Ben Mills (2010) Committed To Colorado

Ben Mills – 7’1″, 220, C, Hartland, Wi (Arrowhead)

Mills was on Coach Rob’s radar before the 2009-10 season began.  He had received numerous mid-major offers by the time Oregon State got into the game, and all told he gathered some 20+ offers from D-I schools by last fall.  He took several unofficial visits, and he was in the process of taking some officials when he fell in love with Boise State and head coach Greg Graham.  Oregon State was reportedly one of his final three schools along with Hawai’i and BSU.  But Ben decided to forego the rest of his official visits, and he signed with BSU.  I got the feeling at that time that Oregon State thought they had a diamond in the rough,  and they just wanted to visit him and host him in Corvallis before he made his final decision.

But he had made up his mind, and he signed a LOI with BSU in November.

Forward to Mar.12.  As we all know, Greg Graham was fired.  Boise State then embarked on what many will call the stupidest coaching search in NCAA history.

Wait…

That’s the Ducks.  Sorry.

After a couple weeks, they hired Zags assistant Leon Rice.  But the coaching change was enough for Ben to ask for a release from his LOI.  On April 8, Boise State granted that release.

I’m going to assume that Coach Rob is aware of his current situation and is working again to convince Ben to at least visit Corvallis.

Many others are very aware of his status as well.  Xavier, Bradley, Ball State, Utah State and Northwestern (among others) have all offered him in the last week.  It should be noted that many of these schools had offered Mills before his commitment to BSU.  I don’t know if we’re back on his short list, but it’s nice to know that we had a good relationship with him before this all came to pass.

So here’s some scouting on Mills.

First off,  he’s grown more than a foot in the last four years.  So he is still growing into his frame.  He has a good mid range shot, and he’s developed an effective baby hook.  He needs to learn to set his base on both ends of the floor so he can gain leverage on the blocks.  He has good enough footwork that better positioning will allow him to use a growing arsenal of back to the basket moves.  And he needs to move to the flow on defense to take advantage of his length.

One thing he does very well is pass the ball.  He can kick it out with speed or make the post entry with skill.  And he has a great handle for someone with his height.

At this point, he’s a project wherever he goes.  Hey,  he’s only been a seven footer for less than a year.  Give the kid a chance to catch up to himself.  He works and hustles hard enough that his development should be faster than most kids.  Give Ben a couple years, and he should be contributing major minutes at a high level.

Maybe being done with recruiting (he thought) helped him to be confident and focused for his senior year,  because he improved his game enough to score 17 points and grab 11 boards per game.  He was a part of a team, so he wasn’t the sole reason for his team’s success.  But he was a major part of Arrowhead High School’s first state championship ever.

Check out this link for glimpses of his game and some interviews with him and others on his team.

UPDATE:  There’s been a lot of chatter about Mills in the past couple days.  Iowa and Georgia Tech have jumped on the offer bandwagon.  As far as I can tell, he’s still considering BSU, which is only fair.  He’s also going to finally take an official to Oregon State in the very near future.  Ahhh… Corvallis in the springtime.