Been a while since I've blogged, so here's a mega-post off today's "Meet the Freshmen" at the Werth Center. This group of frosh is calling themselves "The Top Five," and they certainly could be one of the program's better classes when it's all said and done.

'The Top Five' (l. to r.), Vance Jackson, Juwan Durham, Christian Vital, Mamadou Diarra, Alterique Gilbert.

Here's some sights and sounds from this afternoon:

JUWAN DURHAM:

(on how good this freshman class can be)

“I believe that it’s the best in the country right now. We have guys that can do everything. We have scorers, decent defensive players, we have vocal leaders in Alterique and Christian, a shooter like Vance, a nice big like Mamadou, and versatility in myself, I believe. Coach K.O. told us that we have a chance to start. You know he doesn’t keep the same starting lineup, so whoever’s out there working the hardest and doing the best that they can do, they’ll be able to start.”

(on getting adjusted to life on UConn's campus)

“I like the area, because there’s not much in Storrs to do, other than play basketball and go to class. That’s what I really liked about it. I liked the campus, I liked the coaching staff and I liked the team. I knew the incoming freshmen class that we already have, with Mamadou and Alterique, I knew I’d be in good hands with those guys. We have good leaders in Kentan Facey and Jalen Adams and Rodney Purvis and Amida (Brimah).”

“I grew up in the city. Tampa, Florida … is really a fast-paced city, a lot of big buildings and stuff like that, interstates. Out here, there’s nothing but giant bugs. I saw an ant probably the size of my big toe. It’s crazy stuff that I’ve never seen before. It’s something new. I can go back and tell my family back at home. I took a video of a bee, I think it was. It was like that big (stretches fingers out). I was really confused about that.”

VANCE JACKSON:

ALTERIQUE GILBERT:

CHRISTIAN VITAL:

“You see Vance, he’s a 6-8 shooter, scorer, versatile. Alterique and I have no problem playing together – obviously he’s not playing yet, his shoulder’s still recovering, but we talk about (things like) I don’t mind if he brings up the ball, I don’t need to bring up the ball every time, he doesn’t need to bring the ball up all the time, he’s a selfless person – you see Mamadou, he’s a beast on the boards and starting to work on his mid-range shot, and Juwan, he’s still recovering, but he’s 6-11 and we were shooting around and he made, like, 10 3’s in a row. So, this class is really, really talented and versatile. I believe we’re one of the best recruiting classes in 2016. We need to prove it during the season.”

“Obviously, we want to win a national championship. That’s what everyone wants to do. We just talk about getting better as a group, pushing each other, making sure that no one person is slacking. Because if one person is slacking out of the five of us, we’re all slacking. We’re a team, we’re close with our other teammates, as well, but there’s something about that freshman group. Your class you come in with, you’re just a little bit tighter with, because you’re experiencing something new at the same time. We just talk about sticking together and keep getting each other better.”

(on whether he's a 'Kevin Ollie-type player,' as his prep coach called him)

“I think that’s one of the pictures coach K.O. was telling me when he was recruiting me, that you’re extremely hard-working. He spent 13 years in the NBA and he was never the best player on his team, he never averaged multiple points a game, he was just a hard-worker. He says I can shoot better than him, but those intangibles of working hard and wanting it more than other people, that I can achieve my dreams, too. And he can help me to that. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to play for Coach K.O.”

(on how his best friend, Steve Enoch, helped persuade him to come to UConn)

“I kind of spoke to him before it went public and told him what my five were gonna be. From then, he was texting me, ‘Listen, bro, what are you doing? Just commit now. Just commit now.’ So he definitely had an impact on me coming here.”

(on his friendship with Enoch)

“We just became such close friends (at St. Thomas More). We have the same interests off the court. We like to work out. We go to the gym at 6:30 a.m., preseason and during the season. We’d hang out in each other’s rooms, play video games when there was nothing much else to do on a prep school campus. It’s not like we could leave, so we just really bonded together. That’s my best friend.”

