TU Basketball Recruiting Update
Tulsa men's basketball coaches were on the road recruiting last weekend during the evaluation period. TU coaches were spotted in Indianapolis (Nike event), Kansas City (Under Armour event) and Spartanburg, South Carolina (Adidas event).
Since Eric Konkol took over the Tulsa men's basketball program, recruiting activity has been at a level not seen at TU in about a decade. Part of that is out of necessity, with two open scholarships available, but this coaching staff is also just very aggressive on the recruiting trail.
Over the past three weeks, approximately 20 players in the transfer portal have confirmed contact with Tulsa coaches. We have profiled many of them in our recent recruiting updates and in Hurricane Alley.
Two of the most discussed transfers have been Oklahoma State's Keylan Boone and Louisiana Tech's Kenneth Lofton, Jr. Boone made an unofficial visit to TU, but sources told Inside Tulsa Sports last week that he was looking to get out of state, and he's done just that -- committing to Pacific on the west coast.
Lofton has been training for the NBA Draft while considering staying in college and transferring to another school. TU coaches obviously recruited and coached Lofton at LA Tech, but he is yet to make any final decisions about his future.
Tulsa has had varying involvement with numerous other transfers, including Arkansas guard KK Robinson, Kansas State big man Davion Bradford, Rice forward Mylyjael Poteat and others we've covered in recruiting updates on March 26, April 8, April 12, April 16 and April 20.
Over the past week, six more portal prospects, a junior college prospect and two high school prospects have reported new interest from Tulsa coaches. 4-star forward KyeRon Lindsay had an in-home visit with TU last week.
A full rundown of each player can be found in today's lengthy recruiting update in Hurricane Alley, along with new info on Tulsa's class of 2023 targets. Below are just a few tidbits from the full update...
• We mentioned 6-11, 225 lb. Theo Akwuba of Louisiana-Lafayette in the last update, and TU appears to still be involved. Akwuba is a grad transfer that would have one year. Last season, he played in 25 games with 18 starts. He led the team and tied for second in the Sun Belt with 2.0 blocks per game and also averaged 7.9 rebounds, which ranked second on the Louisiana roster and fourth in the conference. Akwubu averaged 9.1 points per game, ranking third on the team. In 2021, he was the Sun Belt Conference Defensive Player of the Year, Second-Team All-Sun Belt and a Lefty Driesell Defensive All-American.
• TU has been in contact with Coastal Carolina's Ebrima Dibba. The 6-foot-6 guard started 31 of 32 games last season, averaging 8.1 points per game, while shooting 45.9 percent from the field, 35.5 percent on his three-point attempts and 80.2 percent at the free throw line. He also averaged 4.8 rebounds per game and led the team and the Sun Belt Conference with 173 assists. He also led the conference in assists per game with 5.5, which was 22nd nationally. Dibba has visited Ohio and was scheduled to visit South Carolina today. He's a grad transfer that still has two seasons due to the COVID year.
• 6-5 UTEP guard Keonte Kennedy has been in contact with TU. He played as a freshman at Xavier and then sat out as a transfer to UTEP during the 2019-20 season. He started all 24 games in the 2020-21 season, averaging 8.6 per game. He was injured for the first part of last season but came back and started 16 of the last 19 games, while leading the team in rebounding (6.1 rpg) and steals (1.8 spg) and ranking third in scoring (14.1 ppg) and minutes per game (33.4). Kennedy has two years remaining.
• Shelton State CC guard Jaykwon Walton has been in contact with Tulsa after receiving a release from his letter of intent with Mississippi State. Walton, from Columbus, Georgia, is one of the nation's top junior college prospects spending this past season at Shelton State Community College in Alabama after he spent the 2019-20 and 2020-21 campaigns at Georgia. He has two years of eligibility remaining. In 22 games at Shelton State, he averaged 12.9 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.8 assists, while shooting 35.6 percent from the three-point line.
• GO HERE FOR TODAY'S FULL TULSA BASKETBALL RECRUITING UPDATE