Wow, thanks Poison and Harkless and everyone one else for the reports. It's really appreciated.
FWIW, ESPN describes Olisa Nwachie as "an undersized 5 man with good length and soft hands. He is a physical specimen while operating in the paint area...." And he's a lefty? Music to my ears! These are the kinds of gems that slip through the cracks.
I'm extremely impressed with the quality walkons Lavin has delivered. Lipscomb is a low to mid-major scholarship player IMO and I like all the videos, reports, and articles about Stewart and Nwachie. Henderson seems like a kid that could be playing for free at a low to mid-major this season and possibly even high level D-1 in two years if he went the Juco route. Add JDR a former top 150 recruit, and Ndiaye is no slouch himself. You have to love that these kids come from monster programs too. Wheeler (where Lipscomb's dad coaches) is a GA powerhouse and Westchester (Stewart and Polee) and Fairfax (Nwachie) have a ton of NBA and high-major basketball alumni.
Practice is going to be a different world. It's a good year to be able to get so many talented walkons experience to make the transition to next season more smooth.
Dom was playing the four (best news from this)...who was he matched up with?
Marillac, ive got Stewart as being the best walkon of the bunch. I take it youve got Henderson. Want to make a wadger?
I'll take Nwachie. It's so early, but I'd rank them: Nwachie>Stewart>Lipscomb>Henderson
Did a little search and found out that both Stewart and Nwachie were 2nd team All-Western League as juniors, and Nwachie was 1st team as a senior while Stewart was a 2nd team honoree again. There was so much talent on both of those teams for them to go under the radar. Lindsey Drew, Larry's little brother, is the #24 PG in the country and is undecided beginning his senior season at Fairfax. I like what I see.
Also saw that Nwachie went for 19 pts and 18 boards against top 100 PG Tra Holder's Brentwood team. Averaged 17 and 8 as a senior. Here is a full game of him:
http://www.ncsasports.org/mens-basketball-recruiting/ca/los-angeles/fairfax-high-school/olisaemeka-nwachieHe plays center. Offensive skills are RAW and he rushes a lot of shots, but looks to be a legit 6'6 with a solid body (listed 6'8 220, but the 6'8 is probably generous). Moves well on D and plays low (will be able to cover the three after a year or two), good hands on offense, very good passer, and his team looks extremely well-coached attacking the 2-3...fundamentally sound across the board. He looks good in the middle of the zone offense. On D he got beat a few times of the bounce rotating over to cover guards, but it was due to poor technique too far from the basket. At first look, he kind of reminds me of Kevin Freeman the old Uconn PF.
Overall in this game he looks like he doesn't hustle as much as I hoped for, but has some really explosive sequences on the glass and has a powerful lower body. I'm a little disappointed after watching this video because I wanted a brawler, but he might be the kind of kid that could turn into that player in college now that he isn't being called on to score and will have to adopt a different mentality. That's his only path to possibly starting or playing a key role in a few years and then playing overseas. Get him to buy into that role and we might have something.
Craig Smith averaged 20.7 and 11.3 for Fairfax and was very under-recruited. He's clearly no Craig Smith on offense, though.