(on Enoch playing for Team Armenia this summer)

“I spoke to him yesterday. I was like, ‘Good luck out there, do your thing.’ I spoke to him the other night to work hard out there. You’re not there for no reason. He’s new to basketball. He wasn’t really on varsity from his freshman year like a lot of other players. So I told him, you’re out there for a reason, work hard, do your thing, and enjoy your experience out there.”

MAMADOU DIARRA:

“I think this group is gonna be really special. We’re already half the team this year, so we’re gonna all play major roles with the team. We’re with each other all day, so we’re jelling, and that’s gonna help us out a lot. Everybody brings their own uniqueness.”

(defense and rebounding)

“That’s gonna be my niche to get on the floor. And I know I’ve got to develop offensively. But I figure once I get in the gym all the time and put in that work, that’s gonna come eventually. But I’m gonna deal with my strengths at first, and then grow from there.”

UConn has received a national letter-of-intent from Christian Vital. Here's the press release the school sent out this afternoon:

The UConn men's basketball program has received a signed Letter of Intent from Christian Vital, a combination guard from Queens Village, N.Y., who will join the freshman class of 2016-17.

Vital, 6-2 and 170 pounds, averaged 16.2 points per game last season at St. Thomas More (Oakdale, Conn.), helping the Chancellors to a 31-7 record and the National Prep Championship finals.
Vital is known as a high-energy athlete, who can play either guard position, with an outstanding long range jumper, and is a solid defender. But UConn coach Kevin Ollie feels that he brings to the program much more than his basketball skills.

"Besides being a great basketball player with a great basketball mind, Christian is just an outstanding leader," Ollie said. "He has won wherever he's been. He's a great person who lifts your spirit when you're around him.

"Christian's ability to play both guard positions and his leadership qualities are what intrigued us. His combination of talent and character are what we're looking for in our student-athletes. We think he'll be a wonderful addition to the program."

Vital was a New England Prep School Athletic Conference Class AAA All-New England First-Team selection. He scored 13 points, including three three-pointers, and handed out seven assists in the Jordan Brand Classic Regional Game, in which he played with fellow UConn incoming recruit Mamadou Diarra.

"He may have improved more than any kid I've ever had here for two years," St.Thomas More coach Jere Quinn told the Norwich Bulletin. "He's such a hard worker. First to show up in the gym, last to leave --- that kind of kid."

Vital is also well-acquainted with more of his future UConn teammates. In 2014-15 at St. Thomas More, he was a teammate of UConn rising sophomore forward Steve Enoch, he played he played AAU ball with current UConn redshirt sophomore Terry Larrier, and knows UConn rising sophomore Jalen Adams from the AAU and NEPSAC circuits
.
Vital joins UConn's highly-touted recruiting class which has been consistently rated among the top 10 in the country, including forward Diarra (Queens, N.Y.), guard Alterique Gilbert (Lithonia, Ga.), and forwards Vance Jackson (Altedena, Calif.), and Juwan Durham (Tampa, Fla.).

Stepping off a plane from Miami to be greeted by windy, 20-degree temperatures in Connecticut on Tuesday wasn’t enough to hinder Zach Brown’s fondness for all things UConn.

“I love UConn and I love Connecticut,” Brown, a 7-foot, 260-pound center, said while sporting a UConn knit hat and sitting behind the bench at the Huskies’ game against Tulane on Tuesday night at the XL Center.

He proved that love even more on Wednesday morning by committing to the Huskies. He’s the first Class of 2017 player to pledge to Kevin Ollie.

“It’s a brotherhood, and they’re also on a mission that you’re good at academics, not just basketball,” Brown said of UConn.

It was pretty obvious that Brown was going to commit to UConn on Tuesday night, when he had to think for a moment about the other programs he was considering:



Obviously, it was UConn all the way. Brown has made a prior unofficial visit to Storrs back in September.

