NCAA Basketball Recruiting: Analyzing C Christ Essandoko top 7 teams

Oral Roberts Golden Eagles

After getting onto the national scene as the NCAA Tournament’s Cinderella, Oral Roberts is hoping to get talent that wouldn’t normally consider them. They still have the nation’s leading scorer Max Abmas for at least the next season and landed Vanderbilt guard transfer Isaac McBride.

While playing in the Summit League with a low chance of making the NCAA Tournament isn’t a great selling point for a player with power conference interest, Essandoko could come in and be a dominant force in the conference. He also could very well be the best player on the roster once Abmas is gone and wouldn’t risk getting recruited over, which happens a ton to three-star prospects. This would be the safest option in terms of playing time.

Providence Friars

The best player for the Friars this season will certainly be starting center Nate Watson, last season’s leading scorer and rebounder. After taking a 5th year, the 6’10 big man will definitely be gone after next year and the team doesn’t have any true centers either on the roster or part of the 2022 class.

This would be a situation where Essandoko has a direct path for playing time as a freshman and head coach Ed Cooley has a good history of development, with Watson himself being a good example. Providence is going to have to take a transfer big regardless just for depth but adding this three-star recruit allows them to have a piece for the future, who also could get minutes right away if need be.

Seton Hall Pirates

The Pirates will start senior center Ike Obiagu, a really good defender that averages nearly three blocks a game but is very limited on the offensive end. Rising junior Tyrese Samuel is his backup and the frontcourt for this program all features upperclassmen, so they’re going to need to land at least one big man in the 2022 class.

Seton Hall offers Essandoko a chance to develop in the first couple of years slowly before eventually becoming the team’s starter. Head coach Kevin Willard has worked with project big men before so this is a genuinely good potential pairing and the prospect can stay relatively close to home on the east coast, playing for an upper-tier Big East program.