In modern recruiting, sometimes you aren’t just building relationships with high school recruits for their initial commitment as you never know if that player could become available again in the portal some time in the future.
During Todd Golden’s first true offseason in Gainesville he went heavily after Rueben Chinyelu, a 6’11” center from Nigeria who attended NBA Academy Africa. Chinyelu’s final five schools were Florida, Tennessee, Washington State, Rutgers, and Santa Clara in what is as eclectic a final list as you’re going to see. After visiting each school, he ended up at Washington State where he played the 2023-24 season.
Shortly after Washington State’s season finished with a loss in the NCAA Tournament it was announced that head coach Kyle Smith would be accepting the Stanford job, and the news sent several Cougars players into the transfer portal–including Chinyelu. There wasn’t initial word about Florida reaching out until this week when it came out that the Gators hadn’t only contacted Chinyelu–but that he would be coming on a visit sometime around this weekend. It was already known that Furman guard JP Pegues and Chattanooga forward Sam Alexis would be visiting and that there was a surprise third guest on his way as well, and that player turned out to be Chinyelu.
In his freshman season Chinyelu averaged 4.7 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks in 13.9 minutes per game for a Washington State team that had a tremendous season finishing second in the Pac-12, earning a 7-seed in the NCAA Tournament, and winning their opening game against Drake. While he didn’t play that many minutes, his ability to be productive when it came to rebounding and blocking shots was incredible. His 25.4% defensive rebounding rate was 44th in the country (tied with, ironically, Chattanooga’s Sam Alexis who will also visit Florida this weekend) and his 9.6% block rate is 24th in the country. It’s worth noting that he was often playing some softer minutes at the end of games that were all but decided, or simply getting to play against bench units where he overwhelmed physically, but the per-minute production is still something that’s going to jump off the page.
Something that allowed Chinyelu to get such incredible rebounding and blocked shot numbers is his most notable trait–a reported 7’8” wingspan that your eye test will back up when you see him on the court. At 6’11” he’s already plenty tall, but what’s miraculous is the way that as he walks his fingertips seem to reach near his knees. In the flow of play you’ll see him seemingly be out of position for a rebound only to fully extend and somehow palm the ball just before it reaches the hands of an opponent who was certain he was about to gain possession. Defensively he’s frustrated many opponents by coming out of nowhere to block layups when it seemed like he was completely out of the play. This incredible length had NBA teams keeping track of Chinyelu while he was in high school and while it’s clear he’ll need some time to develop before he’s ready for the big show, he has the frame.
Florida looks at Chinyelu as someone who has a frame that you can’t teach and a ton of potential that is yet to be realized. Right now he’s somewhat of a clunky athlete, and while his length makes him impactful as a shot blocker and rebounder around the rim, his mobility in guarding pick and rolls could use a lot of work. He also still has a lot to learn on the offensive end as his individual skills and ability to play in the flow of the offense still have a ways to go. He’s obviously impactful as a lob catcher around the rim and hit a number of mid-range jumpers that looked surprisingly smooth for someone with such long arms so there are enough flashes to think some scoring ability is there, and those flashes will have coaches salivating.
Right now the Gators have a lot of frontcourt minutes available with the graduation of Tyrese Samuel and the devastating injury to Micah Handlogten, and with the staff feeling confident in the play of Alex Condon and Thomas Haugh they’d love to get a player with some massive upside in Chinyelu, and then get a bit more of a proven, older frontcourt player to round out the rotation.
As mentioned earlier Chinyelu has already officially visited Florida when he was in high school, so you have to think that coming to campus a second time means the Gators are in a good position. During his first visit, he was hosted by fellow Nigerian Jason Jitoboh (who transferred to Tennessee State to close out his career). Florida is hoping to come out of this weekend with a number of commitments with JP Pegues, Sam Alexis, and Rueben Chinyelu all visiting, so this is a huge weekend for the Gators as they look to kickstart their 2024-25 transfer class.