Brown, who is a national top 25 recruit for the Class of 2017, continues Ollie’s recent trend of landing top prospects. UConn’s Class of 2016 roundup is considered one of the best in the nation by various recruiting outlets, headed by McDonald’s All-American Alterique Gilbert, a point guard out of Georgia. Joining Gilbert in the ‘16 class are Vance Jackson, a 6-8 small forward out of California’s Prolific Prep; Mamadou Diarra, a 6-8 power forward from Putnam Science Academy; and Juwan Durham, a 6-11 center out of Tampa, Florida.

Too many 3-pointers. An unimaginative offense. Continued poor play from Daniel Hamilton. The end of Rodney Purvis's double-figures streak. We could go on and on ...

Just a horrible loss for UConn on Thursday in Tulsa. Asked Kevin Ollie about the Huskies' over-reliance on 3-pointers (they took 29), and here was his response:



Ollie also called out Hamilton and Purvis -- as well as himself, to a degree.

All this on a night where recruiting target D.J. Harvey, who UConn had planned to go see on Monday at the Hoophall Classic in Springfield, revealed a list of 15 schools that didn't include the Huskies.

Ouch.

UConn will be playing in Houston on Sunday when several targets are playing in Springfield, including Westown School's Mohamed Bamba, who plays Sunday at 4 p.m., as well as commit Mamadou Diarra and target Hamidou Diallo of Putnam Science Academy, which plays Sunday at 7:30 p.m.

Karl Hobbs did stay back to check out Diarra and Diallo on Wednesday night. Diallo had 14 points, three assists and three rebounds and Diarra added nine points and 10 boards to lead PSA to a 71-67 victory over Cushing Academy. Cushing is led by Makai Ashton-Langford, another prime UConn target. The Huskies are expected to watch a player on Friday in Houston, as well.

UConn continues to keep an eye on its other commits, as well, recently seeing Alterique Gilbert play in Georgia. The Huskies are encouraged with Juwan Durham's progress, as well, and feel he'll be ready to go by next November -- even if he has to start off slowly.

And it certainly appears Vance Jackson is excited about becoming a Husky this summer.

6 months till I be in Storrs✈️😝

— HeVantastic (@VanceJackson1) January 13, 2016

All four of UConn's Class of 2016 commits have signed and delivered their national letters-of-intent. Here's the press release sent out by UConn:

STORRS, Conn. --- UConn men’s basketball coach Kevin Ollie has announced that the program has received signed National Letters Of Intent from four student-athletes who will enroll as fulltime students in the fall of 2016.

Mamadou Diarra

Guard Alterique Gilbert (Lithonia, Ga.), power forwards Mamadou Diarra (Queens, N.Y.) and Juwan Durham (Tampa, Fla.) and small forward Vance Jackson (Altadena, Calif.) make up what is considered by most recruiting services as one of the top recruiting classes in the country. It is the first time UConn has had a recruiting class including four players ranked in the Top 100 since the incoming freshman class of 2006-07. 

“I think each of these student-athletes brings something different to the program, in terms of their basketball skills,” UConn coach Kevin Ollie said. “They don’t overlap each other, which I like in my classes. I don’t want two players just alike, because that’s not fair to the players or the program. We really look at versatility, players who can do a number of things on the court.”

Gilbert, a 5-11 point guard out of Miller Grover High School, is rated among the top 30 players nationally by most recruiting services. An exceptional athlete known for his tremendous speed, quickness, and strength, he averaged 18.5 points, 6.2 assists, 4.7 rebounds, and 5.3 steals as a junior.

“Alterique can play either guard position,” Ollie said. “He is a prolific scorer, but also a great facilitator. He’s fast, and we like all our guards to have some tricks and he comes with a boatload of tricks. He’s hard to guard and I think he’ll be a great competitor, a great teammate and a great leader for us.”

