Semi big time recruit for Utah Basketball Kenneth Ogbe 6'6" PG from Germany visited

[HammerUte]

Rafal Juc ‏@rafjuc (https://twitter.com/rafjuc)23h (https://twitter.com/rafjuc/status/320916759353892865)
According to sources 6-6 G Kenneth Ogbe ('94) from Germany has visited University of Utah at the end of March & is likely to commit to Utes

https://twitter.com/Eurohopes

A while back Coaches at UofU said Ogbe was a must get!


Kenneth had this to say

http://youtu.be/FPuBv_zlQrY

[HammerUte]

Video of Ogbe 3+ years ago in January 2010 when the kid was still 6'2"

http://youtu.be/DnRbRrmvmto

[LA Ute]

Rafal Juc ‏@rafjuc (https://twitter.com/rafjuc)23h (https://twitter.com/rafjuc/status/320916759353892865)
According to sources 6-6 G Kenneth Ogbe ('94) from Germany has visited University of Utah at the end of March & is likely to commit to Utes

https://twitter.com/Eurohopes

A while back Coaches at UofU said Ogbe was a must get!

Kenneth had this to say

http://youtu.be/FPuBv_zlQrY

I kept listening for the word "Utah" but couldn't make it out. :D

[U-Ute]

I kept listening for the word "Utah" but couldn't make it out. :D

WTF was that behind him at the start? Is that what passes for a mascot in Germany?

:blink:

[UtahsMrSports]

Landing this kid would be a big deal. Tony said that he outplayed everyone on the team on his visit. I think he could start at the 3 for us, but I am going to put the brakes on until I see him, if he even commits.

[Scratch]

Yes, the brakes. On such a late pick up, just take the "if he contributes at all, that will be nice" approach. If you think of him as a starter, you may end up disappointed.

I agree with this. He's only a 36% shooter for 6.6 ppg in 21 mpg for his German team. I have no idea about the level of competition, but would like to think he could do a little more than that.

[Scratch]

I agree with this. He's only a 36% shooter for 6.6 ppg in 21 mpg for his German team. I have no idea about the level of competition, but would like to think he could do a little more than that.

OK, upon further review I may have been a little harsh on the kid. It looks like he plays on some sort of a pro team (I assume his amateur status is not affected) where most of his teammates are older and many of them already played college ball in the states.

[UtahsMrSports]

Yes, the brakes. On such a late pick up, just take the "if he contributes at all, that will be nice" approach. If you think of him as a starter, you may end up disappointed.

Still, I think he is better than a late period signing............

[Scratch]

OK, upon further review I may have been a little harsh on the kid. It looks like he plays on some sort of a pro team (I assume his amateur status is not affected) where most of his teammates are older and many of them already played college ball in the states.

And after a little more digging, it looks like his team is in Germany's second professional division, which, like European soccer, can see teams move up or down through relegation, so his team could theoretically move up to the highest level of pro hoops in Germany if it was the best of the 16 teams at its level. Also, it looks like some of the players are professional, but not all of them. I assume that would be how he is still eligible to play college ball.

[LA Ute]

I guess we can always hope he is an under-the-radar Euro who will contribute.

[kgjute]

Some additional digging shows that his current teammate is Virgil Matthews, who played for Krystkowiak at Montana, which probably explains the connection for recruiting him.

[#1 Utefan]

I hope he is all that but those numbers are underwhelming regardless of he played at a semipro German level or not.

I realize he "outplayed" everyone on his visit but how many of us have played in games where we are on fire, score 20+ points, hit 4-5 3's, and then turn around andgo for 4 points on 2-10 shooting the next?

I trust the coaching staff knows what they are doing and their assessment of his skill set and upside aren't based on that visit alone. I guess I just don't understand why he would be considered even a "semi big time" recruit averaging 6.6 ppg on 36% shooting, however.

Does anyone know if he is being recruited by any other programs or is he one of those under the radar, diamond in the rough types?

[UtahsMrSports]

I hope he is all that but those numbers are underwhelming regardless of he played at a semipro German level or not.

