Olander Likes the Big East
Tyler Olander has become a popular man in recent months. The six-foot-nine forward is coming off a big summer in which he received a plethora of attention from high-major schools in addition to a handful of scholarship offers.
“UConn, Marquette, Penn State, and Providence,” Olander replied when asked who he was hearing from the most, additionally claiming scholarship offers from all four schools in addition to Vanderbilt.
“I like the three Big East schools,” he said, “but UConn is my favorite.”
Olander is intimately familiar with the Husky program having grown up in Mansfield, Connecticut where the University of Connecticut is located. In fact his former high school, E.0 Smith, was literally located immediately adjacent to UConn’s campus.
Olander opted to leave E.O. Smith following his junior year and reclassifying to the class of 2011 at Worcester Academy.
That move has paid some pretty quick dividends, not just in the form of scholarship offers, but also in a top 100 national ranking from Scout.com.
Olander will only continue to improve with the opportunity to play against enhanced competition on a daily basis. In particular, he said he hopes to expand his low post game in the coming year. That would just add to his already tremendous versatility as there simply aren’t a whole lot of six-foot-nine lefties out there who can match his shooting range and perimeter skill set.
While Olander’s game will no doubt continue to expand over the next two years, his recruitment may have a shorter shelf life.
“Ideally, I was planning on making a decision following the season,” he said.
And you can bet he’ll have plenty more options to choose from by the time the end of the season rolls around.
Tyler Olander