I was down at TC today and got to go into the main arena and the Rockets were working out Kelenna Azubuike - former Kentucky teammate of Hayes. Went undrafted last year, played D-league, the writeups say he steadily improved during the 2005-6 season. He played Vegas summer league and did well. 6'5" guard who supposedly could not shoot when he left Kentucky. Well, he was being fed the ball by an assistant coach just past the 3P line and he was then doing a lot of catch & shoot, catch, step & shoot. Most of his pops were coming just inside the 3P and while I watched he rarely missed. Very rarely. Shades of Boki, eh? He seemed to be in very good shape. Did not seem real fast but then he was doing what he was instructed to do and had no one defending against him. His stroke was good. His vegas league writeups were good. Potential 3rd string shooting guard? The price is probably right.
Our 3rd string shooting guard's name is Bobby Sura. I don't think we can speculate our needs until we make a trade or 2 to see how our roster shapes up.
Sounds like a good prospect, but I'd rather them give Pat Carrol a shot to make the team. Carrol and Novak would give us some nice shooting next year.
I don't see how we need any more shooting guards. Spanoulis, Snyder, Sura, Head, and T-Mac can all man the position. We need depth at center and forward. ...Unless we're trading some guards away?
I knew it was him when I first looked at the thread title. He's strong and athletic, but his skills needed serious refinement. He played very well last summer league(for the Cavs I believe?) but didn't get picked up. I think he could easily replace Bogans.
This would be a very good signing for us. The kid has a HELL of a lot of potential and is a very good athlete. He is also not as bad of a shooter as some might lead you to believe. He hit almost 40% of his 3's his first year at Kentucky before cooling off to 36 percent last year. He is also around a 75 percent free throw shooter which tells me that he at least has the basic capability to become a fair shooter. He has a pretty decent skill set to go with tremendous athleticism. He could become a legit NBA player if he is willing to work at it and he could become a very GOOD NBA player if he is willing to do only a little bit more. In my opinion he should have been drafted. He has potential.
The guy had the potential to be a 1st round pick. He was the best player on Kentucky's team a couple of years ago with Rondo as a Frosh and Hayes as a senior. He's got great athleticism and all the tools to be a good NBA player but his skills were naturally raw considering how young he was. His Dad basically screwed him over. He got arrested multiple times and he had to force his son to enter early into the draft in order to get some money. Guy's career got thrown down the toilet because of a jackass of a Dad that he had. I personally hope he can get it together and become a solid player because if he hadn't his Dad come and mess everything up, he just mightve been pretty good.
I liked this guy at Kentucky, thought he was a sure fire first rounder. Couldn't believe he didn't make it. What's the deal with all the KY guys? Who does Tubby have ties with in the Rox organization?
I don't know if there has ever been any controversy over it or not, but his "parents" are both Nigerian physicians and are both very short. Where they got a 6'5" inch son I have no idea. I don't remember what the deal was with his father, but his family was supposed to be terrific from all reports until things started coming out about his father. This isn't a kid from a family of drug dealers and crack whores, but there was something strange going on there for sure.
yeah, his parents were both doctors i think. i saw him play in HS...he averaged 30 something a game his senior year...the kid can score! not an nba player imo though
Could have been a 1st round pick this year maybe if stayed in school. Had real nice summer league in Vegas this year with Denver. Possible TC roster filler. http://www.vegassummerleague.com/players_info.cfm?player=326&season=3&team=20
THis is probably the reason he left school early... http://www.usatoday.com/sports/coll...-azubuike-father-sentencing_x.htm?POE=SPOISVA Azubuike receives four-year sentence TULSA (AP) — The father of a University of Kentucky basketball player was sentenced Tuesday to four years in prison on convictions including bank fraud and wire fraud. U.S. District Judge Terence Kern also ordered Kenneth S. Azubuike, the father of Wildcats forward Kelenna Azubuike, to pay restitution of more than $340,000. Kern also recommended Azubuike serve at a federal medical facility in Lexington, Ky., and imposed an additional $4,100 in financial penalties. "I want to apologize to the families that have been hurt," said Azubuike, 58. He said he could not find adequate words to "express my regret for the pain I've caused to these beloved people." Azubuike said he wanted to repay his "friends" for his wrongdoing and said it would be easier if he were not imprisoned. He also said a prison term would be a "death sentence" because of his poor health. Azubuike had a heart transplant in September 2003. "Please help me make reparation for the damage I've done to these lives," Azubuike said. A U.S. Bankruptcy Court jury found Azubuike guilty in November of 41 federal counts alleging he had defrauded investors, banks and the court. The charges alleged that Azubuike committed bank fraud and wire fraud, made false statements to banks and engaged in interstate transportation of stolen property. The jury found that Azubuike defrauded Dr. Jonathan Hood of Oneonta, Ala., and Dr. Doug Raymer of Broken Arrow by using money they had invested with him to pay for his own expenses and caused a combined loss of more than $232,000 to the two men. Hood's wife, Kristi Hood, testified Tuesday that she and her husband invested the money so they could do more medical missionary work. "It hurt when we found out it was all lies," she said. Azubuike was also accused of making bogus deposits into various bank accounts 1998 until 2001 in order to obtain cash or credit for payment of checks. The jury ruled that he should be responsible for $499,000 in losses to banks for making false statements to them to obtain loans. Kern ordered Azubuike to report himself to prison by April 17. He will be on electronic monitoring until then. Kelenna Azubuike, who attended Victory Christian High School in Tulsa, is the leading scorer for the No. 3 Wildcats. He had 16 points Tuesday night in Kentucky's 73-61 upset loss to unranked South Carolina.