Jackson, a 6-8 forward with a deadly longrange shot, was named the 2015 Long Beach Press-Telegram Dream Team Player of the Year after averaging 19.4 points and 7.1 rebounds for St. John Bosco (Bellflower, Calif.). As a sophomore, he was teammates with current UConn sophomore Daniel Hamilton on a Bosco team that won the state championship. Jackson, rated a top 50 player, will play his senior season at Prolific Prep (Napa, Calif).

“We know that Vance is an exceptional shooter, but he has so much potential to improve in a lot of areas and I think he is dedicating himself to that,” Ollie said. “He’s an underrated passer and an underrated defender. I think he’s going to be an exceptional all-around player for us, who is going to open a lot of people’s eyes.”

Diarra, a 6-8 power forward who attends Putnam Science Academy (Putnam, Conn.) is explosive around the rim and is an outstanding rebounder at both ends of the court. He averaged 10.0 points and 7.5 rebounds last year to help Putnam Science to a 27-8 record.

“Mamadou is a very hard worker and an exceptional person,” Ollie said. “He is a tremendous athlete whose rebounding is getting better and better as days go by. I love his motor and I love his work ethic.”

Juwan Durham

Durham, a 6-9 power forward out of Tampa Preparatory School, was rated among the top 30 players in the country, despite having missed the last few weeks of his junior season with a knee injury. Until he was injured in February last year, he was averaging 22.9 points, 10.2 rebounds and 4.7 blocks per game. He is extremely long and mobile and a tenacious rebounder. 

 
"Juwan is a Mr.Versatility in a 6-9 frame,” Ollie said. “He can play on the perimeter, put the ball down on the floor, and he’s a terrific rebounder and shot-blocker. I think he’s going to be a stat-stuffer for us.”

Taken as a whole, the incoming freshmen form the highest-rated recruiting class in Ollie’s four-year tenure as UConn head coach.

“I think all of them have the potential to come in and be great players here, but like I always say, potential has got to become reality based on hard work,” Ollie said, “and I think they all have the mindset of being detailed hard workers. I think it’s going to be a special group when it’s all said and done after they finish their playing careers here at Storrs.”

Two of UConn's Class of 2016 commitments have signed their national letters of intent, while the other two should be doing so over the next few days.

Vance Jackson, the 6-foot-8 forward out of California, signed his at a ceremony out at Prolific Prep in Napa, California on Wednesday.

It's official!!! #Uconn #BleedBlue pic.twitter.com/KWJBJQr4Zf

— Vance Jackson (@vancejackson26) November 11, 2015

Meanwhile, Juwan Durham, the 6-11 center out of Tampa who will sit out this season after tearing an ACL for the second time in seven months, signed his down at Tampa Prep on Wednesday, as well.

Juwan Durham signs his letter of intent for UConn. @TampaPrep @tampaprepbball @TBO_PrepSports pic.twitter.com/wbKnllZk2f

— Olivia Stacey (@Olivia_Stacey) November 11, 2015

Point guard Alterique Gilbert out of Georgia is expected to ink his LOI over the next day or two, while Mamadou Diarra of Putnam Science Academy will do so during his team's "Midnight Madness" festivities on Saturday night.

*** Elsewhere, not sure if people knew that Ted Woodward was back at UConn (he has been for about a year now) ... but he is back in Storrs, in a different capacity. Woodward spent 10 years as the head coach at Maine before being fired after the 2014 season. Ironically, UConn opens its 2015-16 season against Maine on Friday night at Gampel.

UConn was slated to make a home visit to highly-skilled big man Da'Ron Davis out in Colorado last week. But just before that was going to happen, the staff was essentially told not to bother making the long trip. It doesn't appear Davis intends to be a Husky.

With Mamadou Diarra already in the fold, Juwan Durham recently committed, Steve Enoch already enrolled and the possibility of Amida Brimah coming back for his senior season, there doesn't appear to be much room for Davis in Storrs.

