Bruce Kluckhohn / AP
North Dakota guard Tyree Ihenacho brings the ball up court against Minnesota in the second half of an NCAA college basketball game Friday, Dec. 4, 2020, in Minneapolis.
Wednesday, March 24, 2021 | 2 a.m.
Kevin Kruger hasn’t been UNLV’s basketball coach for long, but it appears he is already rolling up his sleeves and getting to work on the recruiting trail.
One of Kruger’s top priorities has to be adding more talent to the 2021-22 roster, especially at point guard. And on Tuesday, it was reported that UNLV has begun recruiting North Dakota transfer Tyree Ihenacho, an intriguing player who could give the program an immediate boost in the backcourt.
Ihenacho, a 6-foot-4 point guard, averaged 8.7 points and 4.1 assists per game in 2020-21, earning Summit League Freshman of the Year honors. He started 22 of 23 games, made 35.4% of his 3-point attempts and also pulled down 5.7 rebounds per game. On the defensive end, Ihenacho averaged 1.6 steals per game.
A former 2-star recruit, Ihenacho is now fielding interest from St. John’s, Northeastern, Pacific, Drake, Pacific and Western Michigan in addition to UNLV.
Ihenacho appears to be a primary ball-handler, which is something sorely lacking from the UNLV roster. He got to the rim on 63.5% of his shots last year; among UNLV players only big men Mbacke Diong, Edoardo Del Cadia and Reece Brown topped that figure. For comparison, Bryce Hamilton got to the hoop on just 24.1% of his attempts, and only 7.3% of David Jenkins’ shots came around the rim.
A sampling of Ihenacho’s ability to penetrate:
And here he uses a nice spin move to get all the way to the rim:
His assist rate of 26.3% would have been the best mark on UNLV.
A look at his court vision on the pick-and-roll:
Although it might not be as easy to drive all the way to the rim or rack up assists at the Mountain West level — we’ve seen other players struggle with the jump in competition from the Summit League to the MWC — it’s probably safe to assume Ihenacho’s outside shooting would translate.
It appears he’s pretty comfortable shooting off the dribble or on the catch:
It’s too early to say where Ihenacho’s recruitment will go, but it’s interesting to note the type of player that Kruger seems to be prioritizing in his first days since taking over at UNLV.
Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala.
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