A few tidbits from the Mary Kline Classic at West Orange (N.J.) High:

*** Jalen Adams did not attend. No real reason given, just a lack of communication with the event's organizers over the past couple of weeks.

*** Bruce Brown, the Class of 2016 guard out of Vermont Academy who is Adams's cousin, said that UConn is a bit off his radar right now.

"They're not really recruiting me as hard as everybody else is," said Brown, who said that Michigan and Arizona are among those school recruiting him the hardest.

*** Mamadou Diarra looked strong and athletic in the low post, with a few dunks -- including this one:



Diarra finished with 20 points, mostly on dunks. He's got good feet, and a good body. Seems fairly skilled.

*** Hamidou Diallo -- who last week said that if he was picking a school now, it would be UConn -- said that there is no timetable for his decision.

"When the time is right," he said. St. John's, Syracuse, Providence and Wake Forest are among his many other suitors.

When asked what he's looking for in a program, Diallo said: "A place that makes me feel like I'm at home. And a coach that doesn't lie to me."

Diallo said he is looking to improve his strength and ballhandling this summer.

I wanted to ask Diallo if he was any relation to Amadou Diallo, the native of Guinea who was shot and killed by four plain-clothed police officers on Feb. 4, 1999. The killing sparked a firestorm of controversy, as the officers fired 41 shots at Diallo -- 19 of which hit him -- even though he was unarmed.

Hamidou said that he is not related, but that his family knew Amadou Diallo's family back in Africa, though not when they both lived in New York City.

*** Steve Enoch said he'll be arriving at Storrs sometime in mid-June for summer courses. His goals on the basketball court this summer?

"Getting stronger, and improving my motor. I have a pretty decent motor, but there's always room for improvement."

Asked Enoch about UConn's three new transfer additions over the past month -- Shonn Miller and Sterling Gibbs, who'll both play this season, and Terry Larrier, who won't be eligible until the 2016-17 season -- Enoch said:

"It's real interesting. I'm waiting to see what we can work with this year."

Enoch is expecting to come in and help UConn right off the bat, at least off the boards this season. The addition of Miller, who led Cornell with 8.5 rebounds per game last season, should take some of the pressure off Enoch.

"Fifth-year seniors are always a good value to a team," the 6-foot-10 Enoch said.

*** I realize this is ancient history by now, but not sure if I had ever heard Prince Ali's reasoning for de-committing from UConn last year. So, asked him why.

"I committed a little early," he said. "I decided to open things up, I was having a good summer. It was nothing with the coaching staff, nothing going on. I just decided to open up, check out other schools. If I had waiting a little longer (to commit), I doubt it would have ever happened."

No hard feelings, he stressed.

"Kevin Ollie's a great guy, all the coaches are great people, I'm cool with their players. They're great people."

Ali will take his talents to UCLA instead.

UConn has bagged a few big-time recruits since Kevin Ollie took over the head coaching reins.

Daniel Hamilton was a national Top 25 recruit, as is Jalen Adams. Amida Brimah has proven to be a bit of a diamond-in-the-rough (his late-season play notwithstanding), and Steve Enoch appears to be better than some originally thought.

Still, the Huskies haven't exactly burned up the recruiting trails since their national title. They've lost out on numerous recruits, and while they're in on many of them and obviously can't get them all, it's a bit surprising that they haven't landed more.

It appears one of UConn's new recruiting pastures sits up in southern Vermont. Three of the Huskies' top targets play for Alex Popp up at Vermont Academy: Bruce Brown, a Class of 2016 (for now) combo guard; Tyrique Jones, a Class of 2016 power forward who hails from Bloomfield; and Samuel Mathias, 6-11 1/2 center from the Class of 2017.

UConn has offered all three players -- two of them (Jones and Mathias) in the same day. In fact, Kevin Ollie extended his offer to Mathias on the same day that Mathias went up against Enoch and St. Thomas More back in January.

It'll be interesting to see if UConn and Vermont Academy can establish a recruiting relationship. Popp was recruited as a player by Glen Miller when Miller coached at Brown, and he has known Miller and Karl Hobbs for several years and got to know Ollie out on the recruiting trails while he was an assistant at Holy Cross and thinks "very highly" of the Huskies' head coach.

"The opportunity to cultivate a great relationship with Vermont Academy makes a lot of sense," Popp said of UConn. "Say they miss on two of these three, or even three of three. We're gonna have a lot of great players coming forward. You're gonna go out and get other guys that can play at that level. Both parties are hoping the relationship can grow."

Here's a look at the three current VA players that UConn is recruiting:

BRUCE BROWN

"He's a leader, a guy who doesn't take days off," Popp said. "That translates to basketball."

Popp added that Brown, a 6-foot-4, 205-pound guard, is a multi-dimensional talent.



"We try to emphasize versatility in our program. We put him on the ball, off the ball. Defensively, ini a league where every team has rosters full of Division 1 players, he would guard four different positions in the span of a game. If LeBron James doesn't have a position, why do our guys have a position. He's somebody who really thrives at that."

Popp noted that Brown is very athletic, as well.

"He's explosive, both laterally and vertically," the coach said. "Combine that with his strength. He's a football player, with a football players' mentality. A lot of people compare him to Russell Westbrook. He just kind of overpowers the opposition."

Unprompted, Popp said that Brown would make a great backcourt mate with Jalen Adams.

"He's a power guard, he really is," the coach continued. "Looking at Jalen Adams, it's hard to ignore that. Put the two of them in the same backcourt, it would be special."

