Jim Calhoun is moving ever closer to becoming the most popular man in Germany this side of David Hasselhoff, because today he's received the commitment of a second Deutschballer: Enosh Wolf, a 7-1 center. The move gives UConn 14 roster players, though it now appears likely that Jonathan Mandeldove's reign of greatness in Storrs has come to an end (unless he wants to walk-on.)
The story was broken by this Tweet from the Courant's Zac Boyer. More is in this blog post by the Courant's Mike Anthony, who reports that Wolf had offers from several BCS schools (Georgetown, Georgia Tech and Boston College among them).
A Google search for "Enosh Wolf" turns up nothing, meaning he is most likely an Austin Powers-esque international man of mystery.
Wolf is the second German player in three weeks to sign with UConn, after 6-7 forward Niels Giffey. Assistant coach Andre LeFleur, who also visited Giffey in Germany (and was the man who recruited Ater Majok while he was in Australia), appears to be behind this one, too, according to Anthony. Hopefully sometime soon we'll have some sort of video so we can take a look at Wolf and see if he can play any.
(UPDATE: Apparently, we've all been spelling the guy's name wrong. 'Enosch Wolf' turns up considerably more basketball-related materials. Here's one of three YouTube videos of Enosch Wolf in action; click through to get the other two.Sidenote: between Giffeynizer and 7foot1Wolf, we're in a veritable Renaissance of hilarious UConn player YouTube account names.)
As always when a new player commits, I like to take a look and see where the scholarship situation stands. Near as I can tell, it breaks down like this:
FRESHMEN: G/F Roscoe Smith, G SHABAZZ! Napier, G Jeremy Lamb, F/C Tyler Olander, F/C Michael Bradley, F Niels Giffey, C Enosh Wolf
SOPHOMORES: G/F Jamal Coombs-McDaniel, F/C Ater Majok, F/C Alex Oriakhi
JUNIORS: G Kemba Walker
SENIORS: C Charles Okwandu, G Donnell Beverly
That's 13, right the scholarship allotment. But with 75 percent of the roster a sophomore or freshman, we're basically looking at, next year, the 2006-07 team with a great point guard. Something to think about going forward.