Joseph Uchebo Granted Release from NCST

Joseph Uchebo Granted Release from NCST

by Chris Thomas @ 1:25 pm. Filed under Blue Blooded Opinions

uchebo

Well… maybe not. Hate to be ya, Gottfried.

As mentioned earlier today in the morning links section, 2011 center Joseph Uchebo was released from his letter of intent to play basketball at North Carolina State. Every recruiting service has Uchebo as a high 4-star, but he is an elite level kid who has seen his stock rise in the past year, even since committing to NCST. Rivals and Scout both list him as 6-9 while ESPN says he is 7 ft tall. Uchebo is an unbelievable rebounder with great fundamentals who reclassified to 2011 from 2012 last summer.

Since the departure of Sidney Lowe, which is for the benefit of basketball everywhere as that guy is awful, there has been plenty of UK talk regarding NCST players and recruits. The most obvious was C.J. Leslie who flirted heavily with UK before deciding to stay in state, where he quickly disappeared from the public eye with a lackluster season. Then came the much-heralded Ryan Harrow, who is known for having a very ridiculous handle on the ball. The third talk around recruiting circles was how UK could use the presence of an elite pure post player like Joseph Uchebo should he he try to get out of his LOI, which when this talk started it was most certain Terrence Jones would be gone and we would have playing time open down low (unless Vargas improves quickly). Well, now it has happened and no one should be surprised if UK jumps right into the Uchebo race. UK kept their 2011 options opened to finish this class, stringing along Trevor Lacey (who was NOT visited by UK staff due to weather), Braeden Anderson (who never got an official offer… maybe told there wouldn’t exactly be a lot playing time, if ya catch my drift), Stan Simpson (no official offer), and God’s Gift (no official, and not exactly close to one either). The thing about all of these players is that the post guys were not elite enough for UK to offer unconditionally and who they probably wouldn’t take unless they seriously needed a back up option. With Lacey, the fact remains that the guard spot may be stacked depending on who returns and he is a guy who needs the ball in his hands to be effective, so we might not have a real spot for the kid, at least not a spot to where he is getting the most out of his ability and where we actually need shots being put up. But if we go after Uchebo, he would immediately lend an elite-talent hand in the post, allowing guys like Davis and Wiltjer to float out more if need be and not stuck on the block. Uchebo’s presence would benefit an already unreal recruiting class, making it the best ever more than likely, and really giving UK an even better shot at a title if Jones leaves.