By ADAM ZAGORIA
Charles Bediako, the 6-foot-10, 218-pound Canadian big man from IMG Academy (FL), has cut his list to five schools.
Bediako is down to Alabama, Michigan, Duke, Ohio State, and Texas.
He cut Memphis, Baylor, Tennessee, Maryland and USC from his previous list.
“Every school’s been doing their part,” he said recently. “I don’t think there’s a real frontrunner as of right now, they all pretty much say the same thing. Some schools talk to me a bit more than others but it’s all part of the process.
Alabama already has two Canadian players in Josh Primo and Keon Ambrose and all three played for the UPlay Canada AAU team. Bediako and Ambrose were also high school teammates at Andrews Osborne Academy in Ohio. After recently landing five-star point guard J.D. Davison, Alabama is also recruiting Canadian wing Caleb Houstan of Montervde (FL) Academy, who joined UPlay in the spring but never played due to the pandemic.
As far as a commitment date, Bediako, who stands 7 feet with shoes, is eyeing early 2021.
“The original plan was to commit sometime in November before this whole pandemic stuff, but hopefully if all goes well maybe probably February or March,” he said.
In the meantime, he wants to work on “my face-up game, guarding the perimeter a bit and also just my ball-handling. I want to get bigger or stronger.
“I want to be a stretch-five or four.”
There are an increasing number of Canadian NBA players, including Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Lu Dort of the Thunder and Jamal Murray of the Nuggets.
Bediako would like to follow in their footsteps in a couple of years.
“To play in the NBA,” he said, “that’s one of my goals.”
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