Categories
Step Into My Office: Leon Bond III
Step Into My Office: Leon Bond III
Leon Bond III, please have a seat. Welcome to Ames. We have been expecting you.
Bond is the kind of player who looks at a defense and simply decides it is not his problem. That energy is going to fit just fine in Hilton Coliseum.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementBond spent two seasons in Cedar Falls and made himself very comfortable in the Missouri Valley Conference. Perhaps a little too comfortable for the rest of the league.
His junior season he averaged 11.9 points, 4.7 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.9 steals per game while shooting 46/37/75 splits. MVC All Defense team. Lou Henson Award watchlist. All MVC Tournament team. A genuinely impressive collection of hardware for a player who was just getting started.
But the number that tells you everything you need to know about Leon Bond happened on Dec. 16 against Montana. Bond put up 37 points on 12 of 15 shooting including 4 of 5 from three and went 9 for 9 from the free throw line. The third highest single game scoring total in UNI program history. The box score almost looks made up. It is not. We checked.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement9 for 9 from the line. When you get to the rim that consistently and convert that reliably you are doing something that translates at every level. Getting to the line is a skill. Finishing is a talent. Bond has both.
What He Brings to Ames
Bond is a slasher. He attacks the paint with a physicality that the Iowa State offense was genuinely missing last season. At 6’5 and 200 pounds he has the frame to guard multiple positions which fits perfectly into what Otz demands defensively. Bond can guard, create, and finish. That combination is rare.
From the MVC to the Big 12
The Missouri Valley Conference is no joke but the Big 12 is a different level and that is just the reality. Bond was a top 64 recruit nationally who spent time at Virginia before finding his footing at UNI. He has seen high level basketball before.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe adjustment will be real but Bond’s game is built on getting to the rim and getting to the line and those skills do not stop working when the competition level rises. If anything they become more valuable.
The jump from Cedar Falls to Ames is the next chapter. Cyclone fans have every reason to be excited.