 from the field, and made all four of the floaters he attempted.
(Highlights from each of those games can be seen in the links above)
As the season progressed, there seemed to be growing confidence that Dual would remain a Friar as PC turned in a terrific stretch in January and February.
He visited PC again in March for Providence’s Senior Day against Seton Hall. The afternoon was a disaster. PC suffered its worst home loss in more than a decade, and the AMP crowd turned sour before the game reached halftime.
Just over two weeks later, it was announced that Cooley had left Providence to take over at Georgetown. That same day, Dual decommitted from PC, and no one expected to ever see him don a Friar uniform.
The assumption was that new Friar head coach Kim English would do his due diligence and check in with Dual, Fielder, Santoro, and class of 2024 commit Kayvaun Mulready, but landing any of them, specifically Dual, felt like a stretch.
Then English flew to California to meet Dual.
Then it was off to Houston to continue the recruitment.
And now, less than a month after Dual officially re-entered the market, what was unthinkable a month ago has happened: Garwey Dual announced he was committing for the second time to Providence College.
He certainly had options. Georgetown, and the coaching staff he originally committed to, made a push, Rick Pitino and St. John’s thought they were getting a visit, a Dayton staff that was in on him before anyone last year reemerged, and schools like Texas and Ohio State wanted in.
He told On3.com on Thursday, “I feel like the reason I gravitated towards coach Kim (English) is that for one, he’s been in the NBA. He knows exactly what it takes. We all know just because you play, that doesn’t mean you’re automatically a good coach. So when I saw he had an elite feel for both things, I just knew then and there that he could help get me get to the next level. His work ethic is inspiring every time we speak. He’s either on the way to the gym or in the gym and that’s just something that made me gravitate to him even more!”
Dual is ranked #46 in the class of 2023 by On3.com, #35 by Rivals, and comes in at #83 at 247 Sports. He will suit up for PC in the fall and could play either guard spot.
His commitment is the latest positive development in the remarkable first month for Kim English as the head coach at Providence. It was a month that included retaining stars Bryce Hopkins and Devin Carter, bringing a high-upside point guard in Jayden Pierre back in from the transfer portal, holding onto Corey Floyd Jr. and Rafael Castro, getting Santoro to stay committed, adding an A-10 scoring champ in Josh Oduro through the portal, and bringing along the likes of Justyn Fernandez, Davonte Gaines, and incoming freshman Rich Barron from George Mason.
And just like that, Providence went from a world of uncertainty to putting together the pieces of a roster that should have every expectation of returning to the NCAA Tournament in 2024 — and possibly doing some damage.
Kim English has put his stamp on Providence in a remarkably short amount of time, and perhaps nothing he has done over the past month has been as big of a pure surprise as reclaiming Dual after first meeting him a month ago.
Kim is a BEAST
Never say never!