In amazing fashion on Tuesday afternoon, Perry High School's athletic 6-foot-3 unsigned senior guard Ben Egbo announced his commitment to the UC-Irvine basketball program - a huge opportunity for Egbo who waited for a very long time for this offer. After years of hard work and waiting for his share of college recruitment, it all worked out in a major way for Egbo in the end, as he will now play his college basketball in the Big West Conference.
Egbo did what he needed to do to make this commitment happen for himself, as he competed on the Nike EYBL circuit with the storied Vegas Elite (NV) program, and then helped his Perry High School basketball program to consecutive state championships, including this year's Open Division title. As a result of his commitment and numerous people in his corner providing recruiting assistance, led by the efforts of Arizona Preps' own Paul Suber, Egbo came out in the end as a UC-Irvine commit.
Egbo had one other offer to his credit from Bethune-Cookman University. Many college programs showed serious interest in Egbo, such as Dartmouth and Brown throughout the recruiting process, but an offer did not happen for him until now.
Egbo is also a tremendous student, and carries better than a 4.0 CUM GPA.
Congratulations to Egbo and his family as well as his many supporters and the Perry High School basketball program on this huge commitment from our staff here at Arizona Preps.
Arizona Hoop Review Scouting Report: Very rarely has Egbo been asked to be the guy. He has spent much of his high school career, whether with his varsity team or his club teams, playing in a supporting role. As a result, his value to a team can be blurred as a result of the serious talent that he has played with. Egbo has been a high energy performer that plays with extreme athleticism and often defends the opposing team's best player. Egbo is not a primary scoring option for a team, but he does the intangibles it takes to win games. He is an NBA-level athlete with a strong and athletic frame. As he matures and learns how to use his athleticism to his advantage, he could blossom a great deal, since most prospects do not possess such attributes. Egbo is a very good shooter of the basketball with range on his shot and textbook form. While he does not look for his shot often, he is a specialist of sorts as a shooter, as he likes to find the open spot on the floor for kickouts from his teammates, or likes to cut and slash to the basket and finish strong at the rim over defenders. He is an excellent slasher and finisher, and is also good in the open floor where he is a strong finisher at the rim or in the secondary break, where he is a scoring threat from the wing or corner for three-point attempts. He is fundamentally sound offensively, although he does not possess a scorer's mentality. Egbo's true value comes on the defensive end of the floor, where he uses his athleticism and length of arms to disrupt passing lanes and deflect passes. He also has quick hands and feet and is able to get low defensively, and keep his man in front of him. I would like to continue to see him embrace his role as a defender, as this will benefit him a great deal throughout his playing career.
