Previewing the Class of 2012, part 3

Before I begin, I would like to give big ups to Sr. SG Andre “Dre” Henley (6-4, 185 lbs, signed with Northern Illinois) for committing to play ball out in DeKalb this upcoming year for top Michigan State assistant turned head coach Mark Montgomery. When I last chronicled the recruitment of Henley, I thought, and I’m sure he did too, that he would go to a bigger school, but you got to start somewhere. It would not surprise me to Henley on the 1^st team all-freshman in the MAC. And with that, the final installment of my preview on the Class of 2012 in Illinois begins……

PF James Farr (6-8, 200 lbs, committed to Xavier)- The first thing that came to my mind when watching the highlights of Farr was how he was a skinny version of former Illini PF Mike Davis (6-9, 225 lbs). Weight and strength will be the biggest factor between Farr becoming a top 75 recruit or just another 3 star athlete. It is rare for an incoming senior to be college ready as far as strength goes. So it comes as no surprise that Farr’s biggest criticism comes as a power forward that needs to bulk up. Farr is a gifted outside shooter to a range of about 18 feet. He can knock down a jump shot better than a lot of shooting guards. This will come into play in the pick and roll game; something that Xavier uses quite a bit. He can fade away or just shoot straight up. Farr is around the boards most of the time but is not an elite shot blocker or someone who is consistently going to lead everybody in rebounds. He can dunk the ball but is not quick or flashy enough to really impress you. Farr cannot create off the dribble but can jab step the defender enough to give him space to shoot the ball. His face up game is very good and if he could have quicker feet, he’d be lethal. Right now, his pick and pop game is what makes him a division 1 player. If he is going to play power forward in college, he’ll have to add strength and develop more of an inside game. Or, he could develop more of a small forward game, something he’s doing now, and improve his jump shot to become a long jump shooter, almost like Bulls small forward Loul Deng. When put in the right system, and it looks like that will be the case at Xavier, if he stays committed their, Farr could be an integral part of the offense. I could get really corny and say “James could go Farr” but that would make my blog even less desirable to potential readers, so I’ll spare the semantics and say that if Farr can add the necessary strength a player at his position needs, he can creep into the top 5 recruits in Illinois for ’12.

SG Cameron Harvey (6-2, 190 lbs, originally committed to Wyoming, UIC, Baylor, and Dayton among a handful of other schools looking)-  This is a strange one- a couple recruiting websites maintain the fact that Harvey’s verbal commitment to Wyoming in 2009 is still intact. Maybe Harvey’s stock has risen so much that he can guarantee himself a scholarship offer from a better program, or maybe Harvey woke up one day and thought to himself, “there’s no way in hell I’m going to live in Wyoming- the whole state is one big table top that can have temperatures below zero a couple months of year and the big entertainment their watching geysers erupt. Either way, the rumblings are, despite what some of the most recognizable recruiting sites say, Harvey’s recruitment is still open. In fact, he picked up a scholarship offer from UIC in September of 2010. So why are all these schools looking at him? The reason is that Harvey is a very good spot up shooter. Rather it be from beyond the arc or about 15 feet from the hoop, Harvey is a very good catch an shoot player. However, at his size, it will be tough for him to succeed as a shooting guard since the days of the Ben Gordon-sized shooting guards seem to be long gone. Because of this, Harvey has improved his ball handling skills, but is nowhere near where a true point guard would be. Harvey does not attack the lane a lot so his threat is definitely from the outside. Looking at him, Harvey has one of the better looking shooting motions. Whenever you have a player that can hit the outside shot, some team out there will take a long look at you. Harvey is built well for his position, so it does seem a bit odd that he is not more aggressive make players towards the rim. Now, I’ve only seen a couple highlights of him and he did not display this part of his game, so I can’t say that he’s not aggressive to the hoop, but it looks like he is more comfortable shooting over defenders rather than going over them. Harvey kind of floats towards the corner to hit the three which helps space the floor for other players, but that takes away an ability to create a shot closer to the rim. Harvey committed very early on in his high school career and now it looks like he has second thoughts on playing out west. However, his recruitment has not picked up too much and it doesn’t look like Harvey will be coming to a top 30 program anytime soon.

SF Abdel Nader (6-6, 190 lbs, offers from New Mexico, Marquette, Ole Miss, and DePaul)- Nader is a rare gem playing in a conference that does not produce much division 1 talent. The last well-known player to come from the conference that Nader plays in is Jon Scheyer from Glenbrook North High School about 5 years ago, and that turned out pretty well. Nader originally gave a verbal to New Mexico but after reclassifying from the Class of 2011 to the Class of 2012, he reopened his recruiting. The Egyptian decedent earned third team all Illinois this last year according to the Chicago Tribune. At his height, Nader is extremely athletic and mobile getting to the rim. The one thing that Nader seems to be lacking is explosion towards the rim and playing above the cylinder. Other than that, Nader is a good shooter and can create plays for himself. I have seen Nader make some acrobatic plays under the rim to score like going up and under to score, or twisting his body around defenders to score. Nader is also a very good passer and can draw defenders around him to kick it out to open shooter. He is a very good ball handler and at some points of a couple games, he brought the ball up the floor. A knock against Nader that will hurt his recruitment is the fact that he plays in a conference that does not challenge him. It is almost like Derrick Rose showing up to your local rec center and taking over a pickup game. In a couple highlights, Nader was the same height or taller than any other player on the other team. And because the talent level in this conference is subpar, it has to take a lot for Nader to shine- much like Anthony Davis had to do on his team this last year for Chicago Perspectives High School. Because he does not have the explosion that you would see from a top 50 recruit, big time programs most likely will never fight after him. However, because of the many facets of his game, Nader could become and most likely will become a top 100 recruit. The ability to be a distributer and an aggressive scorer makes Nader a very tough player to guard and a very valuable part of whatever program he ends up on next year.

Over the last couple of weeks, I have focused on 9 players that high school and college basketball fans should pay attention to. As it stands now, this will be one of Illinois’ weakest recruiting classes in quite some time. This does not mean, however, that there are not quality and valuable players in this class. Hopefully some of these guys can put together good AAU and senior seasons to bolster them up the recruiting ranks.

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