Kemba Walker isn’t Connecticut’s only big loss this month.
Longtime assistant Andre LaFleur will reportedly accept the associate head coaching job at Providence on Monday,
leaving the Huskies without one of their top recruiters.
According to the Hartford Courant, LaFleur, 46, was the lead recruiter for Hasheem Thabeet, incoming 5-star prospect Ryan Boatright and played a major role in bringing Stanley Robison, Jerome Dyson, Ater Majok and Gavin Edwards to UConn.
Oh, and Walker. He even acknowledged LaFleur during last week’s press conference when he decided to go pro.
“Coach LaFleur was the one who took my game to a whole new level, and he helped me mature as a basketball player,” Walker told the paper.
So why leave? LaFleur reportedly thinks UConn assistant Kevin Ollie and director of basketball administration Glen Miller (a former UConn assistant as well as a head coach at Brown and Penn) received most of the credit for the Huskies’ title run this season. He wants to be a head coach someday and thinks he would be better served building his reputation elsewhere.
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