Arizona Marvelous Ideas: Arizona offers 2022 Irish forward ND Okafor

Photo courtesy FIBA

The international recruiting market was very good for the Arizona Wildcats in the 2020 recruiting class, so there’s no reason to suspect they’ll stop tapping into that well in the future.

Arizona has extended a scholarship offer to ND Okafor, a 6-foot-7 forward from Ireland who is part of the 2022 class.

Blessed to have received an offer from Arizona wildcats # pic.twitter.com/ZMFxKeNLYi
— ND OKAFOR (@Nd_Okafor23) June 15, 2020

A monster performance at the 2019 FIBA U16 European Championships got Okafor on the international radar. He averaged 16.1 points, 14.3 rebounds and 5.0 blocks in eight games, recording a double-double in every contest, highlighted by a 23-point, 18-rebound effort against Sweden.

That led to offers from Baylor, Creighton, Georgia, Kansas State and Kentucky, with Arizona and Virginia Tech getting involved most recently.

“Most of the coaches say they like the motor I play with,” Okafor told ScoopmanTV.com. “And my athletic abilities and of course rebounding. I’m working on my handle to become quicker with it. And my shot from three is a really big one I’ve been working on. I’m more focused on the three.”

Okafor marks the eighth different player the Wildcats have offered in that class, per 247Sports, and the second from outside the U.S. after they offered Canadian big man Enoch Boakye earlier this year.