The biggest and best prospect still available earlier this week was Bella Vista Prep's 7-foot-1, 215-pound senior post Rick Issanza. Issanza developed as a player a great deal over the past two years at the Bella Vista program. With many high-major division-I programs still looking to land the impressive post talent, this week Issanza gave a big verbal commitment and signing with a top-rated program in the Big-12 Conference.
This week Issanza decided that he will sign a national letter of intent with the University of Oklahoma and highly successful Head Coach Lon Kruger and his men's basketball staff, giving the Sooner program another big commitment for their 2019 Class.
Issanza was the state's top available post prospect and the top overall unsigned senior prospect before his commitment this week. Issanza is coming off a very productive senior season for Bella Vista, where he helped the program win this year's Grind Session National Championship. It was a season where Issanza developed as a player on and off the court, and proved that he can control a game on the defensive end of the floor - a valuable asset to any college program.
Issanza chose Oklahoma after a long, lengthy recruiting process, which included offers from UCONN, Texas Tech, Baylor, TCU and Denver.
Issanza's commitment and signing is another big signing by the Bella Vista Prep program, which has had a superb run this high school season. After winning this year's Grind Session, the program has had numerous prospects sign Division-I scholarships. Issanza is just the next one in the group that will be playing high-major division-I basketball next college season.
Issanza is a rare find as a result of his tremendous size and length. He is a long and strong basketball post prospect that runs the floor hard and is a good finisher around the paint. He has unique size and agility, which allows him to make plays around the basket with a soft touch and with advanced footwork. He runs the floor extremely well, and is an excellent finisher in transition, where he gets to the rim and finishes above it. Very few post prospects in America possess Issanza's unique size and length, and his true potential for the future. He is a true game-changer on the defensive end of the floor, and blocks and changes shots at a very high level, and he is definitely improving a great deal in that area. With continued hard work and development, Issanza will become an NBA prospect over time.
Congratulations to Issanza on his big accomplishment as a player, and also to the Bella Vista Prep program on another big signing for their program.
Arizona Hoop Review Scouting Report: Issanza is a rare find as a result of his tremendous size and length. He is a long and strong basketball post prospect that runs the floor hard and is a good finisher in transition. He has unique size and agility, which allows him to make plays around the basket with a soft touch and with advanced footwork. He has developed low-post skills and a good jump hook and drop-step on the baseline. He blocks or changes almost every shot in his area, and is also able to extend and alter shots outside of his area when he decides to. Issanza runs the floor extremely well, and is an excellent finisher in transition, where he gets to the rim and finishes above it. He is a developing low-post scorer that spends all of his time in the post to make shot attempts, and also finds the open man on the floor when double-teamed. Also an active rebounder that rebounds outside of his area. He has unlimited potential and upside as a player. A sure-fire pro prospect for the future, and if he continues to work hard, the sky is the limit for him.
