Longar Longar

Offered per Insiders

10/18/02: "Several sources indicate that Oklahoma may have a good shot at grabbing a verbal commitment from Longar Longar, if the spindly 6-9, 200-pound shot-blocker from Rochester High School in Rochester, Minnesota, has a great visit to the campus. Longar is expected to be on the campus of Oklahoma this weekend. Sources tell us that Longar likes Oklahoma alot.

Longar will take an official trip to Oklahoma along with his Team Minnesota teammate point guard Lawrence McKenzie, who has already committed to Kelvin Sampson's program. This certainly has helped Oklahoma in its bid to land Longar. Other schools in contention for the rapidly developing big-man from The Sudan include Fresno State, Minnesota, and Connecticut." - RivalsHoops (to inactive)

10/15: "Longar is going to take an official visit to Oklahoma this weekend. He'll be joined on that trip by Arkansas guard Ronnie Brewer. Longar has yet to qualify but the Sooners are pursuing him and have expressed serious interest in signing him this fall." - InsidersHoops.com

9/23: "Longar will visit Oklahoma the weekend of Oct. 19. He also likes UConn, Fresno State, Cincinnati and Minnesota. Fresno State pays him a visit on Wednesday." - http://theinsidershoops.theinsiders.com/

9/22/02: Ranked the 72nd best player in his class in a consensus list. - RSCI

9/14: "(UConn coaches) Calhoun and Moore will also visit Longar Longar at his home in Rochester, Minn., on Monday. Longar is a 6-10, 200-pound native of the Sudan and a distant relative of former UConn player Ajou Deng, now a fifth-year senior for the Fairfield men's basketball team. Longar is considered an extremely athletic player with shot-blocking ability. Like Deng, the question mark about Longar is his strength." - New Haven Register

9/13: "the talented forward is back at Rochester (MN) John Marshall and he is creating plenty of attention after a strong summer at the Nike All-American Camp in Indianapolis and playing for Team Minnesota in several national events. Longar had a home visit with Minnesota (9/9) on Monday and Oklahoma on Tuesday (9/10). Connecticut will visit on Monday (9/16), Iowa will come in town on the 24th and Wyoming will be in on the 26th." - Insiders

9/11/02: "a bouncy 6-10, 210 pound shot-blocker from Rochester High School in Rochester, Minnesota, will host Minnesota and Oklahoma for in-school visits this week, according to his AAU coach with Team Minnesota, Ryan Thornton. Longar may also host Fresno State for an in-school visit later this month." - www.RivalsHoops.com

8/21: Listed as the 79th best player in his class. - Insiders Hoops

8/18/02: "If being 6'10 isn't enough, the Sudanese native has the most amazing long arms and reach, a reach that measured the longest of any player at the Nike Camp. When you add that to his excellent athleticism, you can understand why schools like Indiana, Kansas, Arizona, UConn and Minnesota are giving him the "long" look." - Inside Indiana

8/3/02: "Longar is a pretty good looking prospect who had a great Nike camp. He is about 6-10 and can really, really, run the court. He hits the boards and is very agressive. I don't know if any of yu remember when Jerome junkyard-dog Williams was playing at Georgetown, but he has some of that in his game. Skinny, long, really runs the court and is agressive when he wants to be. He would be a bit different from forwards that have been at KU lately. I think there are a lot who would like him. I am not sure he is a perfect fit for KU, but he has some talent and the Jayhawks wouldn't be wasting a scholarship." - Bossi, PrepStars

Aug 02: "Super athlete who is just learning the game. He's a defensive presence who blocks a ton of shots. Really good off his feet and quite bouncy around the rim. Not much offense entering his senior year, but he's a weapon at the other end." - Insiders

7/27: "Sudan native Longar Longar starts in the middle and while the Rochester John Marshall rising senior may be thin and a bit raw, he's extremely athletic and just needs to put a few pounds on his 6-9, 210-pound frame to play power forward in college. Longar is getting interest from Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nebraska, UNLV and UConn." - PrepStars

