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Ibekwe: Is It MD or USC

Ekene Ibekwe has taken his last official visit. He expects to make a decision sometime over the next week to 10 days, and he's down to Maryland and Southern California.
Ibekwe visited Maryland from Sept. 13-15 along with D.J. Strawberry (a Terp commitment) and visited Southern California from Sept. 27-29.
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Back in the spring, he took his first official visit to Arizona, but the Wildcats opted to go in another direction this fall, and recently landed forward Ndudi Ebi.
That leaves Ibekwe with two more official visits to take, but he said he's not interested in entertaining any new schools this fall.
"It's over for visits," he said. "I have two left, but I'm done."
"I am already happy with these two schools," he continued. "If I added another school, it would just make things more complicated."
Ibekwe said he's not leaning toward USC or Maryland right now, and is pretty much down the middle between the two schools.
Rivalshoops.com asked Ekene to break down the plusses and minuses of each program, and here was his response:
"With Maryland, I liked the coaches, the program and everything," he said. "The minus is that it's far from home, so I am going to be away from family, but that's about it."
"The positive with USC is that it's close to home," Ibekwe continued. "I am really familiar with the coaches because they've been recruiting me for so long that we've become friends in a way -- they know my father and mother real well. That's a positive right there. I can't really think of any negatives with them."
Kansas was no longer an option for 6-9 forward Ekene Ibekwe of Carson H.S. in Carson, Calif. Ibekwe told Rivalshoops.com late Monday night that the Jayhawks did call him about pulling out of the recruiting process.
Last week, the Jayhawks landed two of the top prospects on the West Coast in 6-2 shooting guard Omar Wilkes and 6-11 center David Padgett. That pair joined pre-summer commitments J.R. Giddens and Jeremy Case as part of the 2003 KU recruiting class.
As a result, Ibekwe won't be visiting Kansas this weekend for the Jayhawks' "Late Night with Roy Williams" Midnight Madness festivities.
Ibekwe received a call from Kansas Asst. Joe Holladay within the past few days to inform him of the Jayhawks' change in recruiting plans.
"They are looking in a different direction," Ibekwe said. "They said that they are finished up with their scholarships for this year."
"I wanted to go visit there for Midnight Madness to see how it was, because I always heard about it," Ibekwe continued. "But it's cool, because I realize it's all a business, and they have to do what they have to do."
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