bell to visit this weekend

[husky99]

http://blog.ctnews.com/uconnbasketball/2012/10/29/long-beach-forward-bell-will-visit-this-weekend/

Ya ya death storm

 

[scotty0330]

Good news about this kid is that he is athletic yet not the type of ball player that will have one foot out the door the moment he arrives on campus. Bad news is that he sounds a little raw so you are getting far from a finished product. I have a gut feeling that this kid is gonna commit....

HIs game sounds much like what Cleveland Melvin was reported as being in high school and he has turned out to be pretty solid for an awful DePaul program.

 

[UCONNfan1]

Good news about this kid is that he is athletic yet not the type of ball player that will have one foot out the door the moment he arrives on campus. Bad news is that he sounds a little raw so you are getting far from a finished product. I have a gut feeling that this kid is gonna commit....

HIs game sounds much like what Cleveland Melvin was reported as being in high school and he has turned out to be pretty solid for an awful DePaul program.

If that's true then i'd sign up for this kid in a heartbeat. I looked at the video - all highlights, and a bit of hot doggin, but that's to be expected on a highlight video. The guy has serious hops and seems to have good instincts on defense, even when the offensive player is juking the ball all over the place, he doesn't get confused and block the arm of the other player. He seems to get all ball.

Still, FWIW, a kid who's a bit raw but really high on UCONN given the current situation, seems like a great fit. AND I read that Ollie finally gave him an official offer...

He’s long been high on the Huskies, and he told Hearst Connecticut Monday that coach Kevin Ollie has extended a scholarship offer

 

[husky99]

I think melvin has a bigger frame. An inch or two and 20 pounds

 

[alexd]

I think melvin has a bigger frame. An inch or two and 20 pounds

Melvin may have filled out but coming out of high school, Melvin was listed at 210 / 6'-8"...Bell is 205 / 6'-7"

 

[Tenspro2002]

He sounds like a nice player, but we're UConn -- we shouldn't be jumping out of our shoes over a guy ranked ~70 for whom we're competing against Auburn and Oregon.

If this is what our new Plan A recruits look like, maybe we've fallen further than I thought. Rankings aren't everything, but we've gotta have our sights set higher than this.

 

[huskiesNhoos]

He sounds like a nice player, but we're UConn -- we shouldn't be jumping out of our shoes over a guy ranked ~70 for whom we're competing against Auburn and Oregon.

If this is what our new Plan A recruits look like, maybe we've fallen further than I thought. Rankings aren't everything, but we've gotta have our sights set higher than this.

Seriously? you shouldn't have to be reminded of how little rankings mean when picking out talent. Someone feel free to break out the list of star players here ranked ~70-100 (Lamb, Emeka to name a couple).

Also, Noah Vonleh is clearly our plan A with Bell being plan B.

 

[aceboon]

He sounds like a nice player, but we're UConn -- we shouldn't be jumping out of our shoes over a guy ranked ~70 for whom we're competing against Auburn and Oregon.

If this is what our new Plan A recruits look like, maybe we've fallen further than I thought. Rankings aren't everything, but we've gotta have our sights set higher than this.

It took months for him to finally receive an offer after he came out and explicitly said UConn would be his leader if offered, and now suddenly he's a Plan A recruit? Also, while I'm not predicting Cleveland Melvin like success for him, I remember the same kind of griping on this board about Melvin when he committed and the schools that offered him, I'm sure those same posters would love to have him on board now. If the staff likes what they saw after viewing him in person I don't see why their judgement shouldn't be trusted.

 

[Tenspro2002]

Seriously? you shouldn't have to be reminded of how little rankings mean when picking out talent. Someone feel free to break out the list of star players here ranked ~70-100 (Lamb, Emeka to name a couple).

Also, Noah Vonleh is clearly our plan A with Bell being plan B.

I agree in principle, but it's hard for Bell to be plan B when he'll probably accept our offer, leaving us with 5 frontcourt guys already signed for 2013 and maybe 1 ship available.

 

[3uconn]

Not sure he was always a Plan A. He wasn't getting much interest from us util about two months ago. We were on Dominic Woodson and other big guys early on. Then for various reasons we stopped recruiting kids or they cut us. Right now I would say with certainty that the staff would rather have Vonleh than Bell but are fine with Bell.

 

[Huskies4ever]

Not sure he was always a Plan A. He wasn't getting much interest from us util about two months ago. We were on Dominic Woodson and other big guys early on. Then for various reasons we stopped recruiting kids or they cut us. Right now I would say with certainty that the staff would rather have Vonleh than Bell but are fine with Bell.

I'd be fine with Bell

 

[huskiesNhoos]

I agree in principle, but it's hard for Bell to be plan B when he'll probably accept our offer, leaving us with 5 frontcourt guys already signed for 2013 and maybe 1 ship available.

