Tag: Mackenzie Mgbako

Ranking the Top-10 Big Ten players heading into the basketball season

Ranking the top 10 players in the Big Ten entering the college basketball season.

The long-awaited 2023-24 college basketball season begins today, and the Big Ten’s slate of games features 10 of the conference’s teams in action. Iowa, Indiana, Maryland and Michigan will have to wait one more day.

The Big Ten does not lack star power as the conference boasts the reigning national player of the year in Purdue’s Zach Edey as well as a bunch of premier guards. As we all know, guard play dominates college basketball, especially in March.

Before the games tip off this evening, we take a look at the top 10 Big Ten players. Are any freshmen ranked? Does any supplant Edey as number one?

Honorable mentions (in no particular order): Bruce Thorton (Ohio State), Keisei Tominaga (Nebraska), Mackenzie Mgbako (Indiana), Jamison Battle (Ohio State), Tyler Wahl (Wisconsin), Coleman Hawkins (Illinois), Chucky Hepburn (Wisconsin).

5-star PF Mackenzie Mgbako officially flips to Indiana

Landing Mgbako gave a significant boost to the Hoosiers’ 2023 recruiting class, which now ranks 10th in the country.

One of the top 10 players in the class of 2023 has officially flipped his commitment from Duke to Indiana.

Roselle Catholic (NJ) five-star power forward Mackenzie Mgbako had previously signed with Duke, but he committed to the Hoosiers last week.

The school made the news official today with this announcement.

In addition to Indiana and Duke, Mgbako (6-foot-8, 210 pounds) had offers from 20 other schools, including Kansas, Kentucky, Memphis, Auburn, UConn, George Washington, Georgetown, Hofstra, LSU, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio State, Oklahoma State, Rutgers, Seton Hall, St. John’s, TCU, UCLA and Xavier.

After the news broke, Mgbako told Joe Tipton at On3 that he picked Indiana to expand his game.

“I chose IU because I felt that Coach Woodson can put me in a position to expand and develop my game… The environment at Indiana is unmatched. It’s a place where I felt support from the coaching staff and fans. With Indiana and it’s roster, there’s a great possibility to achieve big things and create a winning culture.”

Going by the composite rankings, Mgbako is the second-best power forward in this class, No. 3 overall in New Jersey and No. 8 nationally.

Landing Mgbako gave a significant boost to the Hoosiers’ 2023 recruiting class, which now ranks 10th in the country.

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UNC basketball not on visit schedule for former five-star Duke commit

The UNC basketball program is not on the visit list for a former five-star Duke commit as of now.

UNC basketball head coach Hubert Davis and his staff are finalizing the 2023-24 roster, using the transfer portal and potentially a reclassification. As the weeks go on, so does the work to round out the roster and put it together.

One player that doesn’t appear to be on UNC’s radar anymore is former Duke commit Mackenzie Mgbako. The five-star recruit has had a quiet recruitment since decommitting from the Blue Devils, but we at least have some visits now according to a report.

Adam Zagoria of Zag’s Blog is reporting Mgbako has four visits lined up. He plans to visit Indiana, Kansas, St. John’s and Louisville.

It’s unknown if there will be another visit, but, right now, UNC is not on that list. I don’t know if that fully removes them from the conversation just yet but it’s certainly not a good sign with the involvement.

Louisville has been mentioned with Mgbako since he decommitted and seeing that their are getting a visit, we have to think that they are right at the top of his list.

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