From today's New Haven Register. Website link includes a video. How Phil Nolan ended up at UConn (Hint: a Milwaukee Bucks tie-in)
http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2012/06/19/sports/doc4fdfae0ace937520656937.txt?viewmode=fullstory
UCONN MEN'S BASKETBALL: Road to Storrs for recruit Phil Nolan a winding one (video)Published: Tuesday, June 19, 2012
By David Borges, Register Staff
dborges@nhregister.com / Twitter: @DaveBorges
Tyrone Lewis had heard the rumors.
He had heard that Phil Nolan, the 6-foot-11 left-hander who was enrolling at Milwaukee's Riverside University high school for his senior year last fall, might not be the most coachable kid in the world. Nolan had started his career across the city at Milwaukee-Vincent, bounced around to two different prep schools in two different states as a junior and now found himself back in the city to play for Lewis at Riverside. Lewis also heard some not-so glowing reports about Nolan's attitude — that he "didn't like to listen, wasn't a team player."
But then he sat down with Nolan and his parents and had a heart-to-heart.
"Coach," Nolan told Lewis, "that's the old me. I learned a lot at the prep schools and got my stuff together."
Lewis was won over.
"When we got to talk, he didn't sound like the young man people were telling me about," Lewis said. "When he got here, the teachers loved him, the coaching staff loved him, I sure loved him. He did an excellent job. He was a team player, worked with some of our younger big men who are going to be good in the future. He was the opposite of what I had been told."
Nolan committed to UConn back on May 3 and is slated to arrive on campus sometime early next week to begin summer courses. His rather late commitment is a result of several factors: the Huskies' need for frontcourt help, the possibility of plenty of playing time due to a recent mass exodus of players, and Kevin Ollie and Ray Allen's dinner plans some 10 years ago.
Huh?
Well, it seems that while the two were teammates with the Milwaukee Bucks in the 2002-03 season, Ollie and Allen often used to head out to a trendy restaurant called Swank after home games. The two became friendly with the restaurant's owner, Trevor Trimble. Trimble is the stepfather of highly-touted Milwaukee-area basketball star J.P. Tokoto. The North Carolina-bound Tokoto (whose biological father is former Georgia Tech star Brian Oliver) is good friends with Nolan, so when UConn started recruiting Nolan, he got good feedback from his buddy's stepfather.
"It didn't hurt," said Ollie. "It was a good coincidence for us to have somebody that trusted me that we could do a good job with Phil and allow him to have the exposure he needs to get to that next level."
Nolan had been recruited by numerous schools, including hometown Marquette, as well as Oregon, Clemson, Minnesota and St. John's — the latter which he had visited shortly before committing to the Huskies. When Nolan chose UConn, Lewis admits he was shocked — in a good way.
"I almost had an accident on the highway," Lewis said. "UConn? I was almost excited as he was. I was very surprised by that situation. He was very sure it was the right school for him, it was the right system."
Nolan took his first visit to UConn a few days after his commitment, and he impressed the folks at Storrs just as he had impressed Lewis — both on and off the basketball court.
On the floor, Ollie said Nolan "had a little mean streak in him. There were a couple of elbows he threw — nothing maliciously — but to make sure (he told you), 'I'm on the basketball court, I'm not gonna take stuff from anybody.'"
Off the floor, he was even better.
"We know he bounced around a couple of times (in high school)," Ollie said. "With our program going through its APR situation, we wanted to look into that a little more, see why he was bouncing around. Once we found out the reasons he left school, once he got in front of admissions, our athletic director (Warde Manuel), our president (Susan Herbst), they saw we had a wonderful young kid that had a lot of potential to do some great things. It was evident who he was as a person: coachable, but also a sponge. It was great to see him in front of our AD, how respectful and insightful he was about UConn."
FOUR HIGH SCHOOLS, FOUR YEARS
After playing at Milwaukee-Vincent his first two years of high school, Nolan decided to go off to Huntington Prep in West Virginia. It didn't last long — he left right around Thanksgiving break after playing just a couple of scrimmages and one game — but Nolan made a positive impression on coach Rob Fulford.
"He's a really good kid, kind of laid-back," said Fulford. "From a basketball standpoint, he's long, athletic, he can stretch the floor a little bit with his shooting. Phil's got a ton of potential. He's gotten better since the last time I saw him."
Nolan simply struggled conforming to Huntington's strict academic guidelines.
"I think he was trying, but we have a tough academic setting," Fulford said. "It's not for everyone. We could sense there was going to be some struggle with him. He was trying. It was his first time away from home, and I'm not sure he was 100 percent sold on being away from home."
Nolan returned to Milwaukee for Thanksgiving, realized he wouldn't be able to transfer into a city public school and went out to St. Benedict's Prep in New Jersey for the remainder of the season.
He even torched his former team later that year, going for "12 points, six or seven rebounds, four blocks and about 12 fouls that weren't called" against Huntington, Fulford said with a chuckle. He also displayed a little sense of humor: late in the game, with the outcome no longer in doubt, Nolan lifted up his game shorts to reveal to Fulford the Huntington Prep practice shorts he was wearing underneath.
Nolan admitted he was "a little immature" while at the two prep schools. He returned to Milwaukee hoping to play at Riverside University as a senior, but it wouldn't be easy. The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association initially denied his appeal to play.
"He got real discouraged, got down on himself," Lewis recalled. "His GPA went down to like a 1.8."
Eventually, the WIAA ruled him eligible shortly after Christmas, and Nolan averaged 16.7 points, 9.4 rebounds and three blocks per game while shooting 62 percent from the floor for Riverside.
More importantly, according to Lewis, Nolan's GPA shot back up to about a 3.5.
Now, thanks in part to a need for a big man, plenty of potential playing time and Kevin Ollie and Ray Allen's postgame dinner plans a decade ago, Phil Nolan is a Husky.
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Never knew JP Tokoto's dad was Brian Oliver, thought he might have helped MU hope it works out for him.
Well, that's the feel good side of the story. He obviously realized that he had dug a hole for himself, and if some adults who should know what they're talking about, do know what they're talking about, it looks like he's turned things around.