Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Findlay Prep hoops duo pondering college options

Findlay College Prep

Rob Miech

The Findlay College Prep hoops team practices Tuesday at the Henderson International School, with which the defending national-champion Pilots are affiliated.

Findlay College Prep

The defending national-champion Findlay Pilots stretch before practice Tuesday. Cory Joseph and Godwin Okonji are two seniors who will be soon taking more official college visits -- Joseph to UConn and Okonji to Hawaii. Launch slideshow »

The Point of Attack

Considered one of the top players in the Class of 2010, Findlay Prep Point Guard Cory Joseph has alot of options when it comes to colleges including UNLV. He talks about the colleges after him and where UNLV fits into the equation.

Cory Joseph isn’t ruling out UNLV, and Godwin Okonji might be leaning away from Utah.

As those two Findlay College Prep players prepare for their senior seasons, they are also trying to determine where they’ll play in college next year.

Joseph is the ultra-skilled point guard who is coveted by many national programs, and he and Findlay teammate Tristan Thompson made official visits to Texas two weekends ago.

Thompson has given a verbal commitment to Texas. The early-signing period is in November, when commitments become binding.

After Tuesday afternoon’s practice inside the Henderson International School gym, both Thompson and Joseph had an extended conversation with Longhorns assistant coach Rodney Terry.

Louisville assistant Walter McCarty exchanged brief words with Joseph.

Joseph said he enjoyed his visit to Austin, Texas, where he and Thompson went to the Horns’ football victory over Texas Tech and attended a volleyball game.

They spoke with Texas hoops players, including Avery Bradley, one of the stars of last season’s championship Findlay squad.

Still, it didn’t overwhelm Joseph into giving Texas coach Rick Barnes a verbal commitment of his own.

That’s what Newark (N.J.) St. Benedict’s junior point guard Myck Kabongo, a longtime friend of Thompson and Joseph from the Toronto area, did in January.

Barnes has indeed done very well with that Grassroots Canada summer traveling team and Findlay, but it remains to be seen if Joseph will wear the burnt orange uniform.

He told Findlay basketball coach Mike Peck after Tuesday’s practice that he is going to whittle his impressive list of colleges to about a half dozen in the ensuing 24 hours, and Peck said he plans to inform all about Joseph’s decisions.

Joseph, who will visit Connecticut in three weeks, told the Sun he thinks UNLV will make that cut.

“Maybe tonight or tomorrow he’ll narrow that list to six or seven,” Peck said. “We’ll make sure to list those so people are aware of the final group of schools he wants to be involved with.”

Joseph, who has said his decision could come to him in a flash or not until next spring, has no other official visits scheduled.

Okonji enjoyed his recent visit to New Mexico, where former Findlay small forward Curtis Dennis will be eligible this season, and he will check out Hawaii in two weeks.

He has set no other official visits.

That is curious, since Utah coach Jim Boylen was such a regular at Findlay practices last season. Privately, he raved about Okonji’s potential.

However, Okonji said he was upset that he has not heard from Boylen or other Utah officials in a while.

Okonji has been clear about his intentions to play in warm weather, yet the low in Albuquerque, N.M., often hits freezing temperatures during basketball season.

“He doesn’t want to go where there’s winters or cold weather,” Peck said. “He doesn’t do well there. I think I conveyed that to coach Boylen and his staff. I think they felt that was a barrier.”

Okonji, a power forward from Lagos, Nigeria, might not want to leave Honolulu when he visits the Warriors program.

“If we were to call (Utah coaches) and say that’s not the case now, they’d jump in with both hands and feet, and be excited about it,” Peck said.

“We’ll have to see where his mindset is at after these two trips, if any of them just knocked him out and he wants to do something early. If not, then maybe you go through the process during the year.”

Peck said it will be a win-win situation for Okonji.

“Maybe you wait until the late period to sign and commit,” Peck said. “Now, when that word gets out there, I’m telling you there will be a whole new flurry of schools wanting to get involved.

“So he’s in a good position. We’ve conveyed that to him, we just have to see after this Hawaii visit.”

Findlay footnotes

Peck might want to permanently remove the Pilot’s No. 23 jersey. Wearing that number didn’t exactly work out for former Findlay players Clarence Trent (who transferred) and Victor Rudd (who was booted from the team at the end of last season), and Enes Kanter is the latest casualty to wear that jersey.

The Turkish center was barely in town for a week before he and guard Kevin Kaspar bolted back to Europe. That put Findlay’s roster at nine, which was the size of the roster when the Pilots won the national championship in Maryland.

“I’d like to go five-on-five,” Peck said. “It would be good for some of our younger guys, and this is the youngest group, by age, that we’ve had. You can do drills all you want, but showing them in a five-on-five setting is invaluable. That’s what they need to see and feel.”

Assistant coach Todd Simon and new assistant Andy Johnson, who was a student manager last season at UNLV, will often fill out five-on-five sets. Peck said he might be getting a 7-footer from the Congo.

Nebraska also had an assistant coach in the gym for Tuesday’s practice.

Freshman guard Nigel Williams-Goss might rekindle his interest in learning Chinese characters at Henderson International, with which Findlay is affiliated. “I might try to get a private tutor,” he said. “It’s one of the hardest languages to learn, and my mother got me into it. Plus, I wanted to be different. It truly tests your mind. It’s so different, but I enjoy it.”

Findlay starts its national title defense at Henderson International on Nov. 13, against National College Prep, of California, at 7 p.m.

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