UConn reaches out to former Va Tech Commit..

[Matt (Chicago)]

Montrezl Harrell. He was released from his LOI last wk. This per Duffy's twitter. Interesting side note, he played high school ball at Hargrave Military, which produced another very prestigious Husky, can any guess who?

 

[Hoophound]

What happened with tech? I am all for getting another Caron, but I always want to have a good understanding why a kid backed out of a commitment or was asked to back out.

 

[imno1]

He asked out after VT fired Seth Greenberg.

 

[alexd]

Montrezl Harrell. He was released from his LOI last wk. This per Duffy's twitter. Interesting side note, he played high school ball at Hargrave Military, which produced another very prestigious Husky, can any guess who?

Prestigious????

Mandeldove attended Hargrave.

 

[tykurez]

Prestigious????

Mandeldove attended Hargrave.

I still can't get over the fact that the Dove was a 4-star (and rising) ...

 

[HuskyBballFan]

Prestigious????

Mandeldove attended Hargrave.

I saw Hargrave play at the big high school showcase that they have at Springfield College every MLK weekend. Mandledove did not see the court for a single second.

Granted, their starting frontcourt was Mo Speights (now of the Memphis Grizzlies), Vernon Macklin (Georgetown/then Florida), and Tyler Smith (Iowa/then Tennessee). But I was shocked that a 7 footer who had committed to play for Uconn (and this was Uconn in 2006 - recruiting was hardly a problem) couldn't get off the bench for a single second.

 

[UCweCONN]

Harrell is exactly the type of player we need. We lost out on Anthony Bennett who was also a great fit. Harrell is the type of undersized maximun energy guy that we used to have when we were dominating, guys like Donny Marshall, Johnnie Selvie, Caron Butler, and Jeff Adrien. Most of the best regular season teams Calhoun has had have had lunch pail guys like them. With that said, after losing out on Bennett and Amile Jefferson, Calipari is making a hard push for Harrell and you know our success rate against him and his NBA express.

 

[HooperScooper]

I saw Hargrave play at the big high school showcase that they have at Springfield College every MLK weekend. Mandledove did not see the court for a single second.

Granted, their starting frontcourt was Mo Speights (now of the Memphis Grizzlies), Vernon Macklin (Georgetown/then Florida), and Tyler Smith (Iowa/then Tennessee). But I was shocked that a 7 footer who had committed to play for Uconn (and this was Uconn in 2006 - recruiting was hardly a problem) couldn't get off the bench for a single second.

Yeah, DogMania and I went to see Mandeldove play that same year at a prep tournament in RI. He didn't play much and was less than stellar in the few minutes he did play. We decided we knew a lot less than JC and hopefully he had more potential than what we saw.

 

[Danzz]

I saw Hargrave play at the big high school showcase that they have at Springfield College every MLK weekend. Mandledove did not see the court for a single second.

Granted, their starting frontcourt was Mo Speights (now of the Memphis Grizzlies), Vernon Macklin (Georgetown/then Florida), and Tyler Smith (Iowa/then Tennessee). But I was shocked that a 7 footer who had committed to play for Uconn (and this was Uconn in 2006 - recruiting was hardly a problem) couldn't get off the bench for a single second.

Dove was big, strong and probably dominated smaller players in HS. All the elements were there to make him an offer and watch him develop. Its the "develop" that was the problem.

 

[HeGotGame]

What happened with tech? I am all for getting another Caron, but I always want to have a good understanding why a kid backed out of a commitment or was asked to back out.

How about getting another Mandeldove???

 

[DogMania]

Dove was big, strong and probably dominated smaller players in HS. All the elements were there to make him an offer and watch him develop. Its the "develop" that was the problem.

Dove did not dominate in HS. As other pointed out, he was buried deep down the bench and didn't play as much as the other bigs at Hargrave. When he was in there he was raw offensively but moved well for a kid his size. I thought he might have the potential to be another Josh Boone type player but he could never get his act together. He was one of those laid back nice kids that sometimes don't have the drive and focus to develop their game.

On a side note, I hope wolf doesn't fit that category. Wolf reminds me of Dove in that he's big and relatively mobile for a kid his size. Some bigs look slower than they should due to either a lack of BBIQ or real game experience. When a player is not sure about what to do, all it takes is a slight hesitation or lack of reaction and they look a lot slower than they actually are. I'm hoping that Wolf and the other inexperienced bigs will learn quickly and know when to step up and stop penetration, when stay on their man, when to step into passing lanes, when to put a body on an offensive rebounder, when to hedge, when to release back into the paint, etc.

Some kids are simply not athletic enough. I'm hopeful that the bigs we have will be plenty athletic and quick studies. If not, teams are going to exploit our lack of post experience and talent. We could be in for a scary 2012/13 season. I hopefully the team will surprise us in a positive way.

 

[Kyla]

Dove also was lazy as hell. Maybe he could have turned into something if he worked a little harder.

