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ing from Kentucky, Florida, Louisville, and dozens of others.
But the school with the inside track was UConn. After seeing Lamb play in AAU tour- naments leading up to Peach Jam that sum- mer, Huskies coach Jim Calhoun was one of the first to extend a scholarship offer. That September, Lamb chose the campus in Storrs over Texas and Georgia.
"I really liked the coaching staff, and it was a good opportunity because the guards were seniors so they had to leave," says Lamb. "So I was coming into school with no guards basically, so I had to fill that spot."
WORDS. Martin Kessler PHOTO. FIBA
In two year's time, JEREMY LAMB morphed from a skinny high school sixth man to an NCAA
champion. With Kemba Walker now in the NBA, the UConn rising sophomore is being asked to undergo another transformation: from sidekick to star.
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LITTLE OVER TWO YEARS ago, as the Norcross (Ga.) High School basketball team took the court,
Norman Parker sat in the stands and watched. Parker was in search of a shoot- ing guard for his AAU squad, the Georgia Stars, and he thought a lanky junior on the Norcross bench might fill the void. That day, Parker watched as the little-known pros- pect connected on just one-of-three shots in a handful of minutes off the bench.
But it was enough to sell Parker. He had found his man.
Two years after Parker first saw Jeremy Lamb dribble a basketball in that Georgia gym, the 6-5 shooting guard was in Hous- ton as the UConn Huskies' second-leading scorer hoisting an NCAA championship trophy – a place nobody who saw Norcross play during Lamb's junior season would have predicted he would reach.
That is, nobody except for Parker.
Parker took an immediate liking to the skinny kid on Norcross's bench. Lamb was long (6-4 at the time), he played under con- trol, and he possessed a beautiful shot with a nice release.
"I said, 'Jeremy's got special talents,'" re- calls Parker, who founded the Georgia Stars in 1988. "The game slows down for Jeremy. There are only a few people who can play like that, and those are the pros."
But while Parker was quick to see the potential in Lamb's game, few college
scouts noticed. Beside some interest from a handful of local mid-majors, Lamb didn't hear much.
The summer before his senior year, that all changed. That summer, Lamb hit the AAU circuit in his first season with Parkers' Georgia Stars squad. And for the first time, he began to get noticed.
"I always emphasize to my kids, 'If you wanna break out, you really wanna get a name for yourself, go to the Peach Jam and show people what you can do,'" says Parker.
Lamb took the advice to heart, turning heads with shocking individual perfor- mances against the likes of Brandon Knight, Terrence Jones and Travis McKie at the July tournament.
"I really was (surprised) because I didn't know he could really play like he did," re- calls Tony Jacob, Lamb's former Stars team- mate. "He had one breakout game where he was just hitting a whole bunch of threes back-to-back-to-back, got a whole bunch of steals, a lot of dunks. He ended up with, I think, 30-plus."
"He was incredible," echoes Parker. "Prob- ably one of the best five or six game per- formances that I ever had, and we've been to the Peach Jam since the inception of our team. He shot the ball just lights out."
Suddenly the offers came piling in. Just a few short months after being a virtual un- known backing up his older brother, Zach, on their high school squad, Lamb was hear-
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Lamb did more than fill in. He started all but one game for the Huskies, finishing the season as UConn's number-two scorer behind 2011 Naismith Player of the Year finalist Kemba Walker. Lamb exploded in the postseason, averaging 15.3 points per game during the Huskies' 11-game march to the Big East and NCAA championships.
The performance was enough to garner interest from NBA scouts. But Lamb, who was projected to be a borderline first-round pick in the 2011 NBA Draft, elected to re- turn to UConn for his sophomore season.
"I wanted to declare for the draft, but my gut feeling told me I needed to stay another year," says Lamb. "I thought that was best. It was tough at first, but I talked to my dad and my mom. I just had a feeling I should stay."
With Walker now in the NBA, the rising sophomore will be expected to take on the starring role for a Huskies' squad that returns enough pieces to make another NCAA Tournament run. This summer, Lamb has prepped for his new position by developing his one-on-one scoring moves, particularly his off-the-dribble jumper.
He also got a chance to try out his new role this June when he traveled to Latvia with the U.S. national team for the 2011 FIBA U19 World Championship. Lamb was ex- pected to be the Americans' top scorer, and he proved capable, averaging 16.2 points per game. Now, the big question is, can Lamb succeed as UConn's go-to option?
"He was great in a supporting-cast role," says Dave Telep, Senior Basketball Recruit- ing Analyst for ESPN.com. "This year, much is going to be asked of him. I think some patience is going to be required, but also high expectation. This is a big year."
If his past is any indication, Lamb, when given the opportunity, will shine.
"I always called Jeremy the diamond in the rough because he truly was," says Parker. "The sky's the limit for him."
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