Akok Akok still weighing his options
NEW HAVEN — Akok Akok will be playing basketball somewhere next year. Exactly where remains a mystery.
It could be in the NBA — or, more likely, the GLeague. Akok recently told 247Sports that he’s considering entering the 2019 NBA Draft, and he backed that up on Saturday at the National Prep Showcase at Albertus Magnus College.
“It’s in the back of my mind,” the 6-foot-9 Putnam Science Academy postgrad said, prior to a bout with Montverde Academy. “I’m just taking it day by day. Considering the NBA is just an option. School is an option, too. It doesn’t mean I’m going to the NBA, maybe it does mean I’m going to the NBA.”
PSA coach Tom Espinosa isn’t so sure about the latter.
“I think it’s a very slim chance he does that,” Espinosa said. “I think he could, but very slim. Physically, I think he’ll even struggle next year in college. Physically, he needs to get stronger. That’s his biggest weakness. We’ll see.”
Akok could end up at UConn, which would love to have the athletic fourman and has spent a lot of man-hours recruiting him. Message board rumors once had Akok all but signed, sealed and delivered to the Huskies. That was more than a month ago.
“I feel I can picture myself going to UConn,” Akok said. “It’s a great school, it would be a great situation where I could stay at home and contribute.”
He could be playing at Georgetown, Big Man U., which is coached by Hall of Famer Patrick Ewing. When PSA played a tournament in the Bahamas a few weeks ago, Georgetown was the only school to show up. That impressed Akok.
He could be at Syracuse, Pittsburgh or Providence, though those options (some more than others) seem increasingly unlikely.
Akok could announce his decision soon, as he told Hearst Connecticut Media’s Jeff Jacobs earlier this week. Or he could very well wait until the spring signing period beginning on April 17, which he told reporters on Saturday.
Bottom line: No one really knows where Akok Akok will be honing his hoops skills a year from now, or when he’ll make the decision. Including Akok.
“I’m just weighing out the options,” he said.
Akok tweaked his knee earlier in the week and struggled a bit in PSA’s first game on Friday night. On Saturday, his knee appeared to be still bothering him as he played limited minutes and spent much of the game flexing his knee behind the bench.
The Huskies are searching for big men. Assistant coach Tom Moore was at Saturday’s event and head coach Dan Hurley and assistant Kimani Young will be there on Sunday to see commit James Bouknight, a shooting guard, and 6-11 center Tre Mitchell of Woostock Academy.
UConn is also hot on the heels of Kofi Cockburn, Quadas Wahab and Precious Achiuwa. Mitchell, Cockburn and Wahab are centers, Akok a power forward and Achiuwa more a power forward/small forward hybrid.
“They said I could come in and be a big contributor,” Akok said of the UConn coaching staff, “and that I could change the team and bring the team different places and help them win a national championship.”
Akok is impressed with Hurley, who he called a “great, enthusiastic coach.” He was particularly impressed while on his official visit for the Huskies’ season-opener against Morehead State on Nov. 8. When Josh Carlton fell to the floor behind the basket at one point, Hurley raced from his spot on the sidelines to help the big man up.
“Just the sign of a great coach, right there,” Akok said. “There’s not a lot of coaches out there in college basketball that would do that.”
Akok thoroughly enjoyed is official visit to Storrs. He was hosted by PSA product Mamadou Diarra, and came back to campus that Sunday “all smiles,” according to Espinosa.
“He’s a man of few words,” the coach noted, “but, when he came back, he was actually talking a lot about that game, how much fun it was, the energy, Coach Hurley. It’s unusual for Akok to express his feelings, but he had a great time at that game. He enjoyed it.”
Will Akok be enjoying next season in Storrs? Or Washington, D.C.? Or some outpost in the G-League? No one knows quite yet.
Including, it seems, Akok Akok.