As opposed to our plan A, Vonleh, signing also leaving us with 5 frontcourt guys? Simply put we want Vonleh more than we want Bell, but we like both. Bell is a pretty sure bet at this point so we'll take him if we can get him, because if we don't pull the trigger on him we risk losing out on both leaving us with, god forbid, a plan C recruit and the second coming of Mandledove

 

[Huskies4ever]

As opposed to our plan A, Vonleh, signing also leaving us with 5 frontcourt guys? Simply put we want Vonleh more than we want Bell, but we like both. Bell is a pretty sure bet at this point so we'll take him if we can get him, because if we don't pull the trigger on him we risk losing out on both leaving us with, god forbid, a plan C recruit and the second coming of Mandledove

I really like Bell. I think he may have grown some. I saw one website which had him at 6'9" and 210. I also saw a video where he looked every bit that size, very long, and reminded me of Stanley Robinson, FWIW.

 

[huskiesNhoos]

I really like Bell. I think he may have grown some. I saw one website which had him at 6'9" and 210. I also saw a video where he looked every bit that size, very long, and reminded me of Stanley Robinson, FWIW.

Ya, I'm a big fan as well. I'm hoping he could come and be a Sticks/Adrien hybrid

 

[Huskies4ever]

Ya, I'm a big fan as well. I'm hoping he could come and be a Sticks/Adrien hybrid

Seriously, a guy with his length, athleticism, and shot blocking ability has big time potential.

 

[Donyell]

Take him if he wants to be here.

 

[Scot-e]

We are one of the best at finding kids in the lower end of the top 100 that are better then 50 kids ranked higher. Look at Mec as an example. I have no problem taking a kid like this- most schools that lose a HOF coach do not even get kids in the top 100 sniffing their school for several years.. @ Indiana

 

[husky91]

In all seriousness this is the stupidest post I have ever read.

Yes, it gets blurry the further you go down, but did you just say all rankings are irrelevant? In that case I want the Harrison twins and you can take the #112 guy.

Yes, rankings matter!

Seriously? you shouldn't have to be reminded of how little rankings mean when picking out talent. Someone feel free to break out the list of star players here ranked ~70-100 (Lamb, Emeka to name a couple).

Also, Noah Vonleh is clearly our plan A with Bell being plan B.

 

[UCONNfan1]

In all seriousness this is the stupidest post I have ever read.

Yes, it gets blurry the further you go down, but did you just say all rankings are irrelevant? In that case I want the Harrison twins and you can take the #112 guy.

Yes, rankings matter!

It is far from the stupidest post ever seen on this board. He can correct me if I'm wrong, but often times a kid who is in the 70-80 range (or lower) will end up quite a bit better than a kid who was rated in the top 40. Kids like Okafor and Lamb were not top 50 kids but both obviously went in the top 12. I don't think Hilton Armstrong was even in the top 100 in high school, but he managed to be drafted 12th. Where was Thabeet rated in high school?

Clearly not all high draft picks work out, but the fact that these low rated high school kids ended up being so good at UCONN that they were drafted high in the first round indicates that either high school rankings are often wrong, that UCONN develops these kids better than most, or a combo of both.

 

[alexd]

Thabeet was a top 70 kid....Armstrong was owell utside the top 100. His lone D1 offer was from LaSalle.

 

[Tenspro2002]

As opposed to our plan A, Vonleh, signing also leaving us with 5 frontcourt guys? Simply put we want Vonleh more than we want Bell, but we like both. Bell is a pretty sure bet at this point so we'll take him if we can get him, because if we don't pull the trigger on him we risk losing out on both leaving us with, god forbid, a plan C recruit and the second coming of Mandledove

That's a fair point. All I'm saying is I find it somewhat disheartening if we're already in a position of having to "settle" for a guy like Bell, when Vonleh is still out there (and we're obviously not getting both). My concern is less with performance -- recruiting rankings are an inexact science, for sure -- and more with perception -- specifically, feeding the perception that we're no longer a player for top recruits.

 

[Dogbreath2U]

Knowing nothing more than Vonleh's list of schools, I'd say we are a longshot. Take Bell if he ends up picking UConn and if Vonleh wants to come, take him too. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

 

[huskiesNhoos]

In all seriousness this is the stupidest post I have ever read.

Yes, it gets blurry the further you go down, but did you just say all rankings are irrelevant? In that case I want the Harrison twins and you can take the #112 guy.

Yes, rankings matter!

Let me give you a hand here since you seemed to badly misinterpret my statement. I said rankings "don't mean much when picking out talent." It probably would have been helpful to say that statement is more true outside of the top 10 or so recruits (maybe top 20 depending on the depth of a given class). When you get outside that top group of kids and you're actually "picking out talent" the rankings mean very little. Thank you UCONNfan1 for picking up on that and clarifying. As he said, guys in the 30-100 range are pretty much a crapshoot as far as how they're going to develop, but we are notorious for finding guys in that range and really developing them into good-great players.

Hopefully that helps you rethink my award of stupidest post ever...if not I don't know what to tell you...

 

[HooperScooper]

Article from Rivals.com today.

http://rivalshoops.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1429605

While the Oregon visit was very good, Bell still wants to see more campuses. UConn's Kevin Ollie has made an impression on him because of his approach and West Coast roots and Bell will be in Storrs soon.

"I want to meet the players and coaches and see how everything is out there," he said. "I want to see if I can fit in. Coach Ollie is a really good person and he's a West Coast guy, so there's a connection."

 

[husky99]

Is he talking visit or wearing a uconn uniform?