Indiana Among Final 8 Schools for 4-Star Center Patrick Ngongba II

Patrick Ngongba II announced yesterday that Indiana is among his final eight schools. The 6-foot-11 center in the class of 2024 is also considering Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Kansas State, Providence and defending national champion UConn.

Mike Woodson and the Hoosiers keep making waves on the recruiting trail, as Indiana made the top-eight list for four-star center Patrick Ngongba II, as first reported by Joe Tipton of On3. 

NEWS: Patrick Ngongba, the No. 26 overall prospect in the 2024 class, is down to eight schools, he tells me.

The 6-11 center is one of the fastest-rising players in the country.

Story: https://t.co/cnJ7wMLUCl pic.twitter.com/clV1ktS8RE

— Joe Tipton (@TiptonEdits) July 11, 2023

Tipton also reported that Ngongba II is considering seven other schools — UConn, Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Kansas State and Providence. 

Ngongba II is the highest-ranked recruit out of Virginia in the class of 2024 and is the third-highest ranked center overall in the class of 2024, according to 247 Sports. The only two centers in 2024 who rank higher – Flory Bidunga and Derik Queen – have also been pursued by the Indiana Hoosiers. Bidunga was named 2022-23 Indiana High School Player of the Year at Kokomo, and he remains undecided. Indiana has been heavily recruiting Queen, who attends Montverde Academy, though 247 Sports currently has Maryland as the favorite to land Queen. 

Ngongba II is the son of two former collegiate basketball players who attended George Washington University. His father Patrick Ngongba played for the Revolutionaries from 1997-2001, while his mother Tajama Abraham Ngongba played from 1993-1997 and graduated as George Washington's all-time leading scorer with 2,134 career points. Tajama also played two seasons in the WNBA, has been a coach at the collegiate level since 2000 and is currently an assistant coach for the Georgetown women's basketball team. 

Here's the scouting report on Patrick Ngongba II and insight on what he could bring to the Indiana men's basketball team.

Strengths

There are many high school centers listed at a fake 6-foot-11, and immediately look more like 6-foot-7 the moment you watch them on film.

Ngongba II is NOT a fake 6-foot-11, and he uses it well when contesting shots at the rim. While there's no publicly-available listing of his wingspan, smart money would bet it's a significant plus given how often he swallows up shots at the rim. 

Much like Scottie Barnes of the Toronto Raptors, Ngongba II makes up for a lack of explosive leaping ability by using his long arms to target the ball. He surprises opponents by blocking and disrupting shots it didn't look like he would get to, given how little he jumped off the floor 

Ngongba II is No. 0 in black in the highlights below. 

Another major strength of Ngongba II are his soft hands. Some centers have rocks attached to their wrists and watch every entry pass and lob thrown their way bounce off their palms. 

Not Ngongba II. Nearly every pass that connects with the 6-foot-11 center's hands is secured, and he also further utilizes that great length to extend his arms and make deft receptions if a pass is off target.

Ngongba excels in two of the most common responsibilities of a traditional center — using superior length to contest/block shots and catching passes in the paint for easy finishes — but he struggles with some of the modern skills center are often required to have. 

Weaknesses

While Ngongba II's height and wingspan allow him to bother his offensive counterparts, he's not an explosive mover either vertically or laterally, which limits his versatility on defense. 

He's a fairly upright mover and often places his top foot too far forward, leaving him to susceptible to blow-by drives both defending on closeouts and in isolation when switched onto quicker guards. 

In his defense, Ngongba II was routinely going up against some of the best competition high school basketball had to offer. He plays for Paul VI Catholic, a yearly powerhouse in the state of Virginia, and a team that entered the Geico Nationals this past year ranked as the No. 5 high school team in the entire country. 

Two of the players who drove by him in those clips are Boogie Fland — a five-star guard in the class of 2024 who Indiana is also recruiting — and Ja'Kobe Walter, a five-star Baylor commit in the class of 2023.

But playing both against and alongside the best high school players in the country has its drawbacks as well. Unlike most basketball players who commit to Indiana, Ngongba II would not be entering as someone used to being the best player on his high school team. Those responsibilities more often fell on his Paul VI teammates, DeShawn Harris-Smith and Darren Harris, who have committed to Maryland and Duke, respectively. 

Ngongba II's status as a non-primary option on offense means he rarely tries to score on post-ups, almost never handles the ball in a significant way and will only take jumpers if left wide open. 

Per a source with access to Draft Express's shooting statistics, Ngongba II shot 10-for-16 from the 3-point line (62.5%) over the course of 24 tracked high school and AAU games, and shot 53-for-76 on free throws over those same 24 games (69.7%).

That's a sterling percentage, but in nearly half of Ngongba II's tracked games, he did not attempt a single 3-pointer, as he only let it fly if given ample room.

Here's a good, up-close look at his shooting form on his free throw:

You can see in the clip above that Ngongba II has the ball resting in his palm rather than atop his finger tips on his right hand, and has his off-hand a bit too far over from ideal shooting alignment. 

Still, despite shooting so few threes, Ngongba II's numbers indicate that he's far from a lost cause as a shooter, and in time might turn into a valuable pick-and-pop threat. 

It's still a ways away until Indiana learns if Ngongba II will be their center commit from the class of 2024, but with his 6-foot-11 stature, tantalizingly long arms and pillowy soft hands, Ngongba II should be capable of helping whichever team he picks. 

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