According to a source close to Davis, he has pretty much narrowed his choices down to three schools: Indiana, Arizona and Mississippi State. He visited Indiana this past weekend, will visit Ben Howland at MSU in mid-October, then head to Arizona near the end of October.

Perhaps playing in the American Conference, as opposed to one of the so-called "power five" leagues, isn't hurting UConn as bad as originally thought.

The Huskies have already notched three Class of 2016 players, and they're good ones -- Mamadou Diarra, a 6-foot-8 power forward from Putnam Science Academy; Alterique Gilbert, a uniquely talented (if small) point guard out of Georgia; and, most recently, Tampa's Juwan Durham, a multi-faceted 6-10 forward who has drawn favorable comparisons to a young Donyell Marshall.

Sure, there are hundreds of players out there, and Kentucky, Duke and North Carolina can't swipe up all of them. Sure, it may have helped UConn that Durham missed much of his junior year after tearing the ACL in his right knee, though it appears most of the major programs still coveted the Tampa Prep star despite the injury.

But the fact of the matter is, the Huskies are welcoming three excellent players to the program next season -- and more top-notch talent could be on the way.

Wenyen Gabriel, one of the top-rated power forwards in the nation out of Wilbraham and Monson Academy, is slated to visit Storrs in a few weeks (Oct. 2-4). He's also highly sought-after by Kentucky, Duke, Maryland and Providence, but if the Huskies can get him to commit, it would really put their 2016 haul over the top.

Meanwhile, UConn is still very strong with a pair of top 2017 recruits: Zach Brown, a 7-footer out of Miami, and Hamadou Diallo, a shooting guard out from Putnam Science Academy who is close to current teammate Diarra.

UConn currently has one scholarship still open, which it could fill with a walk-on, as it has the past couple of seasons, or leave open in case any mid-season transfers become available. Otherwise, the Huskies will have at least four scholarships open up next season, with Sterling Gibbs, Shonn Miller, Omar Calhoun and Phil Nolan all graduating. It's certainly possible that Daniel Hamilton, Amida Brimah and/or Rodney Purvis could leave school early for the NBA after this season, as well.

With all that considered, the Huskies will likely have at least two, if not three or four more slots to fill for the 2016-17 season. A big man and a shooter top their wish list to fill out the Class of 2016 -- unless, of course, an extremely talented player at any other position suddenly becomes available. UConn could soon be getting a visit from 6-8 forward De'Ron Davis out of Colorado, who's getting a home visit from the Huskies this week.

Otherwise, the Huskies are looking at '17's and '18's, and could be getting a visit soon from Myles Powell out of South Kent School.

Chatted by phone today Juwan Durham as well as Joe Fenlon, who coaches Durham down at Tampa Bay Prep.

Here's the story of how Durham wound up in Storrs.

Here's some of what they had to say:

DURHAM:

“It was a really tough decision, because I’m gonna spending the next four years of my life, possibly, with thewe guys. It was really big for me and my family, we just wanted to make the best decision for me.”

“I really felt like the team was close-knit and together. I asked a lot of people about Coach Ollie, and they all told me that I could trust him and that he’s a good, wholesome guy.”

He said Sterling Gibbs and Shonn Miller were his hosts on last weekend's visit, and that Amida Brimah, Rodney Purvis and Jalen Adams were among those who sold him on Ollie.

"(The coaching staff) didn’t promise me anything. They told me I could have the opportunity to be able to start. That was enough for me, because I know you can’t promise any kid a starting position, because you never know who's going to be on the team. And I just don’t want anything given to me.”

FENLON:

"The plan was to try to narrow it down a little bit, but he had visited a bunch of schools unofficially, had been on campuses, and was really trying to find a place where he was really comfortable. He's also a very thought-provoking kid. He and I spoke Monday night. Tuesday he came in during study hall and said there's really no reason to narrow it down, I really feel like I'm ready for a commitment. He had thought about it very much. It was certainly not an impulsive move. UConn's always been one of his favorites, anyway. To some people, it may have come out of the blue. But on the inside, we knew UConn definitely was in the mix."

