Kansas and Kentucky (among others) are pining for this high school junior from Angola
Kentucky is the latest school to start recruiting Sadraque Nganga, a 6-foot-10, 205-pound junior-to-be power forward out of Compass Prep School in Chandler, Arizona who recently received a scholarship offer from Kansas.
Nganga, the No. 15-ranked player in the recruiting class of 2022 according to Rivals.com, according to scouts has the potential to be a top five player in the class by his senior season.
“I like Kentucky but I’m still looking for schools,” Nganga told Zagsblog.com.
Of KU, his mentor Patricio Muandumba said: “They (Jayhawk coaches) really like his versatility.”
A native of Angola, Nganga is considering KU, UK, Arizona, Arizona State, Alabama, Auburn, Maryland, Oklahoma, TCU and others. He’s interested in jumping straight to the NBA if the league allows high school players to enter the draft right out of high school in 2022.
“Right now we’re just letting him play,” Muandumba said. “He’s getting offers from different schools and he’s getting super excited.”
Muandumba said Nganga can play both inside and on the perimeter.
“For him, when he first started playing as a kid in Angola, he used to play point guard,” Muandumba said. “Even when he first moved to the U.S. he would play point guard. That’s his natural position.
“With time, I’m making sure he’s developing his other skills as well. He’s turning more into a Kevin Durant-type player,” the mentor added.
Kepnang visiting with coaches on Zoom
Franck Kepnang, a 6-11, 225-pound senior-to-be center from Westtown (Pennsylvania) School, who is ranked No. 29 in the recruiting class of 2021 by Rivals.com, has held recruiting conference calls with coaches from Ohio State, St. John’s and Pittsburgh with Miami scheduled later this week, according to Zagsblog.com.
Kepnang, who is from Cameroon, also has KU, Maryland, Georgetown, UConn, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Stanford, Syracuse, Texas A&M, UCLA, Vanderbilt and others on his list.
“I want to see how a school plays through their bigs and how much they allow their bigs to do. With the new style of basketball, do they let their bigs shoot? That’s important to me because I’ve been working a lot on my shooting and getting pretty good at it,” Kepnang told Zagsblog.com.
Jayhawks net No. 6 preseason ranking
KU is currently ranked No 6 in the country in nbcsports.com’s latest preseason rankings for the 2020-21 season. Villanova is No. 1, followed by Gonzaga, Baylor, Virginia and Michigan State.
“When it comes to the amount of talent on the Kansas roster, there are certainly enough weapons here. They are incredibly loaded on the wing — Marcus Garrett, Bryce Thompson, Ochai Agbaji, Christian Braun, Tyon Grant-Foster, Tristan Enaruna, Jalen Wilson, sheesh — and David McCormack showed enough flashes last season that I expect him to be able to do an adequate job replacing Udoka Azubuike,” wrote Rob Dauster of nbcsports.com.
“Assuming Bill Self (correctly) plays small-ball again, they should be really, really good. The problem? Other than Garrett, there is not a point guard on the roster that has played a second of college basketball. The best Jayhawk teams have had a killer at that position, and I’m not sure Garrett qualifies as such.”
Arkansas prep Ford likes KU
Derrian Ford, a 6-3 junior-to-be shooting guard from Magnolia (Arkansas) High School, who is ranked No. 39 in the recruiting class of 2022 by Rivals.com, is taking his recruiting seriously.
He’s already made unofficial visits to Arkansas Alabama, Baylor, Rice, Vanderbilt and Texas A&M, Rivals.com reports. At some point, when the NCAA opens up recruiting again, he plans on visiting KU, Missouri, Oklahoma State, Georgia Tech, Mississippi. He also has Florida, Auburn and TCU on his list.
“Had he been able to hit Nike’s EYBL with Team Thad this spring, it’s quite likely that we would have been writing quite a bit about shooting guard Derrian Ford, who has managed to fly somewhat under the radar despite a top 40 national ranking and several high level scholarship offers,” wrote Eric Bossi of Rivals.com.
“The Magnolia (Ark.) High product hasn’t gotten to hit the circuit just yet, but his recruitment has managed to thrive after winning back-to-back state championships during his first two years of high school. He is a high scoring guard who can get to the rim or burn defenders from deep,” Bossi added.
Griffen wants to visit Kansas, K-State
Rylen Griffen, a 6-5 junior-to-be combo guard from Richardson (Texas) High School, tells Rivals.com he would like to visit KU, Kansas State and Texas A&M. He’s already visited Baylor and Texas Tech. Others on his list: Creighton, DePaul, Mississippi, Oklahoma State, SMU, TCU and others.
Griffen, who is ranked 53 in the class of 2022 by Rivals.com, averaged 22.0 points, 5.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game his sophomore season.
Older coaches to sit out season because of virus?
CBSsports.com’s Gary Parrish has written an article suggesting the possibility that older coaches could sit sit out the 2020-21 college hoops season out of COVID-19 coronavirus concerns.
Parrish writes that according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “people 65 years and older” are among those who are “at high-risk for severe illness from COVID-19.”
North Carolina’s Roy Williams turns 70 in August. Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim is 76 and Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski 74. Lon Kruger of Oklahoma is 67 and Bob Huggins of West Virginia 66. Florida State’s Leonard Hamilton is 71.
“I don’t think it will be safe,” Dr. Jon McCullers, pediatrician-in-chief at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital and associate dean at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Medicine told Parrish of CBSsports.com.
Parrish wrote: “McCullers believes it would be wise for older coaches to consider stepping away from the sport or explore ways to coach with social-distancing. When asked what the latter might look like, he said a high-risk coach could maybe avoid locker rooms completely, run practice from a distance, observe games from a luxury box, so on and so forth. But, McCullers said, the idea of a 70 year-old coaching in any sort of traditional way seems risky.”
Parrish wrote that “Houston Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni, 69, has already said he plans to coach in a mask if the NBA season resumes, but that’s based on the idea that the NBA will create something of a bubble that’s as safe as it can possibly be with testing happening nonstop.”
This story was originally published May 13, 2020 at 10:22 AM with the headline "Kansas and Kentucky (among others) are pining for this high school junior from Angola."