I realize he "outplayed" everyone on his visit but how many of us have played in games where we are on fire, score 20+ points, hit 4-5 3's, and then turn around andgo for 4 points on 2-10 shooting the next?

I trust the coaching staff knows what they are doing and their assessment of his skill set and upside aren't based on that visit alone. I guess I just don't understand why he would be considered even a "semi big time" recruit averaging 6.6 ppg on 36% shooting, however.

Does anyone know if he is being recruited by any other programs or is he one of those under the radar, diamond in the rough types?

I have followed the NBA draft long enough to know one very, very big thing about looking at stats from a European league: Do not ever take them even remotely seriously. European hoops have a win-now attitude and players that are young almost NEVER get playing time regardless of their talent level. So just throw those out the window completely.

As far as being good one day and not the next........meh, who knows?

And no, I do not believe he is being recruited by any other programs. I guess he is under the radar.

[RunninU]

I believe Xavier flew over there to look at him.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[SoCalPat]

Landing this kid would be a big deal. Tony said that he outplayed everyone on the team on his visit. I think he could start at the 3 for us, but I am going to put the brakes on until I see him, if he even commits.

Big deal. The coaching staff said last year that Dean and Dotson were running circles around last year's team in practice as well.

[SavaUte]

Why does everyone bag on Dotson so much? He spent his time so injury laden, we never got a feel for how good he is

[UBlender]

Why does everyone bag on Dotson so much? He spent his time so injury laden, we never got a feel for how good he is

I agree with this. Dotson may have been awesome for us but we have never seen him healthy. There's no way to know what he would have given us if healthy. I have theorized in a few places that, since he averaged 7 ppg as sophomore at LSU, it would have been reasonable to hope that he could jump up to something around 10 ppg at Utah. Another 10 ppg on the wing would have made a huge impact for Utah. It's all idle speculation of course, but I think we forget/overlook how significant his injury was. Give us a healthy Dotson and Foster and how different could this season have been.

As for Dean, he seemed solid early on but the increase in competition in the PAC appeared to be too much for him both physically and mentally (his confidence really seemed shot for most of conference play).

Of course, with the talent level of the 2011-12 Utes, it says almost nothing to say that Dotson and Dean were the best players. It would say a little more if Ogbe really was better than the 2012-13 Utes but maybe not as much as we'd like.

[UtahsMrSports]

Big deal. The coaching staff said last year that Dean and Dotson were running circles around last year's team in practice as well.

There is a big difference between saying that about kids who are on your team (giving fans hope, etc) and saying that about a kid who may or may not join your program. And another thing, if it was last years team, Dotson and Dean probably did run circles around them. Big difference between doing it against that team and doing it against this team.

[U-Ute]

Why does everyone bag on Dotson so much? He spent his time so injury laden, we never got a feel for how good he is

I don't know if people are bagging on Dotson's ability as much as his durability. As you mentioned: we haven't really seen him yet, and this is due to injuries.

Personally, I was liking what I saw during the 2-3 games where it looked like he was starting to get his legs back under him. I think if he had been healthy, he would've been taking a lot of Martin's minutes.

[SavaUte]

I don't know if people are bagging on Dotson's ability as much as his durability. As you mentioned: we haven't really seen him yet, and this is due to injuries.

Personally, I was liking what I saw during the 2-3 games where it looked like he was starting to get his legs back under him. I think if he had been healthy, he would've been taking a lot of Martin's minutes.

The feeling I get is the more vocal people think he was a bust

[#1 Utefan]

Some additional digging shows that his current teammate is Virgil Matthews, who played for Krystkowiak at Montana, which probably explains the connection for recruiting him.


The feeling I get is the more vocal people think he was a bust

I don't think Dotson was a bust at all. The few games he played when he was semi-healthy I thought he looked pretty good. That is one of the reasons I haven't been particularly excited about the Onwas signing. Unless Dotson is medically going to have to retire, I would rather see him get the minutes at 2 with Wright while swinging at the 3 with smaller lineups.

[UtahsMrSports]

Mike Grant from KSL translated the Ogbe interview above, if you are interested in reading what he has to say..........

http://www.ksl.com/?sid=24740016&title=video-possible-utah-recruit-kenneth-ogbe-youtube-interview