Fenlon said the Huskies actually practiced inside the Tampa Bay Prep gym during their trip to play South Florida last January. Ricky Moore led Durham's recruitment, and he came back a couple of times afterwards. In April, at the women's Final Four, Kevin Ollie came down and Durham first had a chance to talk with him.

"It was a very good conversation," Fenlon said. "Juwan’s a very level-headed kid. He has goals and aspirations, but he also knows that, eventually, the ball’s gonna stop bouncing. Not every question he asked was basketball-related."

(on Durham as a player)

"He’s got a very interesting skill set. He creates a lot of matchup problems offensively, because he can handle, pass, shoot the ball. He's a very unselfish kid, in that he doesn’t take bad shots. He’s not a volume shooter. He’s not worried about what he’s gonna get, he’s worried about quality, not quantity. He’s a kid who just wants to win. If that means giving ball up at end of the game, he will give the ball up. He doesn’t need limelight on him. The limelight's already on him."

"He's got real good control of his body. A lot of kids 6-10, 6-11, are kind of awkward. Juwan has a way of not committing fouls. He changes a lot of shots, blocks a hell of a lot of shots. But he doesn’t do it when he ends up fouling. With his length, he doesn’t need to leave floor."

"Very active on glass, defensively. He can run the floor very well, and he can push it up the floor, as well."

"He probably weighs about 210 pounds right now. He’s never gonna be Karl “The Mailman” Malone. But he’s very skilled on the block, he has a very good post game. He’s a very good free throw shooter. I like putting him inside, because people are gonna foul him. That’s like money in the bank for us. We thrive on that."

(on Durham's ACL injury)

"In the regional semifinals, he was going for a steal. He punched the ball out between two guys, tried to outrun both guys, it was a freak accident right in front of our bench."

"There was really no hesitation from the majority of schools. Not that it's run-of-the-mill, but ACL surgery now is not what it was 20 years ago. The time away from the court has been really good for Juwan. It makes him understand his passion for the game. The fact that he's not been able to compete for the last 6-7 months, it’s starting to drive him crazy. He really can’t wait to get back on the court."

"We start practice on Oct. 26. There's no reason to rush him back. He has a very bright future, we’re not gonna compromise it here. He’ll know when he’s ready. If it's sometime in November, great. If it's December, great."

Durham had a an official visit slated for Miami, and had already made unofficials to Miami, Florida, Florida State and Louisville. He was also interested in Villanova, Kansas, Notre Dame and Maryland.

(what appealed to him about the UConn campus?)

"It’s not in a city. That has an appeal to him, because there wouldn’t be as many distractions. He can just get up there, be a student, be an athlete."

Fenlon, who's entering his 33rd season coaching Tampa Bay Prep, coached Casey Sanders, a McDonald's All-American who went on to play at Duke in the early 2000's. People compare Durham to Sanders, Fenlon said, but added that whenever Sanders sees Durham play, he says, "God, he's so much better than I was."

“What Juwan really needed to learn up on were there other things outside of basketball. He loves being a student, walking the halls. Basketball is what he does, basketball doesn’t define him. Those are the kids who really have opportunities to go places. Basketball is the most important thing to him, but so is being a good friend, being a good student. His mother wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Fenlon said Durham's dad visited Storrs over the summer, and his mom accompanied him on last weekend's official visit. 

He also noted that Alterique Gilbert called Durham almost immediately after he announced his commitment via Twitter.

UConn got another nice commitment on Tuesday.

This was one of the hardest decisions I've ever made but I'd like to announce that I will be committing to the University of Connecticut 🔵⚪️

— Juwan Durham (@JuwanDurham) September 1, 2015

A national four-star recruit, he's another talented addition to the Huskies' Class of 2016 crop, joining Alterique Gilbert and Mamadou Diarra. More to come.