BYU Basketball Offers Local Recruit Ryan Andrus
Mar 13, 2012; Dayton, OH, USA; Brigham Young Cougars head coach Dave Rose on the sidelines as his team defends against the Iona Gaels during the first round of the 2012 NCAA men
It looks like yet another player from up the road may be donning the Cougar blue in 2014. Local big man Ryan Andrus has just let the World know via Twitter that he has received an offer from BYU.
The 6-10 center out of American Fork High School (Nickname? The Cavemen. Not joking.) registered a solid 19.4 ppg this season, along with 6.5 rpg. He also proved to have the ability to spread the floor, connecting on 34% of his attempts from long range. His most stand-out performance came in a double-OT heartbreaker in January as he put up 38 of his team’s 59 points, along with 12 of his team’s 22 boards.
On the plus side, he has good range on his jumper as well as a smooth stroke from the line. He can get down the floor. He can be a volume scorer.
On the negative side, his defense needs improvement. He’ll also need to add some bulk to his slender 200-pound frame in order to carve out more space in the middle, and, with that, an added measure of aggressiveness.
Two of his toughest games came against bitter rival Lone Peak, who boasted 6’9 BYU commit/manbeast Eric Mika. Granted, the whole Lone Peak team plays defense like the offspring of an octopus and a spider monkey who was spoon fed Mountain Dew throughout its infancy, so those performances could have very well been the cause of a collective effort.
I digress…
I’m interested to see if he will be able to improve upon his rebounding numbers. If there’s one thing we know, it’s that immense height doesn’t guarantee immense rebounding numbers. Will Andrus be able to step up his game and his intensity to dominate the middle? It should be interesting to see how his senior year goes.
Ultimately, Andrus’s work over the course of his senior year will ultimately determine whether he’ll be able to contribute inside or become more of a stretch 4.
Other than BYU, he’s being courted by Utah, Utah State and Arizona State.
If Andrus does indeed choose to sign with BYU, he’ll join two other local recruits – Lone Peak guard T.J. Haws as well as Orem High wing Dalton Nixon.