News » Interviews

One on One With Coach Bo Bell

We spoke to Coach Bo Bell of the King James Classic-winning Georgia Stars today and he gave us his thoughts about Al-Farouq Aminu (pictured) and Travis Leslie. 

“Write it in stone and put a stamp on it.” Bell said.  “Al-Farouq Aminu is the best player in  the country.  I’ve seen the other players and I’ll go on record saying Farouq is the best.”

Coach Bo said that Aminu is the leader on the Georgia Stars team and that he is a great kid on top of being a great player.  Aminu is currently ranked #4 in the class of 2008 and he is one of a handful of players that will contend for Player of the Year honors next year.  He is an outstanding rebounder and he handles, shoots and runs the break.  Aminu is also an elite athlete and has a 7-foot wing span.

We also asked Coach Bo about Travis Leslie, who is a big time under-the-radar prospect that exploded onto the scene over the weekend as he led the Georgia Stars to a win over the D1 Greyhounds in the King James Classic championship game.

Leslie is a 6’5 wing with ridiculous hops and athleticism.  He is excellent at getting to the rim and finishing and Coach Bo said he is a good shooter, but he doesn’t shoot a lot because he is so effective at finishing drives.  We also saw Leslie block a number of shots and he had a dunk-tip at the buzzer of a semifinal game to knock Delvon Roe and King of the Court out of the tournament.

We asked Coach Bo where he thought Leslie should be ranked when we update the class of 2008 rankings and he replied “Top 20 or 25.  You know what you saw… he’s that good”.  We’re not sure exactly where Leslie is going to land on that list, but he’ll definitely be on there.

Coach Bell had told us during the King James Classic that he expected Leslie to commit to Oklahoma and today he said that Oklahoma is the program that has been involved early with the prospect, but he did admit that there are going to be a lot of other programs that will make a push for Leslie after his performance in Akron over the weekend.  But those programs will be playing catch up to Oklahoma.

For more info on the Georgia Stars program, visit www.CoachBoBell.com

We have read over all of our notes and begun our King James Classic: Final Report that we hope to have finished and published later tonight or tomorrow.