By ADAM ZAGORIA
NEW YORK — With his future head coach sitting courtside at the Jordan Holiday Classic on Friday night, Eric Reibe was hoping to give him a glimpse of the future.
Reibe, a five-star, 7-foot center from the Bullis (Md.) School, had committed to head coach Dan Hurley and UConn in October and signed with the Huskies last month as part of their four-man recruiting class ranked No. 3 nationally.
But Reibe faced a monster opponent in fellow big man Cameron Boozer of Columbus (FL) High, and did not have one of his better performances in a 70-43 blowout loss in front of a packed house at Baruch College.
Reibe, a native of Germany, looked hesitant and over-matched for much of the game, and finished with 7 points on 3-of-11 shooting, including 0-of-4 from deep, along with 4 rebounds, 4 fouls and 5 turnovers.
The 6-9 Boozer, a Duke signee and the son of former NBA and Duke standout Carlos Boozer, went for 18 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists in front of NBA scouts from nearly 20 teams. He is a projected top-3 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft.
“[We gotta] bounce back, we got another game [Saturday], so we gotta use that energy and that anger from today and just use it as energy for [Saturday],” said Reibe, whose team faces local power Archbishop Stepinac (N.Y.) on Saturday night.
Virtually everyone watching the game — including the NBA scouts — agreed that Reibe needs to get stronger at the next level in order to bang in the paint in the Big East. Of course, he probably won’t be facing too many players as strong and talented as Boozer.
“Yeah, for sure, I gotta develop all aspects of my game,” Reibe said. “Not just the physicality but my IQ and making the easy plays.”
On one play shown below, he caught the ball in decent position but was unable to finish over a defender other than Boozer.
“We’ve been having trouble catching it in the low post, so I’m still trying to catch it deeper and get touches without putting the ball on the floor, and not making it difficult for myself,” Reibe said.
.@UConnMBB commit Eric Reibe establishes decent position here but cannot convert.
Needs to get stronger at the next level https://t.co/JFR2HFhmX3 pic.twitter.com/jNVRUzcmt0
— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) December 28, 2024
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Reibe did display a nice rhythm and fluidity on his jumper from the mid-range and out beyond the arc, but the ball just didn’t fall on this night.
Both Hurley and Luke Murray huddled with Reibe after the loss Friday night, offering him support and advice for his game.
“Just be a force, bring that Husky mentality,” he said of their advice. “Be a force on the offensive end and the defensive end.”
One NBA scout said he had no doubt that Hurley and his staff will develop Reibe.
“He’s gotta get stronger,” the scout said. “He’s going to the right place though.”
Hurley is excited to add Reibe as part of his four-man class, and knows he will take steps once he gets to college.
“For a guy his size at center, Eric’s got just tons of offensive skill, as a shooter, as a passer, as a guy who can score in the post,” Hurley told ZAGSBLOG. “He’s gonna have a huge impact on us. He’s gonna get to campus, he’ll get stronger, he’ll get into the way that we do things, the level of urgency, and he’s gonna take off.”
Asked about what Reibe might have learned from going against Boozer, Hurley said, “You’re gonna go play in these types of games against excellent teams, you’re gonna learn some things, areas where you gotta get better and have the ability to learn your whole senior year so that when you get to college, you have momentum.”
Reibe will join five-star guards Darius Adams and Braylon Mullins and top Tasmanian wing Jacob Furphy in Hurley’s 2026 class — and the coach is fired up.
“It’s an awesome class,” Hurley said. “I mean, we just lost so much high-end talent [with seven guys going to the NBA over two years], with Braylon and Darius and big Eric and “Tassie” we’re really going to be able to replenish a lot of that high-end, early-entry talent that we lost in the last couple of years.”
In April, Reibe and Germany lost to Furphy and Australia, 89-75, in the Albert Schweitzer Tournament in Germany. Reibe finished with 15 points and 5 rebounds and Furphy tallied 14 points, 5 boards and 4 assists.
What will Furphy bring to UConn?
“His versatility for his size, he can bring the ball up, he can pass, he has great IQ, he can shoot,” Reibe said of Furphy.
Reibe also took his UConn visit with Mullins and has met Adams on campus. The group has struck up a text chain.
“[We talk about] just how their season is going, what they’re looking forward to, when they’re coming on campus, that kind of stuff,” Reibe said.
UConn has won back-to-back championships under Hurley and is bidding for the first three-peat since John Wooden coached at UCLA.
Reibe and the other recruits want to keep that trend going.
“I mean, I’m coming to win,” he said, “so I’m going to give everything I can to win.”
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