7/20/02: "At this point, we aren't sure who is going to wing up recruiting or signing Longar Longar. However, we know that dozens of Division I programs are interested. One of the chief concerns about him is academics. There are some rumblings about his academic standing and some programs wonder if he can get qualified. What this means is that following the month of July, schools will have a better idea if they can get him into their school. Once that happens, we'll have a better idea of who will recruit him. One thing is certain: he had a terrific Nike Camp. His shot blocking skills and athleticism were terrific. The sky is the limit." - InsidersHoops

7/10/02: "His list of schools is now Michigan State, Michigan, Boston College, Creighton, Marquette, Iowa State, N.C. State, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Nebraska." - Gopher Hole

6/14/02: Listed as the 90th best player in his class. - HoopScoop

5/11/02: "Little did he know it when he arrived in Rochester three years ago. But the spring and summer of 2002 would mark the beginning of Longar Longar's big adventure. His 6-foot-10 stature, combined with athletic ability that brings Kevin Garnett to mind, is what has done it for the Rochester John Marshall junior basketball player. It hasn't hurt either that he has shown a taste for improving, including hitting the weights three to four days a week to add to his 215 pounds. It also hasn't hurt that he has caught the eyes of the right people.

In a couple of short months, Longar has gone from the second best player on his high school team, to a name that is fast becoming familiar with every big-time college basketball program in the country. He has already been offered scholarships by upper-crust Division I schools Boston College, Wisconsin and Marquette, but plans on settling on a college no sooner than July. Longar, as his Team Minnesota AAU basketball co-head coach Ryan Thornton puts it, "Is just waiting to blow up on the national circuit."

"The first time we saw Longar practice with us (this spring), it was like we'd seen a ghost - we couldn't believe it," said Thornton, a former Division I player at Southwest Missouri State. "We said to ourselves that this guy is just waiting to blow up on the national circuit. A guy who is near 7-feet, and has the athleticism that Longar does, you just don't see that around here. Now, everybody that sees him, loves him."

They've seen Longar most recently in Houston and Cleveland. Yes, Longar is getting around with an AAU team that also features Minneapolis Patrick Henry superstar guard Lawrence McKenzie, among a host of other Division I prospects. And yes, it has been a big adventure, and one that is not nearly over. "It is just so much excitement, now getting calls from so many big-time colleges," said Longar, who twice a week practices with Team Minnesota and then plays in tournaments sprinkled throughout the spring and summer.

They'll include national-level events in Chicago, Las Vegas, New York and North Carolina. Thornton indicates that Longar has also been invited to the Nike All-American Camp, based on his play last weekend in Cleveland at the Adidas Hoops Challenge. There, Longar was named to an all-tournament team that also included the consensus top high school player in the country, 6-6 swingman LeBron James, a junior from Cleveland. "Our team is going against the best of the best," Thornton said. "Longar is playing against guys who will be in the NBA soon."

One of them, certainly, is James. And it was against this marvel a couple of weeks ago in Houston that Longar began to make a name for himself, with Team Minnesota taking on James' AAU team. As Longar tells it, James had just backed his defender down along the baseline, then quickly rose up to take a fade-away jumper. That's when Longar made a name for himself, quickly switching over from his own man in time to swat James' shot out of midair. "The entire crowd went crazy," Thornton said.

It's Longar's ability to play defense, Thornton says, that has most college coaches drooling over him. And while his offense still has a considerable ways to go, particularly his lack of a go-to big-man move or two, it too is apparently coming. Longar, who averaged just 11 points per game this winter for JM, is working on it and Thornton is making sure to work on it with him. "He needs to work on his footwork down low and on demanding the ball with his back to the basket," Thornton said. "But I like Longar because he wants to get better. A lot of 6-10 guys get complacent because they are bigger than everybody else. But that's not Longar. Deep down in his heart he has a desire to work hard and he wants that challenge." - Rochester Post-Bulletin