A Closer Look At Ben Emelogu

South Grand Prairie (Grand Prairie, TX) senior guard Ben Emelogu missed most of this year’s AAU circuit, which has become an important recruiting tool for major college coaches.  As a result, the 6’5″, 190-pound guard went under the radar of major college coaches until this fall, when he was finally recovered from a broken hand (non-shooting) and able to show his talents during his team’s preseason workouts.

“I think the reason things were so quiet with him this summer was because of the injury to his hand,” South Grand Prairie head coach Brandon Bennett said, referring to Emelogu’s recruitment.  “Him missing the whole summer, college coaches were not able to evaluate him.  Fortunately, he kept working hard.  He was still shooting with the good hand.  He worked on his ball-handling.  He has continued to improve.  He got bigger, faster, and stronger coming out of the summer.  The rest gave him time to take care of his body.  Coaches came in to evaluate in fall workouts.  They loved his ability to dribble the ball down, play some point guard, and shoot the lights out.  He is big and strong, so he can rebound, post up, and go down inside.”

Emelogu’s impressive  workouts attracted scholarship offers from Marquette, SMU, Texas Christian, Virginia Tech, Washington, and others.  Tech’s James Johnson made the trek to Grand Prairie himself and made a quality impression.

“I thought Coach Johnson did a very good job of presenting his program,” Bennett said.  “Once Ben got there on a visit, it worked out beautifully.”

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