He had the unenviable task of guarding LeBron... Nonetheless, he did a pretty good job on him. Ebi went coast to coast one time for a layup. Pretty impressive for a 6 ft 9 guy. It wouldn't surprise me if he started at SF or PF for Arizona next year.
No... but I guarantee you that he was nowhere near as good as Ndudi Ebi. Ebi RIGHT NOW has a better handle and passing skills than Rashard "spot up jumper" Lewis.
Courtesy of the Tampa Tribune: Okafor Is What's Right In College Basketball MARTIN FENNELLY Published: Mar 28, 2003 SAN ANTONIO - A bus carrying the Connecticut men's basketball team pulls onto campus after a road game. It is well past midnight. Players stumble toward bed. But one of them doesn't. It happens all the time. Same guy, too. One night, Huskies senior guard Tony Robertson looked at his watch and shook his head. No way, he thought. He yelled to his teammate. "Where you going?'' Emeka Okafor, UConn's sophomore center and one of the nation's premier shot-blockers, smiled that smile of his. The Big East Defensive Player of the Year, in his own defense, held up school books and mentioned study hall. Robertson rolled his eyes. "Damn, it's 2:30 in the morning, dog.'' "I know, man,'' Okafor said. ``Got to work.'' UConn plays Texas in the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16 tonight. It is a homecoming of sorts for the 6-foot-9 Okafor, whose wingspan seems as endless as his home state. He grew up in Houston, a three-hour drive from San Antonio. His mother and father will be here. So will 40 other people Okafor found tickets for. "That took work,'' he said. That finance paper he finished after he and his teammates explored downtown San Antonio late Wednesday night? Routine. "He gets in that zone,'' UConn coach Jim Calhoun said. "It's the way I do things,'' Okafor said. ``To me, it's like walking or breathing.'' A Point Of Light What a breath of fresh air. We could use one about now. The stink is that bad. This has been the March of St. Bonaventure, Georgia and Fresno State. And a new batch of Division I graduation rates are out. Men's basketball is once again king of the bottom of the barrel - the lowest graduation rate of all college sports with 32 percent. Ten of this tournament's Sweet 16 teams have graduated less than half their players the six years starting in the 1995-96 season. Five teams had a graduation rate of zero percent. NCAA president Myles Brand - the same Myles Brand who fired Bob Knight - is pushing a plan that would punish programs with poor graduation rates, perhaps with tournament ineligibility. Until then, we seek points of light. One is named Chukwuemeka Noubuisi Okafor. Emeka Okafor (pronounced eh- meeca oh-kuh-four) owns statistics that don't stop at 15.7 points and 11 rebounds a game or 150 blocked shots. He has a 3.73 grade-point average. He has made the Dean's List all three semesters at UConn. The finance major has earned 70 credits in the honors program, giving him junior academic status. "An education is what matters,'' Okafor said. For once, a kid who puts the straight A's in NCAA. "He's smart, he's bright, he has a great smile,'' Calhoun said. "He could be almost anything. Senator. CEO. NBA all-star. David Robinson is the kind of guy he should try to emulate. And I think he does.'' Okafor's father, Pius, arrived in the United States in 1976 from Nigeria. He had $400 in his pocket - his life savings - and a student visa. Pius Okafor eventually moved to Houston and enrolled at Texas Southern, working as a dishwasher, cab driver and gas station attendant to pay for school. Pius Okafor has master's degrees in business administration and accounting. He works as an accountant but also is enrolled in pharmacy school at the University of Missouri at Kansas City. His wife, Celestina, is a nurse in Houston. They have a daughter in high school. Pius makes the 12-hour round-trip drive from Kansas City to Houston when he can. An education is what matters. A True Student Athlete UConn has turned to Emeka Okafor in its run to San Antonio. He provided 20 points, eight rebounds and seven blocks in the Huskies' tournament opener against Brigham Young, then added 18 points and 15 rebounds against Stanford in the second round. He is a child growing into his game. "I'm still in a learning process,'' Okafor said. Even so, he could be a lottery pick if he enters the NBA draft in June. People wonder what Okafor will do. Quit wondering, Okafor says. He wants a degree. "What sense would it make to work as hard as I did in high school, as hard as I did in college, and not come away with anything? What was it all for?'' Calhoun stood outside his team's Alamodome locker room Thursday and admitted there's a problem with graduation rates (UConn's is 42 percent). Calhoun has criticized the NCAA, Brand in particular, because he doesn't think the rates as computed are a fair measure. And yet ... "There is no question that there are people in this business, at universities, who have allowed kids not to be educated,'' Calhoun said. ``And for that, shame on us.'' Shame is letting them off easy. But enough of that. There is always hope. There is always Emeka Okafor. Asked about his future, Emeka smiled. "I'm wide open,'' he said. As wide as the Texas sky. The more I read about this guy, the more I like him. Too bad he's going to be ousted in the Sweet 16 tonight.
Ndudi is awesome. I met him at a WC game this year. He has a pretty good mid-range J, and can play positions 3-5. He is a shot-blocking machine. He'll be suiting up at AZ next year. Very nice guy, and I swear, the dude looks like a skinny McGrady (looks, not game.)
dang man. i'd trade just about any one on our team for okafor. rice and posey must be worth something...
I was expecting Ebi to be a much more impressive physical specimen than he was. The college 4s are going to push him around until he hets stronger. Still, he should start at the 4 for Arizona next year as Walton and Anderson are graduating. Shakur (yes Mduke, higher rated than that shrimp OU signed) may start as a fresh at PG for Arizona too. I expect Arizona's starting 5 to be Shakur, Stoudimire, Iguadala, Ebi and Frye--better talent than this years team though less expierenced. However Adams could start if Stoudimire is moved to the 1 and Chris Rogers may get a shot to earn the starting 1 spot. I think Ebi all but has a spot in the rotation with Adams and Shakur fighting for the last spot. Arizona will be far more athletic and a better defensive team than the Walton-Gardner-Anderson one. BTW I really like Oakfor. I see worse case scenario a Theo Ratliff, and with room to get stronger and more polished in the low block potentially a better offensive player than Theo.
FWIW, Ebi supposedly held his own against one of the best big man in the HS c/o 2004, during hte Nike Camp (I believe) or was it AAU? In the Pac-10, the only PF who would eat his lunch inside is Ike Diogu who is just a tank.
