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August 3, 2008
Mr. Robinson in the Neighborhood
Sunday isn’t a day of rest for many sportswriters, so yours truly took in an afternoon of basketball in Storrs (how novel). Jim Calhoun’s second annual elite camp was in full swing, so here are a few notes.
-- Stanley Robinson, who Calhoun has said would miss at least the first semester this season, was at the camp and confirmed that scenario. “Sticks” says he plans to return in January to the school and the program, though that still seems like a longshot.
Robinson is living with his uncle in Connecticut and will be taking a course at a local community college. Stanley said he expects to pass the course and return to UConn.
It’s not clear that academics were the sole reason for Robinson’s departure, however, and the process might not be that simple. Also, UConn has reached its allotment for scholarships (assuming everyone who is scheduled to arrive in the fall does so), so Robinson would have to pay his own way.
The most likely scenario involves Robinson sitting out the entire year and coming back to school and to the team in 2009. That’s a long time to sit, but Robinson doesn’t seem ready to give up on the Huskies yet.
One thing is fairly clear: the 6-foot-9 small forward hasn’t lost any of his hops. Robinson was still his high-flying self during a workout Sunday.
-- A number of the nation’s top recruits were on hand for the camp. Here’s a short (meaning long) list. FYI, there are bound to be misspellings in here, for which I apologize. The source material had many typos.
Anali Okoloji, Nelson Laquan, Mattieu Johnson, Kamren Belin, Andre Drummond, Richard Peters, Tobias Harris, Jordan Williams, Emeka Okoloji, Patrick Young, Mike Buffalo, Anthony Jernigan, Greg Langston, Tyler Rich, Eric Copes, Dominic Cheek, Durand Scott, Josh Turner, Keran Iverson, Torrel Harris, Kadeem Green, Jakarri McCallup, Ryan Genva, Daniel Orton
Alex Oriakhi and Jamal Coombs-McDaniel, the longtime UConn commits, missed a flight out of Orlando following an AAU tournament and weren’t in Storrs Sunday. They were expected to arrive Monday, along with their teammate Gerard Coleman.
-- A couple of cursory observations:
Orton is big. Really big. And he’s smart. And he seems to have family/friends/advisors who know the ropes.
Cheek sounds like he really likes UConn. Of course, many players like the school they are visiting at the moment of their visit. But Cheek’s time playing with incoming UConn guard Kemba Walker could give the Huskies an unexpected boost in the recruiting game.
Young is a very nice young man, and a quickly improving basketball player.
Peters is only starting his high school career, but watch out. He’s just 15 years old and going to be good.
More in Monday’s Connecticut Post.
- Neill
Posted by Neill on August 3, 2008 10:35 PM
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