Arinze Onuaku has committed to play basketball at Syracuse next year, his high school coach, Tim Jaeger, said.

Onuaku, a 6-foot-9 forward from Lanham, Md., ended his long recruitment process when he decided on Syracuse on Monday night.

‘He had a really good feeling when he left the campus,’ Jaeger said in reference to Onuaku’s Oct. 2 visit to Syracuse. ‘He took four campus visits; he could’ve been happy at any one of them.’The senior from Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Va., chose Syracuse over Boston College, Georgia and Maryland. Jaeger said SU had been recruiting Onuaku since last spring, and new assistant coach Rob Murphy had contacted Jaeger about Onuaku earlier in the fall.

Onuaku is ranked a two-star recruit by Rivals.com. In comparison, Eric Devendorf, a shooting guard who verbally committed to SU this summer, is a five-star recruit. Tiki Mayben, a point guard from Troy who also committed verbally, is a four-star recruit.

Onuaku is not among Rivals.com’s top 150 players for the 2005 freshman class. Still, his size and athletic ability earned him numerous offers, which he had narrowed down to the four schools recently.

Onuaku visited Boston College, Georgia, Maryland and Syracuse during the recruitment process, and Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim visited Onuaku’s home in Maryland.

‘He liked the coaching staff and the relationships he was able to form with the coaches at Syracuse,’ Jaeger said.

Currently, Onuaku is living at Episcopal, a prep school at which students board on campus. He has been working in the weight room, and Jaeger said Onuaku now weighs 255 pounds, up 10 pounds from his junior year. Episcopal’s first basketball practice is Monday.

‘His size is his biggest strength,’ Jaeger said. ‘Physically, he’s as mature as anyone in their mid-20s. Like a lot of high school players, he just needs to work on his skills. He has soft hands, but he needs to work on his post moves, his free-throw shooting and his footwork.’

Published on November 9, 2004 at 12:00 pm