Catching up with the mysterious Henry Buckley

UNLV basketball recruit Henry Buckley

It would be fair to say that more than a few Runnin’ Rebel basketball fans were left scratching their heads in May when UNLV head coach Lon Kruger announced the signing of 6-foot-10, 200-pound center Henry Buckley.

“Henry Who?” was a common response I heard, and for good reason. Buckley, who has really only played two years of competitive high school basketball and has not gone on the reputation-building national summer camp circuit, is your classic definition of a late bloomer. Few recruiting analysts outside of his hometown of Houston had even heard of him, and I couldn’t find one interview with him after Googling his name.

But after watching Buckley play twice for the Houston Hoopsters Elite in the Reebok Summer Championships on Saturday afternoon and evening at Foothill High School, I came away with this opinion on Buckley: he’s a perfect fit for Lon Kruger.

Buckley is athletically gifted, plays hard, enjoys playing defense and is smart enough to know he still has a long ways to go to play professionally one day. And despite giving up 40 to 50 pounds in the post in the two games I saw, he showed good toughness and wasn’t intimidated.

In his first game Saturday, Buckley got up and down the floor quicker than most of the guards and had three blocked shots, altered two more, forced a travel with a baseline trap, and grabbed two rebounds. And that was all in the first five minutes as Houston Hoopsters Elite jumped out to a 14-2 lead en route to an eventual 54-36 victory over the Texas Bluechips Navy.

Buckley finished the game with four points, both on offensive rebounds, eight blocks, six rebounds and by my count altered at least nine more shots. He was a very quick leaper who also displayed a nice jump-hook and had good rotation on his free throws and jumpers. In other words, he has all the tools to be an impact player for the Runnin’ Rebels if he’s willing to continue to work hard beginning this fall in prep school (Buckley will enroll at UNLV in the fall of 2010).

I sat with a longtime college assistant coach that I respect with strong Mountain West Conference and Pac-10 ties who recruits the Houston area heavily. He has watched Buckley play several times this spring and summer and echoed my sentiments on Buckley eventually being a good fit for the Rebels.

“With a year of prep school, he’ll be good,” the coach agreed. “He already is very lively, blocks shots, runs the floor well and has great hands. No, he’ll be good (at UNLV).”

“He’s a late bloomer which is why the ceiling is so high for him,” Houston Hoopsters Elite coach Keith White, whose program has produced over 40 Division I players, said. “He’s still got a lot to learn but he’s willing to put that work in. He’s only in his second year in our program. He runs the floor well and is a great shot blocker. His potential is unlimited. And he’s a good kid.”

When I interviewed the soft-spoken Buckley afterward, he usually began his replies with “yes sir” and “no sir.”

I asked him if Kruger’s track record for helping develop “sleepers” like Joel Anthony and Lou Amundson into current NBA players played a role in his decision to pick UNLV over schools like Auburn, Tulsa and Stephen F. Austin?

“Yes, it was a factor,” Buckley said. “But really the main thing is when I went on my visit here, it was fun, the campus was pretty nice, and (assistant) Coach (Lew) Hill was really cool. That really helped me make my decision.”

Unlike some highly-touted prep big man recruits (hello Beas Hamga), Buckley knows he’s got a lot of work to do if he is going to hopefully one day join Anthony and Amundson in the NBA.

“Strength and getting more rebounds,” Buckley said when asked what areas of his game he needs to work on. “That’s my game … blocking shots, rebounding and running the floor. That’s what I’m going to work on in prep school next year.”

How hard Buckley works in the weight room will definitely be the key. Right now he’s a raw Joel Anthony in a Chace Stanback body.

“With any big man you have to talk development,” White said. “It’s a long process with these guys and you have to be patient. I think that’s what UNLV is going to give him … the patience and the extra work to get better. You look at him in a couple of years and he’ll have an extra 20 to 25 pounds on him, and the way he can get up and down the floor, he’s going to be a valuable player for UNLV.”

The bad news for Runnin’ Rebel fans who didn’t get to see Buckley play this week is that his team was eliminated Saturday night by the Donyell (Marshall) I team, 78-70, on Saturday night. By my count, Buckley had three points, five rebounds and three blocks as the Donyell Marshall squad, which actually featured the former UConn and NBA star coaching intensely on the bench, wisely pulled Buckley away from the basket with a center who patrolled the 3-point line most of the night.

“Everything has been going pretty good for me here,” Buckley said before the loss. “I’ve been playing every game and I’m even starting to get used to the hot weather here. I’m looking forward to playing here.”