Nothing Like a Friendly Rivalry
1/16/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 16, 2010
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
For all but two or three games this year, Ekpe Udoh will be one of Obi Muonelo's biggest fans.
Neighbors, friends and teammates since they were 5 years old, Udoh and Muonelo led Edmond Santa Fe High School to Oklahoma's Class 6A state championship in 2005 and a runner-up finish the next year.
"I consider him one of my brothers," Udoh said.
Which made Saturday's matchup between Udoh's 22nd-ranked Baylor Bears (13-2, 1-1) and Muonelo's Oklahoma State Cowboys (13-3, 1-1) a re-enactment of the Civil War that pitted brothers against brothers.
"He told me that he was going to try and come in and dunk on me," said Udoh, a 6-foot-10 junior forward who's averaging 14.1 points, 11.5 rebounds and a mind-boggling 6.1 blocks after transferring from Michigan and sitting out last season. "So I said, `I'll be there waiting on you.' I don't know what to really say about it, but you're going to see some smiles, some mean faces, a little trash-talking. It's going to be ugly. But it's all fun."
While the back-and-forth text messages are usually words of encouragement and friendly chatter, the "war" began at 7 p.m. Wednesday, when the gauntlet was thrown down. "He said a few things that I'll leave there," Udoh said.
But there's a friendship and bond there that transcends whatever happens on the basketball court.
"From kindergarten on," said Udoh. "We didn't always play on the same AAU teams, but we've been in the same schools and lived across the street from each other."
And while the rest of the nation has been fascinated with Udoh's emergence on the offensive end - he averaged just 5.5 points and 3.4 rebounds in two years at Michigan - it hasn't surprised Muonelo.
"I'm really happy for the year that Ekpe's having," said Muonelo, a 6-5 senior forward who's averaging 11.4 points and 5.5 rebounds per game for the Cowboys. "He's having a monster year, but I'm not surprised. He's always had a good offensive game, but he only scored when he needed to in high school."
On a Santa Fe team that featured five starters who all went on to play college basketball, Udoh didn't have to score that much. While Muonelo was the Player of the Year in Oklahoma in 2005 and an all-state pick in '06, when he averaged 19.6 points, Udoh averaged 12.5 points for his prep career and never averaged better than 15.4.
"In high school, Obi took most of the shots, and it just trickled down from there," Udoh said. "I've never been as big offensively, so it's been tough for me to be as aggressive as some people say I need to be."
Much of Udoh's offensive game was actually developed in his year off. As a Division I transfer, he had to redshirt last season. But instead of wasting the year or sitting idly by, he went through grueling one-on-one sessions with former Baylor assistant coach Matt Driscoll, now the head coach at North Florida.
"We worked on the whole sha-bang-bang," Udoh said. "There would be times when I would try to sneak out and go get something to eat. And he'd call me, and I'd say, `Oh, man!' He worked me hard."
"One thing about Ekpe is he wants to be as good as he can be," Driscoll said. "He's no different than my son or your children. There are just some days where maybe they need a little prodding. And I'll tell them, `Look, you can take a day off. But just remember that next year when you're getting dunked on . . . or the NBA guys are coming to practice and saying, Man, if he would just work on this or he worked on that, he would be better.'''
Since Udoh already had a fairly strong post game with a variety of spin moves and hook shots, Driscoll put him through more of a guard workout where he was taking it from 20 or 35 feet and "getting to that eight or nine feet, where he can do that move again."
"Working with him was so great, because he has such a great feel for the game and everything came natural to him," Driscoll said. "I really think he grew into his gangly body from a maturity standpoint. And then when you add that range and that length to an IQ, and then you put a handle with it, that's why NBA scouts are out there. I told all the NBA scouts last year, every one of them . . . y'all better go see that joker, I'm telling you."
With an improved offensive game to go with a monster defensive presence, Udoh has definitely caught the attention of NBA scouts and national basketball writers. He's been projected in the middle of the first round by some early mock drafts and was named the starting center on a 13-man fantasy team by Jeff Goodman of foxsports.com.
"I won't even think about that until the end of the year, because I haven't been to the NCAA Tournament," said Udoh, who played for a 10-22 Michigan team as a sophomore. "Losing 22 games is something you'll never forget. I can't even think about my future until I take care of what's in front of me now. Getting to the NCAA Tournament, that's huge for me."
Despite the blossoming offensive game - he's had 13 double-figure scoring games and posted a triple-double with 18 points, 17 rebounds and 10 blocks against Morgan State - Udoh said defense is still "my calling card, no matter what."
"That's my love," he said. "You have to have that mentality that you're going to do this to the best of your ability. On defense, I just think I can stop anybody and I can block anything. That's just the way I feel."
That includes anything Muonelo happens to bring on Saturday.
"The referee might have to pull us aside and tell us to stop," Udoh said. "I told him I don't know if he wants to match up with me, because of my size. But he just laughs at that. It's going to be an intriguing matchup to watch."
