In Storrs now (kind of miss that old name for the blog, but I digress…) and have a few tidbits from the UConn men’s basketball team to pass along.
– Freshman forward Roscoe Smith will arrive on campus this weekend to join most of the team’s incoming class.
Shabazz Napier, Jeremy Lamb, Michael Bradley and Tyler Olander are here already.
The Huskies will have to wait a short time before German imports Niels Giffey and Enosch Wolf get to town.
– Jonathan Mandeldove will try to return to the team, contrary to what some scribes (yours truly included) wrote recently.
As our friend Dave Borges first pointed out, Mandeldove can come back on his own dime and not disturb the scholarship totals.
Head coach Jim Calhoun said Friday that Mandeldove has some academic issues to resolve this summer but could return after all.
“If he gets squared away, he’ll come back,” Calhoun said.
– The Husky staff is in the middle of running basketball camp(s) but also is trying to prepare for the coming year.
Associate head coach George Blaney says last season is still something of a mystery, in that the Huskies were so good at times yet lost countless (OK, so you could count them, I suppose) close games.
“We actually went over 10 games that we could have won,” Blaney said. “You’re not going to win all 10 of them but if you win six or seven of those, it’s a completely different situation.”
– The coaching staff seems enthusiastic about the influx of talent. A total of seven new players are slated to suit up in 2011-12.
“The only negative is the age. They’re young and inexperienced,” Blaney said. “But it’s a very talented group. You can see there’s some guys that have the potential to be really good.”
Some quick thumbnail evaluations from Blaney:
“Roscoe, he might be as good an athlete as there is in the group,” Blaney said.
Napier wasn’t rated by many of the scouting services in the Class of 2010 because he was supposed to be a 2011 prospect. If they had, he’d be pretty high Blaney says.
“In this class he’s at least top four from what I’ve seen,” Blaney said.
“He’s a little wild. He’s going to have to tone it down a little bit,” Blaney said of Napier. “But he’s very, very talented and very competitive.”
Both Lamb and Olander could be surprises, it seems.
“Lamb’s got game. He’s got a lot,” Blaney said. “He’s got skills, he’s got smarts, he’s got size.”
And Olander?
“He’s much better than people think he is,” Blaney said. “He competes, he runs hard, he knows how to play. We’re just going to have to find a position for him. He’s almost a three-and-a-half but we’re probably going to need him more at the four.”
– According to a tweet from his adviser/coach Nate Blue, Maurice Harkless is no longer considering UConn. A 6-7 swingman from Queens, Harkless verbally committed to the Huskies last year but recently re-opened his recruitment.
“Maurice really wanted to go to uconn, but it wasnt the best situation for both of them. For too many reason, but fear of comp wasnt one,” Blue wrote from his twitter account.
Harkless, a rising senior (Class of 2011), will play in the fall at South Kent (Conn.) after spending three years at Forest Hills in Queens.
- Neill
