City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Lafayette picked up a late addition to its incoming freshman class, as Flour Bluff (Tex.) power forward Tyler Barlow committed to head coach Fran O’Hanlon on Saturday, a source told CoBL.

Long, athletic and mobile, the 6-foot-9, 200-pound forward is a shot-blocking presence who runs the floor well, though he’ll need to rapidly add some weight to his frame if he’s going to bang with Patriot League big men like Lehigh’s Tim Kempton for long stretches.

Bartow’s commitment is the fourth for head coach Fran O’Hanlon in the incoming 2015 class, and it’s a group of freshman that’s going to add a lot of size to the Leopards’ roster. Barlow and Sam Dunkum are both 6-9, with 6-7 Paulius Zalys and 6-5 Auston Evans, a pair of small forwards, joining the two posts.

They’ll be joining a talented and experienced group of guards that include Bryce Scott and Zach Rufer as well as juniors Nick Lindner and Monty Boykins at a program fresh off its first NCAA Tournament appearance and Patriot League championship since 2000.

O’Hanlon will certainly need some production out of some of these young pieces, considering his team lost both starting forwards and his two leading scorers--Dan Trist (17.3 ppg, 6.7 rpg) and Seth Hinrichs (13.1 ppg, 5.7 rpg) to graduation.

​CoBL will have more on this story shortly