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It's #NateOatsPipeline time.
South Plains College F David Kadiri has committed to Buffalo. 6'8 with motor and upside. Had 13 pts, 14 reb and 8 blocks in Nat Champ game
— Brad Winton (@JucoRecruiting) April 19, 2015
This has happened within the last 15 minutes here. Kadiri played for South Plains this past season, but was originally recruited to and played for UMBC in the America East conference close to his Fort Washington, MD home.
Playing 14 minutes a game for UMBC as a freshman, Kadiri averaged 3.9 points and 2.4 rebounds a night, while shooting 49% from the floor. Unfortunately, he also shot just 47% from the line. At South Plains he upped both of his shooting percentages into the 56% range, but still only averaged 6.2 points per game and 3.0 rebounds per game in 12 minutes an appearance. Looking at his gamelog, Kadiri was boom-or-bust this past season, with some absolutely stellar games offset by more bad nights.
One of those nights, though, came in the biggest game of the year. In a narrow loss in the NJCAA National Championship game, Kadiri scored 13 points, pulled down 14 rebounds, and blocked 8 shots. That's a performance that will get you noticed.
There's not a whole lot out there on an America East-to-JUCO player, but here's a link from his original commitment to UMBC:
UMBC Lands a Whopper | One-Bid Wonders
A human-pogo-stick from the basketball-Mecca of Washington D.C., Kadiri was fresh leading Coolidge High to a pair of championships in the D.C. Interscholastic Athletic Association and the inaugural D.C. State Athletic Association tournament, which pitted city public, private and charter schools.
The same blog later referred to Kadiri as a "tremendous athlete with serious wingspan and hops" who "loves to mix it up in the post." I can go with that. David has two years of eligibility remaining. In the short term, Kadiri will help UB recover from the loss of Xavier Ford and Will Regan, while in a longer term he'll add some seniority to the UB frontcourt once Justin Moss and Raheem Johnson graduate.
UPDATE: Maybe this would be a good thing to leave here:
1 year remaining | 2 remaining | 3 remaining | 4 remaining | |
PG | Evans | Bearden | ||
SG | Skeete | Graham | Diane, O'Field | |
SF | Wigginton | |||
PF | Moss | Kadiri | Perkins | |
C | Johnson | Smart |
I'm sure we'll learn more as time goes on. For now, welcome to Buffalo, David.
Go Bulls