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Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2022 17:43:52 GMT -6
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Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2022 17:44:14 GMT -6
Transfer from Oregon State. Had a short stint at Memphis too |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2022 18:04:45 GMT -6
He is immediately eligible.
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Post by FTA1982 on Jul 1, 2022 18:15:53 GMT -6
This guy is an immediate starter IMO. Athletic as hell. Looks to be a good finisher and shot blocker.
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Post by ghostofdylan on Jul 1, 2022 18:35:43 GMT -6
OK, name your starting lineup!
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Post by JG Panthers on Jul 1, 2022 19:12:52 GMT -6
He is immediately eligible. Big, if true. Announced a transfer after the May 1st deadline and has already transferred once without sitting out a year. He'd be a welcome addition to the frontcourt. Curious where the scholarship comes from and how the minutes shake out at the 4 and 5. |
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Post by peterpanther on Jul 1, 2022 20:13:58 GMT -6
It appears that Ahmad Rand is a grad transfer.
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Post by ghostofdylan on Jul 1, 2022 21:50:53 GMT -6
Ratliff, Stuart, Edwards, Johnson and Rand.
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Post by Cactus Panther on Dec 26, 2022 17:43:28 GMT -6
After years of bouncing around, high-flying senior forward Ahmad Rand is at home with UWM Panthers
Todd Rosiak
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
In what’s been a much more entertaining and successful season for UW-Milwaukee’s men’s basketball team, Ahmad Rand has been a standout.
And while his per-game averages of 8.6 points and 4.4 rebounds won’t grab anyone’s attention, the way the senior forward springs off the floor most certainly does.
Rand has been a one-man highlight reel for the Panthers on the offensive end with 26 of his 44 makes from the floor coming on dunks (59%) in UWM’s first 12 games.
He’s also blocked 30 shots, with his 2.5 per-game average recently tied for 14th in Division 1 – impressive numbers considering Rand stands just 6 feet 8 inches tall (making him the shortest player in the top 22 in that category) and has played but a meager 15.8 minutes per game thus far.
“Our energy feeds off that,” UWM coach Bart Lundy said of Rand’s high-flying game.
A perfect example of Rand’s game-changing abilities came in the Panthers’ 92-63 victory over Division III North Park on Dec. 11.
Coming out of the locker room to start the second half, Rand slammed home three dunks and assisted on two more baskets on one end. He also altered a pair of shots on the other to help stretch a one-point UWM lead into a 15-point advantage – all in just a 4 ½-minute stretch of play.
“You’ve got five guys on the court. If I block one person’s shot aggressively, it’s going to feed the whole team,” he said. “If I get a dunk, it gets the bench hyped and everybody on the opposing team is going to feel some type of way about it. It’s going to affect everybody.
“But me personally, I like the blocks.”
It took hard work for Rand to become a high flier, though.
Ahmad Rand's athletic skills began to blossom as a sophomore in high school
He didn’t even throw down his first dunk until the summer going into his sophomore year at Lincoln County High School in Lincolnton, Ga., a town of roughly 1,500 located roughly midway between Atlanta and Columbia, S.C.
“My coach would always have me stand on the side of the goal and have my point guard throw me alley oops back to back to back,” Rand recalled. “I’d be tired as I don’t know what, but he didn’t care. Then stadium steps for 20 minutes straight, no water, non-stop. It’d be working everything – thighs, calves, everything.
“That’s basically where it came from.”
Rand improved year by year and as a senior he averaged 15.2 points, 15.1 rebounds and an astounding 7.8 blocks per game. Among the coaches recruiting him at that point was Lundy, then the head coach at Queens University in Charlotte.
Rand ultimately wound up at Neosho County Community College in Chanute, Kansas, but lasted only a semester before a family friend connected him with Jake Williams, then the head coach at South Carolina-Salkehatchie, a junior college in Allendale, S.C.
It didn’t take long for Williams to realize he had a diamond in the rough in Rand, who went on to lead the NJCAA in blocked shots with 4.4 per game as a freshman and five per game as a sophomore.
“He didn’t have a lot growing up. Comes from humble beginnings,” said Williams, now an assistant at UWM. “When he lived with us at Salk, he was a toothpick. He was sick a lot. At times he didn’t really know how to take care of himself. We didn’t have scholarships. These guys were on their own. All we had was a basketball floor and an opportunity.
“But he came there and made the most of it. He was probably only operating on one meal a day, staying up late. But man, he really grew a lot on and off the floor those two years.
“I always thought he was a Power 5 player.”
Big opportunity for Rand comes at Memphis with coach Penny Hardaway, but things don't go as planned
Not surprisingly, Rand attracted the interest of some big-time schools and ultimately settled on Memphis without taking a visit to campus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“My first year at Memphis, I knew I wasn’t going to be mentally prepared for it,” said Rand. “But at the same time, it’s Memphis and (coach) Penny Hardaway and I’ve only got one chance with this.
