Bianciardi weighs in on what he saw plus some extra UConn related stuff:
Big Man encore
While the Stone/Labissiere matchup took top billing Wednesday night, the encore featured late-blooming big men
Steve Enoch and
Jean Marc Christ Koumadje who have been the subject of wide-ranging interest and offers this spring. They drew the attention of virtually every high-major head coach in the gym on Wednesday night. Koumadje, who landed an offer from UCLA just last week, added one from the defending national champions after his performance Wednesday. Though raw and lean, the 7-foot-3 center changes ends extremely well, is very athletic around the rim and assertive on both ends of the floor. Enoch didn’t make quite the same impact initially, but made his presence felt in the third quarter, hitting a three-pointer off pick-and-pop action and using his strength to muscle Koumadje off his sweet spots.
One year later
It was exactly one year ago that ESPN 100 small forward
Derrick Jones, than just a rising junior, lived up to the name of the event by “breaking out” with offers from Kentucky and Kansas. Ironically, those offers almost stalled his recruitment as most other schools considered Jones to be beyond their reach. His recruitment started to pick up again this spring. He visited Connecticut unofficially last month and is hoping to see Kansas, Kentucky, Florida, Indiana, and Louisville following the evaluation period. All six schools followed him on Wednesday night. UConn and Kentucky were both three coaches deep while Louisville had two. Kansas, Florida, and Indiana all had assistants watching as well. Jones didn’t disappoint as he was all over the rim on the offensive end, showing his trademark athleticism, while also making some soft pull-ups.
