Mo Cassara was explaining Hofstra’s interest in Stephen Nwaukoni. What the scholarship entailed. What it included. The first-year coach wasn’t finished when Nwaukoni cut him off.
“I want to go here,” he blurted out.
Hofstra had Nwaukoni at hello. Thomas Edison’s versatile and chiseled 6-foot-8 forward signed his National Letter of Intent with the Long Island school Monday night during his official visit, ending months of worry and waiting.
“I haven’t seen him smile like that in a long time,” said Edison assistant coach Rob Moses, who handled Nwaukoni’s recruitment. “His mother almost cried.”
Nwaukoni, a three-year starter for Edison, was in limbo much of the spring. During the season, Drexel and Southern Mississippi showed interest, but backed off after coaching changes. St. Francis College offered a full scholarship and Georgia Southern was involved, but Nwaukoni wasn’t happy with those options. He contemplated prep school, but that would require a lot of money — money he didn’t have,
“I was really stranded in terms of schools,” said the 18-year-old Nwaukoni, who averaged 15 points and 15 rebounds per game last year. “It was bringing my determination and hunger for basketball down.”
That all changed once Hofstra came into the picture. It began when Tim Welsh got the job and only intensified when Cassara took his place after Welsh resigned following a DWI.
Assistant coach Steve DeMeo, a fellow Queens native, led Nwaukoni’s recruitment. After having him on campus for a recent workout, a workout in which Nwaukoni excelled against the Pride’s current forward, Hofstra’s coaches were impressed by Nwaukoni’s relentless rebounding ability, athleticism for a kid his size, and range on his jumpshot. They couldn’t understand why he didn’t have any more offers.
In need of big men, they didn’t mind and offered him late last week. Monday he signed.
“It’s a perfect situation,” Moses said. “They got a new coach there, they all love him, the players that are there, they played against him and know he can play. It’s working out for everybody.”
Nwaukoni will team with Christ the King forward Roland Brown, another incoming recruit, to form a solid 1-2 punch in the paint. Hofstra lost freshman Halil Kanacevic, who transferred to St. Joseph College, so there will be plenty of playing time available.
“He can rebound. The one thing you can’t do too much of is rebounding,” talent evaluator Tom Konchalski said. “No coach has ever taken a kid out because he’s rebounding too much.”
Moses, who coached Nwaukoni with the Queens Blackhawks AAU program in addition to Edison, said Division I basketball was always on his mind. He would talk about it daily. Now that he has made it, Nwaukoni wants to be productive.
“They gave the scholarship, I took it, and I’m going to give them everything I can,” he said. “I’m going to be ready to play. I’m going to give them what they want and what they expect, and maybe even more.”