Still more.... Would love to see a paternity test. http://www.ktul.com/externalwebsite...ine.com/print/collegebasketball/story/8367470 Kenneth Azubuike reports to jail next week for perpetrating outrageous levels of fraud, but his son also will pay for those sins. The Wildcats fell short in the regional final vs. Michigan State. (Getty Images) The son is Kentucky junior Kelenna Azubuike, who will never be a Kentucky senior because he has entered the 2005 NBA Draft and signed with an agent. Whether he admits it or not -- and right now, he's not -- Azubuike did it for his father, whose sentence for fraud includes a four-year prison term and more than $330,000 in fines and restitution. Thanks, Dad. Kenneth Azubuike needs money. Kelenna Azubuike can get some quickly -- by signing with an agent, for starters. The agent can float Azubuike a loan based on his future earnings. There's plenty of money to be made overseas, which is where Azubuike will play next season. Azubuike is a first-round pick only if the 2005 NBA Draft includes a height restriction. If the draft were open only to players 6-feet-5 and under, Azubuike might be drafted in the first round. Might be. Not sure. The 6-5, 210-pound Azubuike is a nice young man -- a really, really nice young man -- who has an NBA body but lacks NBA intensity. He also lacks the ability to dribble from Point A to Point B. His jump shot, his best attribute, is pretty good for the SEC level ... and pretty bad for the NBA level. This is a nice kid who was a nice college player who will have to learn how to say "nice" in another language, because if his goal is to make money as a basketball player, he won't live again in the United States until he retires. I don't blame Kelenna Azubuike. In fact, part of me applauds him. Talk about a good son -- look at what he's leaving behind, all for the sake of his father. He's a year from graduation. He's a year from perhaps, but only perhaps, playing his way into a guaranteed first-round contract in the 2006 NBA Draft. He has one last year of college life, and can life get much better than to be the leading scorer on the men's basketball team at Kentucky? Next season, with Azubuike, the Wildcats would have been among the leading Final Four candidates. Kelenna Azubuike gave all that away. Shame on you, Kenneth Azubuike. In a statement announcing his decision to throw away his last year of college, Kelenna Azubuike tried -- nobly -- to take credit for this horrible decision. "I know all the implications of signing with an agent," he said. "I believe I am ready and I am willing to do whatever it takes to get better before the draft. I want to make it clear that this is my decision, but my family is solidly behind me." His family is solidly behind him, all right. Pushing with both hands. Poor Kelenna. His rush to sign with an agent was basically a defense mechanism against anyone -- Kentucky coach Tubby Smith, NBA scouting guru Marty Blake, me -- telling him what a horrible, horrible decision he would be making by staying in the draft. By signing with an agent, see, Azubuike has no choice. He can't turn back now, even though he surely will learn in the coming weeks he has no chance to be drafted in the first round. Azubuike averaged 14.7 points as a junior, but for the second consecutive season his shooting accuracy dipped on 3-pointers (down to 35.6 percent) and free throws (72.9 percent). This is the player whom Smith once noted "looks like Tarzan but plays like Jane" -- recognition that the rippling Azubuike looks much tougher than he actually is. Well, duh. Azubuike has been hearing stupid stuff all his life from his father, who was notorious on the recruiting trail for telling college coaches that Kelenna probably was going to enter the 2002 NBA Draft out of high school. Even then, see, Kenneth Azubuike was trying to get money from his son. Is there any other way to look at this? When he announced the sentence, U.S. District Court Judge Terence Kern reportedly called Kenneth Azubuike a "serial con man." According to the federal case against him, Kenneth Azubuike convinced people who thought they were his friends to make nearly $700,000 in bad investments. The elder Azubuike also tried to obtain roughly $500,000 in loans through fraudulent means. All the while, Kenneth Azubuike was living the good life. Court records show he owned an expensive home in Lexington, Ky., and had three sport utility vehicles. He was sending two of his children to expensive, private schools and reportedly even depositing hundreds of thousands of dollars into his bank account -- all the while being represented by a public defender and receiving federally sponsored health care. Kenneth Azubuike was unemployed and presumably indigent. Kenneth Azubuike was a liar. He was a thief. Worst of all, he was an awful father to a son who is, frankly, too good for him. But not good enough for the NBA.
