Was a high school teammate of Peter Kiss.
JUCO Forward Jonathan Nwankwo
- Thread starter dpwhite
- Start date
Was a high school teammate of Peter Kiss.
love the kiss connection. Would be a nice plug if he can play immediately.
This would seem like a great get.....he was redshirted at VCU and then transfered to Southern Idaho, I guess to be able to play without sitting out again??? Lets get this guy as he would play immediately
He wouldn't have to sit out because Southern Idaho is a JUCO... so that's good. Hope we offer.
Choppin, thanks for the review.
I wonder what he would give his team. Initially commited to Minnesota, decommitted. Then commited to VCU, red shirted and left.
You know how Jay Young sees kids. If they have the right attitude, he could turn them into a star.
I think Sa takes a little jump this season. He hasn't played basketball for very long, and it sounds like he has seen the beast that is the big ten, and is adjusting this off season.
Great physical presence. Nwanko hits his free throws. I think the staff is seeing great commitment from Sa and Doorson.
I wonder what he would give his team. Initially commited to Minnesota, decommitted. Then commited to VCU, red shirted and left.
You know how Jay Young sees kids. If they have the right attitude, he could turn them into a star.
I think Sa takes a little jump this season. He hasn't played basketball for very long, and it sounds like he has seen the beast that is the big ten, and is adjusting this off season.
Great physical presence. Nwanko hits his free throws. I think the staff is seeing great commitment from Sa and Doorson.
Pitt was a finalist for him a few years ago so Brandin Knight may know him and be a factor....hopefully, a good sign. Pitt is in play now but no one from the previous staff is still there.
Thanks for posting the highlights.
Jump hook with both hands! Always baffling you don't see every true big
learn a jump hook. Nice touch around the rim and looks like a beast rebounding. Seems to use his pivot foot pretty well.
Definitely want this kid and if we have connections with Kiss as a former teammate and possibly Knight previously recruiting him...
I love how when it comes to recruiting and Pike I feel like we're at the big boy table. We might not have the best seat but no one is wondering why we're here!
Time for some @Russ Wood insight since he spent some time down in Florida. I'm just guessing here, but, maybe he was not a good fit for the uptempo style at VCU.
Wally had an NBA body/athleticism, and my ability to shoot and run plays properly.
I think I read that he left VCU because his transcript might not get approved by the NCAA in time for the season. This past season Southern Idaho was 27-7 scoring 97.9 ppg and gave up 80.7 ppg. I am wondering why he played the first 18 games and missed the last 16. Did he suffer an injury? His team played a lot of guys a lot of minutes. He started 17 of the 18 games he played. He shot 60.2% on fg's, and 46-60 on free throws for 76.7%. He only played 14.7 mpg and averaged 7.7 rebounds per game. He had 31 personal fouls, 16 turnovers and 28 blocks. He could be a real asset but I hope someone knows why he missed 16 games. He had 176 points for 9.8 ppg but the last game he played he only had 2 points in 8 minutes so he might have had an injury in that game. Before that game he had 174 points in 17 games for 10.2 ppg.
I looked up the local news from CSI, and they did indicate that he was out with an injury as of mid-january. So perhaps it was a season ender.
According to a "baseball" poster at the miscellaneous sports board, it is next to impossible to get JUCO baseball student/athletes admitted to Rutgers. Is there a different admission standard for hoops?
I like the Kody Shubert player.
He may not get a ton of p5 offers, but Pikiell knows hell never have to tell the kid something twice. Coaches love to have a player like that. Also, why not grab a ivy league player for a position like PG?
He's no Carey, but he can hoop.
He may not get a ton of p5 offers, but Pikiell knows hell never have to tell the kid something twice. Coaches love to have a player like that. Also, why not grab a ivy league player for a position like PG?
He's no Carey, but he can hoop.
If guys don't load on PE credits at the JUCO, they can get into RU. Freeman was a JUCO.
Think the correct pronunciation in his native language transliterates into : B U S H.
Bush, where the "W's" are rarely silent.
MO
Its the same standard - in fact, the issue affects all students transferring to Rutgers, not just scholarship athletes.
The underlying problem is with credits completed at the prior institution transferring, and being counted as credits toward degree completion at Rutgers. Rutgers is notorious for not accepting credits earned at other schools. As a result, depending on what classes the prospective transfer took (i.e. PE credits or other BS classes) transferring may not be an option. While ordinary students can still transfer and just take the hit on needing to complete more credits to graduate, it can effectively block student athletes, who would become ineligible based on having insufficient progress towards a degree.
