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TANVEER BHULLAR POISED FOR A BIG RECRUITMENT

College basketball is becoming more and more of a guard’s game. So when a prospect comes along standing 7-foot-3 and weighing 315 pounds entering his junior year of high school plenty of debate ensues in regard to his place in the game. This is nothing new to Tanveer Bhullar who actually saw his older (and bigger) brother Sim go through the process. Like his brother, expect Tanveer to be one of the most evaluated, and debated, prospects in the country in the 2013 class.

“Obviously with the similarities in body type it’s natural that people are going to compare Tanveer to Sim,” Nolan Shulman, National Recruiting Analyst of Flagrant Fouls and Editor-in-Chief of the Ultimate Recruiting Handbook which is the authority on Canadian basketball prospects, told NBE this morning. “They both have very similar strengths. Great hands, great touch, and great size.”

Sim Bhullar made great strides in his game and ability to impact in longer stretches as he improved his ability to change ends and keep up with the fast-paced game on the AAU and International level this past spring and summer. College coaches will always take a chance on size since it is so scarce in today’s college game. Shulman feels Tanveer is on the right path and his potential will also be tied to the strides he makes with his conditioning and body.

“It’s also important to note that Tanveer is two years younger and that Sim was a late bloomer,” said Shulman. “Many of the same knocks on Tanveer’s game are the same things people used to say about Sim. Sim’s improvements were directly tied to the strides he made in his conditioning. How far along the curve Tanveer is able to come will be the result of the same thing. The more he’s able to change his body, the more he’ll be able to impact the game.”

Tanveer also knows he will need to find the right fit in college with a program that is geared to accommodate a player of his size and ability. It is doubtful he will look too closely at a school that looks to run and press for 40 minutes.

“I am looking to attend a school where I know a kid like me, a 7-foot-3 big man, is going to develop as a student and as a basketball player,” Tanveer told NBE earlier this week. “So most likely I want to go to a school that has a history with big men developing and going to the NBA.”

The list of schools that are interested is impressive and growing. Many have already stepped forward and extended scholarship offers while many other powers have been in touch and continue to evaluate his progress.

“I have offers from Rice, Eastern Michigan, Detroit, Seton Hall (tickets), Towson and Providence (tickets),” he said. “I have a lot of interest from Marquette (tickets), Miami, Pitt (tickets), West Virginia (tickets), Florida State, Michigan and LSU.”

Last weekend Tanveer and many of his Huntington Prep teammates took a visit to Marshall as a group. Coach Tom Herrion and his staff has also shown interest in both Bhullar brothers throughout the recruiting process and Tanveer enjoyed his time on the nearby campus.

“Our team decided to go down and take a visit of the school and see what they had to offer and it went good,” Tanveer said of the trip to Marshall. “I think the thing that surprised me the most about the Marshall visit was how much love the football fans [were] showing us, they seem like they’re great fans.”

Bhullar is entertaining the thought of visiting a few more schools in the coming months.

“Right now I plan on to visit Pittsburgh (Pitt Shop), West Virginia (WVU Shop), Florida State and Michigan sometime before or after the season,” said Bhullar.

Bhullar has no favorites or leaders at this stage in his recruitment and is thinking of a time frame for a commitment in the range of the end of next summer. Right now recruiting is a bit on the back burner as he is concentrating on improving his game for this season and beyond.

“There are some schools that want me to come down and visit but right now the only thing I’m focused on is getting better for this year’s high school season and doing the best I can do,” he said. “Most likely the next visit I’m gonna take is gonna be after this year’s high school season is over.”

That commitment to improve should serve Bhullar well. He understands he is a big man and he saw the progress his brother Sim made when he dedicated himself to improving his strength and conditioning, which was helped along greatly last season when Sim transferred into Huntington Prep under the guidance of coach Rob Fulford. The Huntington Prep staff will continue to push Tanveer, who comes in this year after spending time at Monteverde Academy, to improve on and off the court. As Nolan Shulman noted, Tanveer certainly has plenty of tools to work with to make an impact onthe court.

“I would say that Tanveer has more raw ability and is further along at the same stage [compared to Sim],” said Shulman. “He’s not afraid to sit on guys in the post and has quite a few moves in his arsenal on the low block.”

NBE will continue to watch the development of Tanveer Bhullar with great curiosity. We are certainly not going to be alone in doing so…