Overview
Tobe Awaka was one of the best high school basketball players in New York. As a senior at Cardinal Hayes in the Bronx, he put up 19.2 points and 13.9 rebounds per game and walked away with New York Gatorade Player of the Year honors. He sat unranked as a recruit, picking Tennessee for college. Two seasons in Knoxville brought him along slowly, mostly off the bench, so he transferred to Arizona and found an opportunity. As a senior, he averaged 9.3 points and 9.1 rebounds in 20.8 minutes per game while shooting 58.7 FG% and 64.2 FT%, anchoring the glass for one of the best teams in the country. Awaka took home the Big 12 Sixth Man Award, earned All-Big 12 Honorable Mention in back-to-back years and made the Academic All-American Second Team.
Analysis
Awaka’s calling card is rebounding. He reads the flight of the ball before anyone else moves and routinely led Division I in offensive rebounding percentage. With his strong frame, he carves out deep position and finishes through contact with soft hands around the rim. He runs the floor hard and rolls to the basket with purpose. The combine reshaped how scouts see his ceiling, as a 37.5-inch max vertical erased the below-the-rim label, and he shot it well enough in drills to suggest a spot-up three is coming. He competes on defense and has the frame to bang inside. Against quicker, smaller players in space, he has room to grow, but the motor and the IQ are already there.
Projection
Awaka projects as a high-energy frontcourt piece who rebounds, screens, and finishes. He is a roll man and second-chance machine who makes life easier for everyone around him. NBA comparisons to Awaka can be made to players like Kevon Looney and Montrezl Harrell. He will need to keep stretching his game to the perimeter and proving he can hold up defensively in space, but the floor here is a contributor who does the dirty work, and the ceiling rises with every jumper that falls.
— Profile by RotoWire.com