Egwu Makes His Choice

October 9, 2009  

4:00 P.M. CST

Nnanna Egwu, the 6'9 class of 2011 center from St. Ignatius College Prep in Chicago has verbally committed to the University of Illinois .  Egwu chose the Illini over Purdue as well as offers from several other programs in both the Big Ten and Big East conferences. Mike Mullins, the CEO and head coach of the Illinois Wolves (Egwu's traveling team) confirmed the commitment.

In the end, Egwu's college choice came down to either the Illini or the Boilermakers, with the Illini winning out in an extremely tight and intense battle.  Although Egwu was on the verge of announcing his choice after an outstanding visit to the University of Illinois campus last weekend, he wanted to be absolutely sure and therefore met with his coaches at St. Ignatius yesterday for the purpose of finalizing everything.  Egwu acknowledged that his final decision was a most difficult one, but there were several factors that ended up tipping the scale in Illinois' favor.

First of all, Illini head coach Bruce Weber was the first coach to offer Egwu a scholarship.  Not only that, but Weber also made a favorable impression on Egwu's parents from the get-go, which is especially important when one considers the fact that they were the ones who finalized all decisions with respect to their son's recruitment.  In addition, a ton of credit must go to Illini assistant coach Jerrance Howard,  who did an outstanding job of identifying Egwu as a viable recruiting target early in the process and like Weber, let Egwu know that he was their top priority amongst big men in the class of 2011 all along.  Both Weber and Howard practically worked around the clock to get this one done.

Simply put, the University of Illinois had everything that Egwu and his parents were looking for from both a basketball  and an academic standpoint.  Egwu is an elite student academically and the opportunity to get a top-of the-line education at a school which is close to home is undoubtedly something that excites him.  Combine that with his feeling that due to their strong 2009 and 2010 recruiting classes the pieces are in place for a possible Final Four run during his tenure there, and the bottom line is that Egwu saw a college future in Champaign-Urbana being an opportunity that was too good to pass up.

Above everything else, Egwu is loaded with enormous potential and is one of the fastest-rising prospects that we have seen out of the state of Illinois in recent memory, especially when one considers the fact that he hasn't played basketball for a long period of time.  While Egwu did not quite have as productive a summer evaluation period as we originally predicted, in the end it didn't matter because his stock had already gone through the roof during the spring while playing for the Illinois Wolves traveling team and participating in private workouts and open gyms.

Although in many ways he is still scratching the surface, Egwu has already shown considerable improvement offensively.  He has great hands, is a consistent finisher and has proven that he can face up and knock down mid-range jump shots.  Egwu has also developed a jump hook which has started to become an effective offensive weapon as well.  Besides his offensive skills, he is also highly athletic, as he runs the floor well, is a strong rebounder at both ends and can block and alter shots in the paint.  In many ways, we find Egwu comparable to Illini class of 2008 recruit Stan Simpson and we actually believe that Egwu is more advanced at the same stage.

Egwu becomes the Illini's second recruit from the class of 2011 as he joins 6'1 point guard Tracy Abrams from Mt. Carmel High School in Chicago.  His commitment clearly offers yet another example of the outstanding job that Bruce Weber and his coaching staff have done when it comes to locking up elite-level in-state prospects.

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