Henricksen's final look @ 2011

[Future Walk-On]

Tracy Abrams was slightly less than "awesome" in the IBCA game last night as his North squad was embarrassed by a bunch of low-D-I kids from the South squad..he scored one point but ISU recruit Nick Zeisloft was scoreless

FWO - 1
ISUred - 0

[tornado]

..
Emmanuel Ochenje, 6-9, C, Carbondale (Brehm Prep): Chattanooga..

Emmanuel Ochenje joins the long list of the midwestern prep school kids who are highly touted and ranked, and who go D-I and then totally flop..

ChicagoHoops.com actually at one point ranked Ochenje as the #1 recruit in the entire STATE (Class of 2012)!!! And was also ranked Top 100 nationally by several services.

He ended up going to Pepperdine..and over two seasons - 30 games .. averaged a little over a miniscule 1 pt, 1 reb per game

http://www.pepperdinesports.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/manny_ochenje_760922.html

He joins so many other midwestern prep kids who get so incredibly overrated then don't produce when the actually face college competition..


BTW - ChicagoHoops' Class of 2012 ranking may just stand as their worst effort ever.
Here was their TOP 10 when the kids in the Class of 2012 were Sophomores & Juniors:
Player Height Position School
1. Emmanuel Ochenje
2. Antonio Drummond
3. Aaron Simpson
4. T.J. Bell
5. Delvon Rencher
6. Jermaine Morgan
7. Derrick Randolph
8. Jelani Neely
9. Charles Harris
10. Conner Boehm

Really - not one had has any impact since leaving high school - in fact only one or two have even played in college!
..at least a dozen kids who got no notice by ChicagoHoops ended up doing far, far better - Ka'Darryl Bell, Steve Taylor, Jay Simpson, Fred Van Vleet, Darius Paul, Jeff White..

[tornado]

Emmanuel Ochenje joins the long list of the midwestern prep school kids who are highly touted and ranked, and who go D-I and then totally flop..

ChicagoHoops.com actually at one point ranked Ochenje as the #1 recruit in the entire STATE (Class of 2012)!!! And was also ranked Top 100 nationally by several services.
........

Former #1 rated kid in Illinois Emmanuel Ochenje lands at University of Indianapolis..a D-II school...
..hopefully he can play at this level - but I guess what amazes me is how regularly and how consistently those who rate high schoolers, overlook the history of so many of these MUCH older foreign kids from "prep schools" like Brehm & La Lumiere - who proceed to flop at the next level (Beas Hamga, Bawa Muniru, John Riek, Thijin Moses, etc..) but still get rated by the gurus as the best high schoolers..

[tornado]

BTW - ChicagoHoops' Class of 2012 ranking may just stand as their worst effort ever.
Here was their TOP 10 when the kids in the Class of 2012 were Sophomores & Juniors:
Player Height Position School
1. Emmanuel Ochenje
2. Antonio Drummond
3. Aaron Simpson
4. T.J. Bell
5. Delvon Rencher
6. Jermaine Morgan
7. Derrick Randolph
8. Jelani Neely
9. Charles Harris
10. Conner Boehm
.....

just saw where Delvon Rencher just now signed to play at Prairie View A&M - pretty low on the D-I scale...
but of those in that list of TOP recruits in 2012 - amazingly NOT one of that entire TOP 10 has actually been playing ball and contributing anywhere at the 4-year college level.
Several, including Rencher, Simpson, Jermaine Morgan, etc...still have a chance to bloom but that really was a bad ranking back in 2012...

[tornado]

a re-hash of this discussion on the Illinois Class of 2012...
In reflecting back - not one of even the TOP TEN ended up with any more success at DI than "a cup of coffee".......(note Jermaine Morgan, Bobo Drummond, ISU's former commit Aaron Simpson were all on the list)

but one guy who actually made it to DI, although he didn't stick- is still around and is still available!!
Delvon Rencher, who went to Prairie View A&M then bounced around a bit is still looking for a DI to finish out his career.
Sadly, and consistent with the others from the 2012 list, his only interest currently is DII

http://verbalcommits.com/players/delvon-rencher

(btw- Anthony Beane, Akeem Springs, and FRED VAN VLEET were all in that Illinois Class of 2012 and turned out to be better than anyone else on that TOP TEN list)