UConn coach Kevin Ollie will look out onto the Madison Square Garden floor Friday night and watch power forward Noah Vonleh doing his thing. Ollie undoubtedly would prefer seeing Vonleh in a Huskies uniform. Instead, the name on the front of the jersey will be Indiana, UConn’s opponent in the championship game of the 2K Sports Classic Benefiting Wounded Warrior Project.
UConn did all it could to land Vonleh, the 6-foot-9, 220-pound forward from New Hampton School and Haverhill, Mass., who committed to Indiana on Nov. 10, 2012. The Huskies thought they might have an outside shot at landing him if he wanted to stay close to home.
But the Hoosiers won this recruiting battle.
Vonleh had made an official visit to Syracuse, but he also broke hearts at Georgetown, Kansas, North Carolina, and Ohio State. That’s an impressive list of scholarship offers. Five games into his college career, it’s easy to understand all the fuss.
Through those five games, Vonleh is averaging 15.4 points and 11.8 rebounds, helping the Hoosiers to a 5-0 start. Those numbers are just shy of the more heralded freshmen in this remarkable class, Andrew Wiggins of Kansas (17.0, 6.0), Jabari Parker of Duke (22.4, 8.8), and Julius Randle of Kentucky (20.8, 13.4), but certainly high enough to attract plenty of attention.
Vonleh had 18 points and nine rebounds Thursday night as the Hoosiers defeated Washington 102-84 in one semifinal game. That’s the only time in Vonleh’s young career that he hasn’t recorded a double-double. Against Stony Brook last weekend, Vonleh had 18 points and 15 rebounds.
“Just look at his stats,” Ollie said earlier this week when asked for his impressions of Vonleh. “I recruited the guy. I know what type of family he is from. He’s got a great pedigree. High-character individual. And then starting out like that, that’s unbelievable, getting double-doubles each and every game. Not just getting 10 rebounds, I mean, getting 14 or 15 rebounds. He’s doing an incredible job. He has talent and he is a relentless, hard worker.”
Of course, UConn recruited Vonleh during a period on instability in the men’s basketball program. The Huskies were entering into a postseason ban because of APR results. Alex Oriakhi and Roscoe Smith had transferred. Then in September, Hall of Fame coach Jim Calhoun retired and Ollie was hired with a seven-month contract.
Whether or not those factors influenced Vonleh isn’t relevant at this point. The big man picked Indiana and now coach Tom Crean is overseeing his improvement as a player. Crean says Vonleh gets “more comfortable every day” and has an “uncommon work ethic and maturity.”
“We see it every day because he’s such a sponge to get better,” Crean said. “He has great humility and a humbleness because he knows he’s got to get a lot better. He wants to learn. He’s been well coached coming in. His mother is one of the hardest working people I’ve ever met. It carries over into the way Noah plays.”
The Huskies know what to expect from Vonleh. The question heading into tonight’s game is whether they can contain him. No one else has been able to so far.
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