Sought-after recruit in Memphis for visit

Photo by Britney McIntosh / The Commerical Appeal

The Tigers are hoping Emmanuel Negedu will follow assistant coach Josh Pastner from Arizona to Memphis. The native of Nigeria is the only top-50 recruit unsigned for next season.

Emmanuel Negedu is the only top-50 player in the class of 2008 who does not know where he'll play college basketball next season.

The University of Memphis hopes to make that decision a bit easier for him this weekend.

Negedu, a 6-6 power forward and native of Nigeria, arrived on Thursday for his final college visit after stops at Indiana, Georgia Tech and Tennessee. He said he was looking forward to seeing how Memphis stacks up against his other options.

"It's going pretty good; I get to see every school I want to go to," Negedu told reporters at Memphis International Airport. "I'm going through the process to know where I want to make my decision, to look for what I want, what I don't want, to check it out. It's going pretty good for me."

Last fall, Negedu signed with Arizona, in large part due to the efforts of assistant coach Josh Pastner. After numerous staff changes at Arizona, including Pastner's departure to Memphis, Negedu asked to be released from his letter of intent.

Arizona granted that release last month, and Memphis immediately jumped into his recruitment.

"(Arizona) is a great school, but everything changed and Josh came here," Negedu said. "We had a good relationship and everything. I'm just taking a chance, take my visit and see how it goes. After that, I'll make my decision where I want to go."

Memphis certainly could use a player like Negedu next season. With the loss of leading rebounder Joey Dorsey, physical presence in the frontcourt is the Tigers' biggest question mark next season. Negedu is a self-described banger who said he wants to play in a fast-paced system.

"I love going up and down the court," he said. "I just want to run and play hard and bring a lot of energy to the game."

Negedu, who has never been to Memphis before Thursday, said he has played at various events and camps with incoming freshmen Angel Garcia, Matt Simpkins and Tyreke Evans. Other than that, he said he doesn't know much about the Tigers' program.

"I'm just down here to see what they've got," Negedu said. "I've got my own questions to ask them. I'll go through the process, see if I like the environment, the school, academically, everything, to see how that goes."

Negedu, who played at Brewster Academy in New Hampshire the last four years, said he'll likely make a decision next week. He said playing for a contending team would be a factor in his decision.

"Memphis had a great season last year; right now, they've got to come hard every night to play because everybody comes at them," Negedu said. "Every game against Memphis is a championship game for every team. So coming down here, I know this team is a great team...I want to be on a team that wants to win because I want to win. Everybody wants to win."