Amadi Udenyi
Amadi Udenyi – 6’0″, 180, PG, Concord, Ca (De La Salle)
Amadi is the type of player I like to watch and root for.
He’s tough and smart. He manages his team almost as well as he manages his emotions on the court. He’s fierce yet patient when running each play. He runs each play tirelessly. And he is nails on defense.
He began his varsity career as a sophomore, leading De La Salle to a 29-3 record and a regional final (CIF D1 semi) loss to Newark Memorial. That 2009-10 De La Salle team was stacked with talent, but Amadi facilitated that talent to a fine season while compiling a stat line of 8 points, 3 rebounds and 6 assists per game.
After a summer of playing around with the Soldiers U16 and working with his coach, Frank Allocco, at De La Salle, Amadi came into the 2010-11 season with nothing to lose. He credits his senior captain Duke Da Re for pulling the team together before the season. The prognosticators saw a talent drain at De La Salle, and they thought small and inexperienced when they looked at that Spartan team. They predicted a “rebuilding” year which would likely put them at the bottom of the league.
Well, they were right. Last year’s De La Salle hoops team proved that the prognosticators were thinking small and with little experience.
It was a more closely contested season from game to game, but Amadi once again guided his team through some minefields. And De La Salle came only moments away from upsetting perennial power Mater Dei in the CIF D1 Final. They finished the year 27-6, and young Mr. Udenyi’s stat line was 12 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists per game.
This summer he’s playing for Phil Handy’s Team 94 AAU club. Team 94 is always one of the top programs nationally which is not sponsored by any shoes. And this year they are considered by most to be the second best AAU club in Northern California, behind the Drew Gooden Soldiers. Again, Amadi finds himself facilitating a stacked team, and again that team is winning.
So let’s get to his game.
De La Salle runs a game very similar to what Coach Rob ran when he first came to OSU. They slow down in the half court set and run their version of the backdoor offense. So you can imagine that the PG in that offense is going to be good at perimeter shooting, movement without the ball and have a disciplined handle with good floor vision and patience.
That pretty much describes Amadi’s offensive game during the season. But there are a few pieces that he can add to that game in any framework. He has a nice cross-over which he uses to either give him space on the perimeter or to drive to the rim. He has a tendency to keep his head down once he beats a defender, only to bring it up when he’s near enough to finish. But he has to stretch to get it up or to dish it because by the time he’s there he’s lost all his best angles.
If he develops a mid-range game, he can be deadly. Jumpers, floaters, fades and runners all require that he be looking up as he beats his man. And the secondary effect will be that his passing game will increase in efficiency. It even allows for a hesitation move on the second level in order to move past any established bigs. And that move would fit Amadi to a tee. One thing I’ve seen in his summer play is that he can take contact and finish if he has his feet beneath him.
On defense, I have heard, seen and read everything good about him. Like I said, he’s nails. He’s who you think of when you say “lock down”. Phil Handy has this to say about him:
Amadi Udenyi is one of the best perimeter defenders in the country in his class! He is as tough as they come on the defensive end and this alone will land him a D1 scholarship.
You all know how much I like defense.
Handy isn’t kidding. A look at the scores of the De La Salle games over the last two years shows that they shut down their competition. And the 2010-11 team was the better of the two, holding about three-quarters of their opponents (including Mater Dei) to 45 points or less. 13 of their opponents scored 30 points or fewer. Those numbers are ridiculous. It’s more like strangulation than it is a defense.
And that defense begins with the point perimeter defense.
So, to recap, Udenyi is a smart and tough PG prospect who needs to work on his mid-range game, can sink the trey, can dish with consistency and can shut down the opponent’s best back court player. He should transition easily into a program which runs the back door offense since he’s been successfully leading his team in that very scheme. But he also wants to go where they get out and run when they get the chances.
Anyone know of a school which fits that mold?
Finally, this is what Coach Handy had to say about Amadi and his recruitment:
He is an extremely hard working kid on and off the court. He fully understands his potential and puts in a lot of time trying to improve daily. I see him as a mid-low major D1 talent. He is getting looks from American, Columbia, Pepperdine, Portland, USF, Princeton, Yale, Navy and a few other west coast schools. I believe he could play in the Pac-12! I am not sure if OSU is showing serious interest but I know he could play for their program.
