After finally receiving his release from Virginia Tech, 2012 power forward [B]Montrezl Harrell [/B]is now one of the most hottest names on the recruiting trail.
NOB spoke with his father, Samuel, on Friday afternoon to get a read on what has been happening thus far.
“So far, Kentucky, Louisville, Alabama, NC State, Florida, Cincinnati, and UConn have called about Montrezl,” Harrell explained. “We haven’t had time to sit down with him and discuss everything because he is getting ready for graduation, so we don’t really know much about what he likes about the schools.”
Because of his release taking so long, the 6-foot-8 big man does not have much time to make his decision. According to his father, a decision will come sooner rather than later.
“We have no specific timetable for Montrezl to make his decision, but I expect it to be in the next few weeks. We would like to have a decision as soon as possible.”
Before making his final decision, Harrell will take some visits to select schools. Samuel says he expects “three of four” schools to receive campus visits prior to his son’s commitment.
However, there are some factors that will go into the decision.
“First, we want a good academic program from the institution. As far as basketball goes, we just want a program that fits his style of play, and a school that will utilize him as a player. He also wants to feel at home with the coaches and his teammates,” Harrell said.
How would he fit in with Kentucky? His father thinks there are a lot of similarities between Montrezl’s game and Calipari’s style of play.
“I think Montrezl would fit in really well [at Kentucky]. He fits in with what they try to do as a team. I’m not sure how interested he is because we haven’t been able to speak about it, though.”
Harrell says that UK assistant Orlando Antigua is the coach that has contacted him from Kentucky as of right now.
“Coach Orlando [Antigua] just called to say Kentucky was going to throw their hat into the mix, just like the other coaches that have called.”
Many consider Harrell to only be a freak-athlete and dunker that thrives in transition, but his father assured us that there is a half-court game in his son’s arsenal.
“Montrezl has a lot of power and explosiveness, but he can also play in the half-court. He has post moves and even a mid-range jumper. Most people don’t know that because they haven’t seen him play. Obviously he likes to get out and run, but he can do other things too.
Follow Garrett on Twitter [B][URL=”http://twitter.com/#%21/gtuckerf150”]@GTuckerF150[/URL][/B] for more info on recruiting.
