Bose A Future Pro

Anatoly Bose currently ranks third in the NCAA in scoring. College basketball fans have heard of Bose, and many assume he's an Australian that Nicholls State lured to Thibodeaux. While he was recruited out of Austrailia, Bose is actually from Kazakhstan. What else don't we know about Anatoly Bose? ESPN's Diamond Leung fills us in.

Raised on a farm in Kazakhstan and a beach-town suburb of Sydney, Bose is doing his best these days to bring recognition to a program based in tiny Thibodaux, La. Featuring a diversity in his game rather befitting an international man of mystery, the 6-foot-6 senior swingman ranks third in the nation in scoring, averaging 25 points per game, and accounts for nearly 37 percent of the team's points. "It's not a fluke," Colonels coach J.P. Piper said of Bose's success. "It's not an accident. The greatest legacy he'll leave is of putting the work in."

Bose's metamorphosis from an obscure college prospect who received only two Division I scholarship offers to an obscure pro prospect who after last season declared for the NBA draft is also very much defined by fortuitous circumstances. He might have never developed a passion for basketball had it not been for his mother's idea to have the family leave Kazakhstan and emigrate to New York in search of opportunity when he was 6 years old.

 In Brooklyn's Russian-speaking community and basketball-rich culture, Bose grew up following the Knicks-Pacers rivalry and was hooked on playing "NBA Live 95" for Sega Genesis. At that young age and speaking limited English, he often found it difficult getting time on the playground courts.

"I grew up watching people play in the park, trying to get in a game," said Bose, who eventually joined a Russian youth basketball league.

 Even at age 12, when Bose and his family moved to the Sydney suburb of Bondi in Australia, he kept tabs on college stars such as Adam Morrison and J.J. Redick on the Internet, then decided midway through his high school career that he wanted to return to the United States to play.

 However, the first objective was to get noticed. So he took the initiative and wrote to Division I and Division II coaches across America, sending out nearly 600 letters to introduce them to his background and his basketball accomplishments Down Under.

Most of the coaches never got back to Bose, and the ones who did mainly asked for game video or politely informed him that their recruiting classes were filled. But Nicholls State assistant coach Martin Unger, who would spend only one season at the school, grew curious about the e-mail he received from Bose. "So we got a guy that was from Russia, came to the states and was now in Australia?" wondered Unger, who thought the Aussie's time spent in New York might help him adjust more easily than the average foreign prospect.

 Read the rest of Leung's story here: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=5942119

Bose's story truly is an awesome one. From one side of the world, to the other, back to the other side, and then across the globe to Thibodeaux. LSU coach Trent Johnson claimed that Bose was what college basketball was all about, adding, "he's a guy that's not overly strong, he's not big, he's not physical, he's not overly athletic, but he understands how to play this game." And worked his tail off to get to where he is now.