USC Basketball: Andy Enfield Seeking Out Four-Star Forward
6’7” local four-star forward Nikolas Khamenia is atop Andy Enfield's radar for 2025 recruits.
The Harvard-Westlake junior has fielded offers from Gonzaga, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, UCLA, and more.
The Trojans joined the fray on November 18th, where they became the 14th Division I program to put their interest in writing.
Per Donovan James of Trojans Wire, Gonzaga is "considered the early leader in his recruitment. [He] is the Zags' priority recruit and he has officially visited the Bulldogs."
Interestingly, Khamenia is one of USC's two pursuits from Harvard-Westlake. The other, Trent Perry, has already committed to the Trojans, and thus, should improve Khamenia's odds of committing to the cardinal and gold dramatically.
In terms of Khamenia as a prospect, here's what he told On3:
“I'd describe my game as versatile. My ability to dribble, pass and shoot, to play inside or outside. I grew up a huge fan of basketball. Being a little kid, you dream of all these schools offering you, and then having a chance to actually go there, it’s pretty cool.”
Khamenia's description of his skill set sounds too good to be true given what the Trojans currently need.
The absence of a similarly versatile, inside-outside wing that was capable of dribbling, passing, and shooting in Drew Peterson, has been evident often this year.
It's going to be extremely difficult to pry Khamenia away from Gonzaga, as they're a forwards factory, regularly churning out first-round wings (ex: Brandon Clarke, Rui Hachimura, Julian Strawther).
However, with USC's recent recruiting success and Perry, Khamenia's teammate, already committing to the Trojans, it should be more feasible than it seems.
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