After retaining five of the scholarship players slated to join to the Green Bay Phoenix roster for the 2024/2025 season, new head coach Doug Gottlieb has landed his first new arrival.

Donovan Santoro, a 6’8” wing who played last season at Providence, announced his commitment to the Phoenix on his Instagram page Wednesday.  He has three seasons of eligibility remaining.

He played sparingly for a Providence team that finished 21-14 under their new head coach Kim English last season, who took over when Ed Cooley left to take the job at fellow Big East school Georgetown.  Santoro appeared in 11 games for the Friars and averaged 2.5 minutes per game.

He played his high school basketball at Westlake High School in Austin, Texas before playing one season at Southern California Academy, a prep school in Los Angeles. 

A highly regarded recruit prior to committing to Providence, he was a 3-star prospect according to Rivals.com and had scholarship offers from Creighton, Washington, Arizona State, Ole Miss, Washington State, and several mid-majors before ultimately committing to Cooley and the Friars.

“With Donovan being 6’8” and being able to create his own shot off the bounce, his upside is extremely high,” his prep school coach Julius von Hanzlik told ScoutFriars.com back in 2022. “You can plug him in on any team because he’s a floor spacer. He knocks down threes from deep.”

“He has rare combination of size, skills, and athleticism at this level. His floor is a 6’8” floor spacer and ceiling is whatever he pushes himself to be.”

“My biggest strength is that I bring versatility and create a lot of mismatches on both sides of the ball,” Santoro told the website.  “The thing I need to work on the most is getting stronger and faster.”

That versatility along with his size and length will likely earn him plenty of opportunities in the style of offense that Gottlieb will look to run in Green Bay.  The new head coach has mentioned several times his desire to play five out on offense and having a big that can play out on the wing and space the floor will be an important piece of the puzzle.

His scouting report, per ScoutFriars.com, states that he “is a wing with very elite size and length, he played with elite competitiveness, something that stood out about his game right away. He did not force his own shots, played within himself and the flow of the game. Has a very smooth shot and the ability to attack close-outs to create opportunities at the rim where he can finish over defenders.”

“Everything about his offensive game seemed effortless and comes easy to him. On defense, he played with intensity and effort.”

The commitment from Santoro is the first in the Gottlieb era in Green Bay.  He is also the only player on the current roster taller than 6’6”. 

The Phoenix will need to stay active in the portal as the program still has seven open scholarships to fill for next season.