UConn Makes a push for Cheek

Dominic Cheek (SG, 6’5″, 2009) has a lot of colleges who would love to have him, including Wake Forest. The latest team to get their crack at the New Jersey prospect is UConn, who are still in the mix for Cheek. Cheek attended the elite camp at UConn this week, along with other top players on the Huskies’ radar such as Daniel Orton (C, 6’10”, 2009). A typical way for schools to recruit is by having their NBA alumni drop by, and UConn did exactly that:

Monday morning at Gampel Pavilion, the second and final day of Jim Calhoun’s Connecticut Elite camp. As about two dozen of the top recruits in the country milled about, one of the gym’s side doors swung open and in walked Rudy Gay.

“The minute he walked in the door,” UConn assistant coach Andre LaFleur noted, “one of the kids was saying, ‘I can’t believe he’s standing right there.’”

Gay, who averaged 20.1 ppg for the Memphis Grizzlies last year and, perhaps just as notably, provided ESPN regular fodder with posterizing dunks, went on to run in a bunch of scrimmages with most of the players. He missed a few 3-pointers (some of them badly), but also threw down some rafter-shaking dunks.

I’m not sure if Cheek would be that impressed with an NBA player at a camp, after already seeing and playing with them dozens of times already. But the point is that UConn very much would like to add the deep range shooter to their roster, and they are pursuing him as hard as they can.

Cheek and several other ACC targets, including Derrick Favors (PF, 6’10”, 2009) will next play at the Adidas Nations Global Basketball Experience in Dallas. Also note that the article in the link states Cheek is 6’7″, but I haven’t confirmed that. The last measurement I’d seen from a reasonably reliable source was 6’6″, and we’d previously listed him at that height; Scout and Rivals still have him at 6’5″, and so does USA Basketball, where he played a couple of weeks ago, so we’re inclined to think that’s his actual height. It’s very common for player’s heights to magically creep up, a 5’10” player suddenly starts getting listed at 6’0″, then 6’1″…then you see the player in person and he’s 5’9″ in sneakers. So until I get a chance to walk up to Dominic with a tape measure, I’m going to assume that he’s still a 6’5″ shooting guard, which is still a great size for a shooter.