PHILADELPHIA -- The first of July's three live periods for coaches to evaluate players kicked off Wednesday night, and Rivals.com was on the campus of Philadelphia University for Reebok's Breakout Classic. The evening's showcase was a matchup between top 10 rising seniors
Emmanuel Mudiay and
Rashad Vaughn that didn't quite sizzle as expected. But Rivals150 member
Chinanu Onuaku was among those there to pick up the slack.
After his opening-session game, Onuaku was upfront with Rivals.com that he felt he was ranked too low at No. 120 nationally. If his play on Wednesday night is what can be expected, he's right.
Wednesday night, the 6-foot-10 250-pound big man from Upper Marlboro (Md.) Riverdale Baptist looked the part of a big man worthy of a climb into four-star status.
Big and strong, Onuaku has soft hands and good touch. Unlike many big men with good touch, Onuaku fights the urge to hang out on the perimeter and shoot jumpers. He took, and made, one 3-pointer, but it didn't come until well after he'd begun to establish dominance in the paint on both sides of the floor.
An above-average rebounder, a good defender and a space eater, Onuaku said
Xavier,
Seton Hall and
DePaul were the three schools chasing him the hardest, but they aren't alone. He was quick to point out that he was also considering offers from
Virginia,
Maryland,
Virginia Tech,
Cincinnati,
Connecticut,
Rutgers,
Minnesota,
Kansas State and
Pittsburgh, among others.
He plans to cut things down to a more reasonable list after July, and he says that coaches like that he plays like a big man should.
"I talk to my teammates on defense and don't like to give up easy baskets," Onuaku told Rivals.com. "I rebound the ball, and I score around the basket and then can face up and do some things."
The first game of camp was easily the most anticipated matchup of the night. The nation's No. 3 rising senior, Mudiay, was scheduled to go head to head with the No. 7, Vaughn, in a game that both had circled on their calendars.
With big names like
John Calipari,
Steve Alford,
Larry Brown,
Scott Drew and many others courtside to watch the battle, the two guarded each other for much of the night but neither really went off.
Mudiay got into the lane and made plenty of plays for others, but his slick dishes often resulted in missed chippies. Bothered some early by Mudiay's outstanding on-the-ball defense, Vaughn got going a bit in the latter part of the game, hitting some deep jumpers (though he was mysteriously credited with zero threes even though his first basket was a 24-foot pull-up from straight on) and using his strength and ability to handle to beat his first defender and spin off the help for hoops.
The bottom line is that they both played hard and went at each other; it just wasn't one of those nights that ended up being a classic head-to-head battle.
Vaughn confirmed again that he'll be heading to Henderson (Nev.) Findlay Prep for his senior year, and Mudiay confirmed that he's taking an official visit to
Kentucky for Big Blue Madness in October.
"Yes, I'm going to Kentucky for their midnight madness," Mudiay told Rivals.com. "I'm also going be cutting my list down to five sometime in July."
Just a few weeks ago, 2015 forward
Tyler LydonClick More Wednesday notes from the Reebok Here to view this Link. debuted at No. 93 in the rankings. A native New Yorker who is going to prep at New Hampton (N.H.) Prep, Lydon is an athletic 6-foot-8 kid who can play inside or out. He didn't benefit from many quality touches, but he smoked home deep jumpers and made the best pass of the night when he set up 2014 four-star
Malik Price-MartinClick More Wednesday notes from the Reebok Here to view this Link. in the lane for an and-one conversion. Lydon mentioned offers from
IowaClick More Wednesday notes from the Reebok Here to view this Link.,
Iowa StateClick More Wednesday notes from the Reebok Here to view this Link.,
Boston CollegeClick More Wednesday notes from the Reebok Here to view this Link., Providence,
Penn StateClick More Wednesday notes from the Reebok Here to view this Link. and more, with growing interest from
FloridaClick More Wednesday notes from the Reebok Here to view this Link. and
Wake ForestClick More Wednesday notes from the Reebok Here to view this Link..