 

[UCweCONN]

I remember reading reports when we signed Mandeldove that he was a 'project' who we only took on a chance he might develop and also as a body in practice. There were no expectations of him and he lived up to those expectations.

 

[DogMania]

Harrell would be a great fit. Here's what one of the recruiting sites said about him:

Harrell is a beast mode power forward who is always going 100 mph to make things happen. He is strong, tough, and is a freak athlete which allows him to dominate opponents down low.His skill set on the outside needs to catch up with his physical abilities, but he is very productive despite the size limitation.

I found it interesting that a kid listed at 6-7, 235 would be described as very productive despite the size limitation. If he's anywhere close to those numbers that's plenty big for a college 4-man. Even if he's closer to 6-6 and 225, that's a good start for a HS PF who has a big time motor.

If he is anywhere close to the high octane undersized 4 in the mold of Kevin Freeman or Chevon Troutman, he'd be a great get.

With that said, a recruit who just decommitted from a program that fired their coach is probably looking for stability. That doesn't seem to fit UConn. Let's hope that KO can strike up a solid connection. If they could just get him onto campus and show him some clips of KFree, maybe JC could close the deal. (Wow, I completely forgot that KFree is on the staff. they should just introduce him to Kevin, a player he'll probably identify with, to close the deal. KFree is not allowed to go out and recruit, but I'm sure he can spend time with recruits who come to visit.) The moment Kevin hit the floor for the first time he earned a lot of PT. JC just loves high motor bigs. As much as he sounds like a great fit and there seems to be a ton of PT he could earn, I'm just not sure it they can make this happen. I hope I'm wrong!

 

[Danzz]

Scout profile:

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=montrezl harrell&source=web&cd

 

[UChusky916]

Some good stuff here from Kevin Duffy on the kid:

http://blog.ctnews.com/uconnbasketball/2012/05/18/uconn-contacts-ex-virginia-tech-commit-harrell/

 

[UCweCONN]

Harrell would be a great fit. Here's what one of the recruiting sites said about him:

Harrell is a beast mode power forward who is always going 100 mph to make things happen. He is strong, tough, and is a freak athlete which allows him to dominate opponents down low.His skill set on the outside needs to catch up with his physical abilities, but he is very productive despite the size limitation.

I found it interesting that a kid listed at 6-7, 235 would be described as very productive despite the size limitation. If he's anywhere close to those numbers that's plenty big for a college 4-man. Even if he's closer to 6-6 and 225, that's a good start for a HS PF who has a big time motor.

If he is anywhere close to the high octane undersized 4 in the mold of Kevin Freeman or Chevon Troutman, he'd be a great get.

With that said, a recruit who just decommitted from a program that fired their coach is probably looking for stability. That doesn't seem to fit UConn. Let's hope that KO can strike up a solid connection. If they could just get him onto campus and show him some clips of KFree, maybe JC could close the deal. (Wow, I completely forgot that KFree is on the staff. they should just introduce him to Kevin, a player he'll probably identify with, to close the deal. KFree is not allowed to go out and recruit, but I'm sure he can spend time with recruits who come to visit.) The moment Kevin hit the floor for the first time he earned a lot of PT. JC just loves high motor bigs. As much as he sounds like a great fit and there seems to be a ton of PT he could earn, I'm just not sure it they can make this happen. I hope I'm wrong!

I don't know how I forgot Freeman from my earlier post. If I was JC, I'd make a highlight video of all those guys to show Harrell.

 

[RabidHusky]

In the above Video he reminds me of 6'5" Tim Coles who played center for us quite adequately against the likes of Pat Ewing.

 

[Ricky1Moore]

That kid looks pretty sick.... Why would he go to Va Tech in the first place? Anyway...

I hear Kentucky is in on him now.... but Kentucky also has a couple guys in his exact mold that he'll have to sit behind...

While all highlight videos are exactly that... the above one does show him looking pretty solid with the ball, explosive off the floor, aggressive at the rim... Perfect fit

 

[Dogbreath2U]

Wow, he looks like he would be a just about perfect piece to add. Strong, aggressive moves, gets up quick....hopefully he competes to rebound the same way he attacks the hoop.

 

[uconnbill]

The kind of blue collar player UConn could use for the next couple of years. I hope KO and Coach Calhoun can lock him up soon

 

[sledog]

What a clip. Sign him up.

 

[champs99and04]

Not going to get my hopes up because it seems like a long shot. Would be a great addition though, because he looks athletic enough to guard college fours and fast enough to cause problems on the other end. He'd also be perfect because he might stick around 3-4 years due to his height. Calhoun should go hard after this kid.

 

[dsturdy5]

I like everything I have read about this kid. I hope UConn can get him onto campus. The kid committed to Va Tech originally so not being in the NCAA tournament next year shouldn't be a deterrent.

 

[Matt (Chicago)]

The real test is finding out what our in house talent guru Huskymagic thinks of him