Popp said that Indiana, Iowa State, Michigan, Arizona State, UMass, VCU and UConn are working the hardest on him right now. IU's Tom Crean has been the most present of all the coaches. 

Brown hails from Boston, though his mom recently moved to Georgia. There has been lots of talk that Brown will re-classify to the Class of 2015, but Popp had no comment on that and, as of now, Brown is still '16.

"The best way I could describe Bruce Brown is he's a winner," Popp summed up. "If you're a college basketball coach, that's what puts food on your table. He's a winner. He's constant with it. It's not, 'I'm gonna mail it in today, coach, because we don't play in four days.' It doesn't matter if it's a simple drill, he wants to win every single drill in practice. It's remarkable how contagious that is when you have a guy who's as talented as Bruce Brown, because everyone in your program falls in line."

TYRIQUE JONES:

Jones is a 6-8, 240-pound jumping jack from Bloomfield.

"He grew up a big-time UConn fan," said Popp, "so they have that going for them, no doubt about it. That was his squad growing up."

Popp added that noted recruiting analyst Adam Finklestein recently named Jones the best rebounder of the Class of 2016.

"I spent time as a D-1 coach," Popp said. "For me, if you're not emphasizing rebounding in your recruiting, you're doing it wrong. Rebounding not only wins games, it wins championships at this level. He's very much a target."

Popp added that Jones has a "nose for the ball. He does a great job of winning all those 50-50's. He rebounds out of his area, above the rim. He's an underrated passer."

SAMUEL JAPHET-MATHIAS

At 6-11 1/2, 290 pounds, Mathias is a raw 16-year-old who has excellent hands and feet.

"He's a little bit of a dying breed," said Popp. "You don't have a lot of those positional, back-to-the-basket guys anymore. He knows what to do with it when the ball gets on the block."

Mathias was born in Nigeria and grew up in London. Ollie and Hobbs saw him play in some preseason open gyms and offered a scholarship after he went for 16 points and nine rebounds against St. Thomas More.

"In that game, he showed off an array of skills," said Popp. "He scored the ball on the block, pick and popped, scored with both hands, got a tip dunk. It was pretty obvious he could help UConn right away."

Of course, the Huskies would have to wait a couple of years, as the big kid is Class of 2017.

Whether UConn winds up with any of these players remains to be seen. But Popp is confident that any team that could get all three would be in very good shape.'

"You get those three guys," the coach said, "you're gonna win some national championships."

UConn fans will have a chance to see Husky commits Jalen Adams and Steve Enoch at the 2015 Spalding Hoophall Classic on Sunday at Springfield College.

Adams, a Class of 2015 guard, will lead a powerful Brewster Academy into action at 11 a.m. against Montverde Academy Prep from Florida. Later in the day, Enoch, a Class of 2015 power forward, and his St. Thomas More School team will face Vermont Academy (which boasts a couple of UConn targets in '16 forward Tyrique Jones and '16 guard Bruce Brown) at 6:30 p.m.

After that game, Husky target Omari Spellman, a 6-foot-8, 270-pound Class of 2016 power forward, will play for MacDuffie School against Commonwealth Academy at 8 p.m.

Date	Day	Gender	Time	Team 1	Team 2
18-Jan	Sunday	Boys	9:00 AM	Wilbraham and Monson Academy, MA	Suffield Academy, CT
18-Jan	Sunday	Boys	11:00 AM	Brewster Academy, NH	Montverde Academy Prep, FL
18-Jan	Sunday	Boys	12:30 PM	Life Center Academy, NJ	Orangeville Prep, Ontario
18-Jan	Sunday	Boys	2:00 PM	Our Savior New American, NY	Huntington Prep, WV
18-Jan	Sunday	Boys	3:30 PM	St. Andrew's School, RI	New Hampton School, NH
18-Jan	Sunday	Boys	5:00 PM	Nortfhfield Mount Hermon School, MA	Tilton School, NH
18-Jan	Sunday	Boys	6:30 PM	St. Thomas More School, CT	Vermont Academy, VT
18-Jan	Sunday	Boys	8:00 PM	Commonwealth Academy, MA	MacDuffie School, MA

On Monday, UConn Class of 2016 target V.J. King will lead Paul VI High School of Virginia into action against Chaminade College Prep of Missouri. That game (along with three others preceding it) will be televised on ESPNU.

---

Date	Day	Gender	Time	Team 1	Team 2
19-Jan	Monday	Boys	9:00 AM	St. Anthony High School, NJ	Constitution High School, PA
19-Jan	Monday	Boys	11:00 AM	Wheeler High School, GA	Bishop O'Dowd High School, CA
19-Jan	Monday	Boys	1:00 PM	Oak Hill Academy, VA	Villa Angela St. Joseph, OH
19-Jan	Monday	Boys	3:00 PM	Montverde Academy, FL	Bishop Gorman High School, NV
19-Jan	Monday	Boys	5:00 PM	Paul VI High School, VA	Chaminade College Prep, MO

Spalding Hoophall Classic Programming Schedule
(All Games on ESPNU)

Date	Time	Matchup
Monday, Jan. 19	11 a.m.	No. 25 Bishop O’Dowd, Calif. vs. No. 3 Wheeler, Ga.
	1 p.m.	No. 6 Oak Hill, Va. vs. No. 11 Villa Angela-St. Joseph, Ohio
	3 p.m.	Bishop Gorman, Nev. vs. No. 4 Montverde, Fla.
	5 p.m.	Chaminade, Mo. vs. Paul VI, Va.