“I can’t give up this chance. So, I’m going to go to Memphis, see if I like it.”
As it turned out, Rand didn’t. He played in only three games and then entered the transfer portal.
“A lot of politics going on down there,” is how Williams described it.
But Rand took the blame.
“I think I should have stayed,” he said. I could have stayed there at Memphis and learned in the years that I would have had and worked at it. I knew I wasn’t on their level yet. I didn’t know how hard the workouts were going to be, nothing. I was basically like a lost kid out there.
“I should have stayed, though, and worked it out. But everything happens for a reason.”
This time Rand committed to Oregon State sight unseen due to the previous connections he’d made with the coaching staff there before choosing Memphis.
Rand did better with the Beavers, averaging 5.3 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.1 blocks in 13.4 minutes per game. He also blocked a career-high five shots against Texas A&M.
But a 3-28 overall record, including 1-19 in the Pac-12, led Rand back to the transfer portal for one final try at a good fit and a memorable final season in college.
Again, he had plenty of interest.
Rand takes a chance in Milwaukee with the Panthers
But this time he went with his gut and his previous relationship with Lundy and Williams, both of whom were now in Milwaukee seeking to rebuild the Panthers.
Despite the fact all their scholarships had been spoken for and he’d never been to Milwaukee, Rand signed on.
“I know what Coach Lundy is trying to build here and I know that he can help me, so I’m going to do all I can to try and help him, too,” Rand said.
“I’m real non-chalant with stuff like (walking on). I could have gone to another school and gotten a scholarship. But I’ve known Jake for the longest and Coach Lundy for the longest, and I’d rather take that risk than go anywhere else.”
Lundy and Williams were understandably ecstatic at the talent that fell into their laps.
“I’m sorry it didn’t happen sooner in the summer when we had a scholarship, but I wasn’t going to go about things the wrong way,” Williams said. “I’ve always been a players’ coach, but Ahmad is probably one of the ones I’m closest with, so obviously that played a huge part in it.
“Coach Lundy recruited him when I was in South Carolina – a little bit out of high school and again out of junior college. A combination of the relationship he and I have and then the familiarity he had with Bart kind of made it a no-brainer.”
To this point, Lundy and his staff have been doing their best to teach a talented – and almost completely turned over – a new system.
As a result, Rand is one of several players Lundy has mentioned as deserving of more minutes.
To this point he’s played 20 or more minutes only three times with a season high of 24 despite shooting 72.1% – a figure that would rank fifth in Division I were it not for the fact his 44 makes and 61 attempts fall just short of qualifying – and being an absolute terror on the defensive end.
Not that Rand is complaining.
“Look, man. We only won three games last year (at Oregon State),” he said. “We’re winning this year. I’m good.”
Rand, UW-Milwaukee off to promising starts
And things could be even better once Horizon League play resumes Dec. 29 at Oakland.
The Panthers are already off to a 2-0 start after being picked to finish ninth in the 11-team conference and could be primed to be one of the surprise teams with Rand right in the middle of it all.
“We knew when we got Ahmad, it just made our frontcourt so much more dynamic with his athleticism,” Williams said. “Obviously, his experience playing high-major basketball has helped us in some of these non-conference games, and he had a really good game at Purdue.
“But I think in our conference, his ability to block shots and make plays other guys just can’t make, I think he’s going to be a game-changer for us from a defensive standpoint. I think he has a chance to be the defensive player of the year in the conference.”
Rand is hard on himself when asked to rate his overall performance to this point, including earning an “F-minus” as a rebounder.
“I haven’t even gotten a double-double here yet,” he said. “I know I can do better than what I’ve been doing. I’ve just got to find it.”
But accounting for all he’s been through to this point, Rand – now 24 and a self-proclaimed “old soul” – should already be considered a success story according to Williams.
“From the time I first met him to now, he’s transformed from a boy into a man,” he said. “He’s a good student. He lives in study hall. He cares about his grades. He’s really matured as a student and he understands there’s a lot more to life than just basketball.
“He’s very serious about getting his degree and putting himself in the driver’s seat for when the ball does stop bouncing.”
Added Rand: “I’ve matured in a lot of ways. I look at a lot of stuff differently.”
But he also hopes the ball doesn’t stop bouncing for a while.
His motivation is his 15-year-old brother Mekhi, a budding point guard back in Lincolnton who he wants to continue to guide and, hopefully, help provide for by playing professionally after his time at UWM is up.
“I’m trying to feed my family,” Rand said. “I’m really doing this for my little brother. My little brother is my heart. I’m trying to create a pathway for him because I know how stuff can get.”
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