Cardinals Add Emmanuel Okorafor to 2022-23 Roster

 Louisville males’s basketball introduced Thursday the addition of ahead/middle Emmanuel Okorafor to the roster for the present 2022-23 season.

Okorafor (oh-CORE-uh-FOR), a 6-foot-9 prospect from Lagos, Nigeria, will be part of the staff this week and be eligible to compete instantly as a freshman.

“We’re lucky to have one of many premier gamers popping out of NBA Africa be part of what we’re doing right here on the College of Louisville,” UofL head coach Kenny Payne stated. “Emmanuel is among the vivid stars popping out of NBA Africa. He’s versatile, sturdy, an important rebounder and wonderful working the ground. We’re blessed to have him. The worldwide influence of what NBA Africa is doing – to exit and goal the younger, vivid stars of the continent of Africa and convey them into their facility – is important not solely to the continent, however to the world. It’s nice for our program to be related to the work they’re doing.”

Okorafor joined NBA Academy Africa in Might 2021 and enrolled full-time in March 2022. NBA Academy Africa – certainly one of 4 NBA academies world wide – is an elite basketball coaching middle in Saly, Senegal, for the highest high-school age prospects from throughout Africa.

This system emphasizes well being and wellness, character growth and life expertise, and offers athletes the chance to be taught the sport from coaches with skilled, collegiate and worldwide teaching expertise. As a part of this system, athletes compete in opposition to prime competitors all year long and have the chance to be chosen for journey groups that play in worldwide tournaments and exhibition video games.

Final yr, Okorafor was certainly one of 12 NBA Academy prospects chosen to take part within the Basketball Africa League’s Elevate program. The BAL, an expert league launched by FIBA and the NBA, goals to offer a chance for the subsequent era of African prospects to showcase their expertise on a world stage. It’s thought of the very best degree of aggressive basketball in Africa, and BAL Elevate gamers don’t share in prize cash awarded to the highest BAL groups on the finish of the season to protect their beginner standing.

Profiting from his alternative within the BAL, Okorafor averaged a double-double for BC Espoir Fukash out of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. His statistics had been the very best of any BAL Elevate program participant within the league.

Different showcases Okorafor has been part of with NBA Academy Africa embody the Nationwide Prep College Invitational in Windfall, R.I., in February 2022, in addition to the Tarkanian Traditional in Las Vegas in December, adopted by an exhibition recreation on the G League Winter Showcase.

In July 2022, Okorafor participated within the within the 2022 NBA Academy Video games, a collection of exhibition video games that includes prime prospects from exterior the U.S., together with from the league’s 4 academies situated in Australia, India, Mexico and Senegal, competing in opposition to one another and elite choose groups in entrance of NCAA coaches and NBA scouts. He helped lead NBA Academy Africa to a first-place end within the match.

Okorafor’s first official recreation on the roster with the Cardinals will come subsequent week when Louisville travels to Boston Faculty at 9 p.m. ET Wednesday.

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