I can't offer much insight on Nwankwo unfortunately. I think I saw him once with the Victory Rock Prep HS team but for most of the year he was on their Post Grad team and I didn't watch them at all.
As far as VCU goes, what I remember is that it took a while for them to get him cleared by the NCAA. Grades had nothing to do with it. From what I recall, the NCAA had concerns about when Nwankwo's HS clock started. There were concerns that he played too many years of HS ball. They got the kid cleared, but he was still very raw and VCU didn't want to burn a year of his eligibility sitting on the bench and hardly playing. So they chose to redshirt him and continue to develop him and he'd still have four years of eligibility.
At least that's how I remember it.
I expect him to transfer to Rutgers btw.
ESPN had him as a 4-star recruit. From ESPN's writeup on Nwankwo as a highschool recruit (pre-JUCO):
"Nwankwo is a big body post that competes and plays with energy and urgency. He runs the floor pretty well and does a good job of catching and finishing when he receives drop off passes created by dribble penetration. Excellent rebounder on both ends of the floor."
"Nwankwo is a big body post that competes and plays with energy and urgency. He runs the floor pretty well and does a good job of catching and finishing when he receives drop off passes created by dribble penetration. Excellent rebounder on both ends of the floor."
Nwankwo is a starter immediately in our lineup if 100% healthy....gives motor, shot blocking ability and some offense....insurance on Shaq Doorson as well and a significant upgrade from Diallo
I wouldn't get caught up in that...just know he's a guy the staff really wants and fills a need.
Ever since February 13, 2015 I have looked at ESPN's rankings and star ratings with lots of suspicion.
You see, on that date Ryan McMahon committed to Louisville. But to fully understand, we have to back up a couple of days:
February 11, 2015: Ryan McMahon has ZERO Division I offers, only D2 offers. He is not ranked by ESPN, Rivals, Scout, 247 or any national service I can think of. BUT Dick Vitale convinces his boy Rick Pitino that McMahon (a good shooter) is the second coming of Mark Price. (I actually watched him score 40 points in a spring AAU game in 2014 against a team with zero Division I talent. Kid could not miss that day) Vitale even shows the kid love during a timeout of a Duke game.
February 12, 2015: Louisville offers McMahon.
February 13, 2015: McMahon commits to Louisville and suddenly ESPN annoints him with four-stars. See, ESPN ranked him the No. 43 shooting guard in the 2015 class, and wouldn't you know it, the No. 44 shooting guard in that class is where the three-star rankings began.
Louisville redshirted the kid so this past season was his first year playing. He shot 36.5 percent beyond the arc. Louisville is using him as a shooting specialist and running him off of screens for three-pointers. I don't think he took 10 shots inside the arc. They have to hide him on defense.
Specialist that you have to hide on D doesn't sound like a four-star to me. But I digress.
Very interesting. I will say that I've found their ratings to be pretty good, and clearly the capsules that they write are based on someone watching the player at least once. It could be based on film review, but I get the sense they are usually based on an in person evaluation. So I do trust their ratings, but that's not to say there can't be laziness and shenanigans like you described. Plus who knows these days as ESPN seems to be firing everyone, they seem to have fewer resources to spread around.
ESPN is notorious for this kind of "retroactive thinking." Chad Forde was busted by the internet for going back in time and changing his final mock drafts to be graded higher in comparison to Draft Express and others.
At one point they had four guys going around watching kids, and they got out a lot. I think it was Dave Telep, Reggie Rankin an two others. One had an Italian name. Telep left and Goodman came on board. Last summer Rankin left and became a college scout for Golden State.
I learned a lot from Rankin. Good man.
That is a good question. I see that he was listed as a redshirt freshman for 2016-17 at Southern Idaho so I would think he should have three years to play three. Let's hope we can get him and that he is over any possible injury.
Perhaps the most intriguing point I read in this thread is that he catches the ball well. For years we have failed to have inside players who can catch the ball and then score consistently inside after the catch. Part of the problem with our guards throwing up ill advised shots after penetrating is that our big men fail to position themselves adequately to receive a drop off pass, catch the pass, and then convert. If this player can accomplish the foregoing it will potentially improve the half court offense in a meaningful way.
I am not delusional. I doubt this individual will transform the program. If he does have the skill set described above, however, there should be incremental improvement for the program.
I am not delusional. I doubt this individual will transform the program. If he does have the skill set described above, however, there should be incremental improvement for the program.
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