Per Ed Cooley (via Jon Rothstein of FanRagSports), Drew Edwards has been cleared for basketball activities.  Now, this really shouldn’t come as a surprise or anything considering both Edwards and teammate Maliek White joined the 2017 USA East Coast team and played in Madrid, Spain this summer.

Providence’s Drew Edwards (knee) has been fully cleared for all basketball activities, per Ed Cooley. #pcbb

— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) September 13, 2017

Still, it’s great to hear that Edwards has made a full recovery from the knee issues that he played through during his Freshman year and that shortened last season to just 8 games before being shut down for the remainder of the season.  Edwards did have off-season knee surgery after his Freshman season in June of that year but was never fully back to being 100% at any time during his Sophomore year.

I still haven’t heard if Edwards will be granted a redshirt from last year which would have to be a medical hardship waiver as he played in too many games before shutting it down to be eligible for just a straight redshirt season.  The medical hardship waiver specifies that you can not play in more than 30% of the games in the season (he played in 8 of 32 games – 25%) and he did not play in any games after the halfway mark of the season.

During Edwards’ career at Providence (41 games), he has averaged 2.5 ppg in 10.4 minutes per game.  He has shot 34.7% from the field during that time but on less than 100 total field goal attempts (98).  The one thing that looked like it was improving from his shortened season last year was his three-point stroke.  With a healthy knee, I can only envision that improving.  His defense was always one of his stronger suits and he should be able to provide reliable minutes as a second ball-handler on the floor when given the opportunity.

I feel like Edwards is getting lost in the shuffle due to the fact that he didn’t play much last year, we have our top 8 guys returning to the fold, and we have a great recruiting class, but I think he is going to have a real genuine impact during the season.  The last thing he needs is extra motivation.

And as always, let’s re-visit the pass to Bullock shall we…