Texas Tech basketball could add 4-star 2019 forward Jonathan Aku

The Texas Tech basketball team has made the top-5 for forward Jonathan Aku, who has reclassified to the class of 2019.

Despite the fact that in less than a month, the 2019-20 Texas Tech basketball team will be headed to the Bahamas for a preseason slate of exhibition games, Chris Beard may still be looking to add talent to this season’s roster. That’s because 4-star forward Jonathan Aku has reclassified to the 2019 class and is still considering the Red Raiders.

The 6-foot-10, 210-pound Lewisville, TX product has now cut his list to five schools and Tech remains in the mix along with Houston, Texas A&M, TCU, and Tulsa. Previously, his top-10 also included Arkansas, Baylor, LSU, Oklahoma State, and Georgetown though that group was released before he reclassified to 2019.

According to the 247Sports composite rankings, Aku is the No. 117 player in the nation and the No. 6 player in Texas. It has been quite the rise for the lanky forward who moved to the United States from Nigeria only two years ago.

Texas Tech fans will naturally see Aku’s measurables and dream about him becoming the next Tariq Owens. Last year, the 6-foot-10 Owens set a Texas Tech record for blocks in a season with 92 as his length and athleticism took the Red Raider defense to a historic level.

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Players of Owens’ caliber are tough to find and the current roster lacks a player with his leaping ability, height, and wing-span. Tech will welcome 7-foot-1 true freshman Russell Tchewa but he is not the caliber of athlete Owens is. Another freshman, Tyreek Smith, is an elite leaper like Owens but at just 6-foot-8, his is more closely compared to a player like former Red Raider Zach Smith (which is also good company to keep).

Another newcomer in the post this season will be Stephen F. Austin grad transfer T.J. Holyfield. The 6-foot-8, 227-pounder plays a physical game and gets a ton of his stats from outworking and out-hustling opponents. Though Holyfield is more skilled of a player, he will do many of the things that Norense Odiase did for the Red Raiders this past season.

Overall, Tech is in good shape in the post but adding Aku would give Chris Beard another quality option to help combat some of the elite big men the Red Raiders will face this season including Kansas center Udoka Azubuike and West Virginia’s Derek Culver.

It is also interesting to see that Tech is still looking to add to the current roster. The fact that Beard is trying to bring another player to the team despite the fact that the program has awarded its full NCAA allotment of 13 scholarships could tell us that junior forward Deshawn Corprew could be on his way out after being suspended last month as part of an ongoing Title IX investigation.

If Corprew does not return, Tech will bring back only two members of the 8-man rotation that carried the program to the 2019 national title game. Fortunately, the roster is loaded with plenty of players capable of filling Corprew’s role.

If Tech does replace the 6-foot-5 Corprew with the 6-foot-10 Aku, the roster will be more balanced in terms of the numbers of backcourt and frontcourt players. However, it will further increase the team’s youth in 2019-20 with seven freshmen and only three upperclassmen in the mix.

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However, adding a player of Aku’s pedigree is always going to be a positive. And given how close to the start of the school year Corprew’s suspension came, the Red Raiders would be extremely fortunate to replace him with a 4-star big man, should that be what happens.

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