After a long courtship, months of rumors and one frigid January basketball game, five-star center Zach Brown has finally committed to UConn.
Reggie Rankin of ESPN broke the news Wednesday morning. Brown attended Tuesday’s UConn game against Tulane at the XL Center and verbally committed to Kevin Ollie the next morning.
In September, our own Peter Bard described Brown, a 7’1″ recruit out of Miami, as “a high-effort player… a major contributor on both ends of the floor. His game is still raw in some ways, but he’s a big, powerful player who runs the floor well, and who already possesses an NBA-type body.”
Brown is having a monster season at Miami Beach High School, averaging 19.3 points, 17 rebounds and 8.6 blocks per game.
Ollie hosted Brown (#20, 247 composite) over the long Labor Day weekend in September and sources close to the program said Brown was ready to commit at that time. As Brown is a 2017 recruit, his guardian felt it prudent to visit other schools and endure more of the recruiting process before making a decision. Brown eventually chose the Huskies over Kentucky, a major victory for Ollie.
Brown’s commitment extends an incredible recruiting hot streak for Ollie that now includes top-100 recruits Jalen Adams (#23), Steve Enoch (#85), Juwan Durham (#32), Alterique Gilbert (#33), Vance Jackson (#62) — not to mention Mamadou Diarra (#123), the transfer of Terry Larrier and fifth-year seniors Shonn Miller and Sterling Gibbs.
Do not get too excited about rankings in the so called top 100 and the various “star” nomenclatures. As you have seen this year; the two touted impact freshmen players have performed to date like practice players. The current coach is not on a recruiting binge of success until the players matriculate and perform in an effective, division I enivironment. At this time this premise is not fulfilled on any level and based on current performance, combined with last year’s 15 losses and the potential for the 2017 version to lose many, many current performers; a triple NIT or less listing 2015, 2016, 2017 has high chi square likelihood.
Jalen Adams
Rodney Purvis
Terry Larrier
Kenton Facey
Amidah Brimah
w/ Alterique Gilbert, Vance Jackson and crew coming off the bench?
This will be a top 15 team next year…
Thank you Brian for your excellent Homer outlook. Now, if only Homers could suit up to hit some Homers.
Not being a Homer- “elmo”
I’ve been a Huskies fan for 20 years, and what I would consider a knowledgeable one for the past 10.
For example- this year they do nowhere due to a lack of true team chemistry. But next year DHam (who I think is the culprit with both eyes on the NBA) and Gibbs (who is an awful floor leader) are gone. Out with the bad apples and in with new talent.
Now if we could only find a way to keep Shonn Miller for 5 more years 🙂