Obi Transferring to Duke
Greens Farms Academy alum Sean Obi made a verbal commitment to Duke on Monday night, announcing his decision on both twitter and instagram.
Happy to officially announce that I will be attending Duke university for the rest of my college… http://t.co/cWMmFKtNVi
— Sean Obi (@SeanObi3) April 22, 2014
Obi averaged 11 points and 9 rebounds during his freshman season at Rice. He’ll have to sit out next season per NCAA rules but will then have three years of eligibility remaining. While Vanderbilt landed his first official visit after receiving his release, things seemed to be heading in the Blue Devils direction after Obi sent out the following tweet after this weekend's official visit.
An amazing weekend with one of the greatest basketball Coach of all time. #CoachK #DukeNation http://t.co/C0oL8K8tOj
— Sean Obi (@SeanObi3) April 19, 2014
While Obi won’t be eligible for any games next season, he will be able to practice with the Blue Devils and so he’ll be matched up with the top ranked player in the ESPN 100, Jahlil Okafor, on a daily basis.
This won’t be the first time Obi has been matched up against a highly talented big man, as he teamed with both Andre Drummond as well as Paschal Chukwu during his years with the Connecticut Basketball Club.
The jump to play for Duke and Coach K would have seemed virtually impossible 18 months ago. In fact, Columbia was the only division I school to be seriously recruiting Obi for a long time. Rice came into the picture relatively late in the process and surprised many people when they were able to land a signed National Letter of Intent during the final day of the early signing period.
Now, after exceeding expectations during his freshman season, Obi is off to play for arguably the storied college basketball program in the country and the most legendary coach in the country in Mike Krzyzewski.