Kentucky women land commitment from nation's No. 1 junior-college basketball player
The nation's best junior-college player, who led her Chipola Community College to a national championship, has committed to Kentucky.
Evelyn Akhator, a 6-foot-3 forward from Lagos, Nigeria, picked the Cats over Tennessee, Texas and Florida State.
In her two seasons at Chipola, in Marianna, Fla., Akhator led the Indians in scoring and rebounding. Last season, she averaged 21.2 points, 16.7 rebounds, 3.1 steals and 2.9 blocked shots.
She broke the single-season scoring and rebounding records for the school as well on Chipola's way to a 34-1 season and a national title.
Chipola Coach Greg Franklin, a former Mississippi State assistant coach and a Kentucky native who was a basketball standout at Central City High School, had high praise for Akhator after she helped lead the school to a junior-college national championship.
"I've coached four kids in junior college that went on to be first-round draft picks in the WNBA, and at this point in time Evelyn is probably head and shoulders better than all of those guys," he said in a story on the school's website.
"Everyone says she's just a physical specimen and she is, but you have to look at the way she has gone about getting better. She has gotten her skill level where she finishes with her left real well. She also has worked on her footwork extremely hard and finishing with balance. When her skill and athleticism finally meet, she's going to be unreal.
"But as good of a player as she is, she's that good of a person, and that sets the tone for the whole team."
At a school awards ceremony last week, Akhator received the Neal Sportsmanship Award for her "unwavering leadership contributions both on and off the court."
Kentucky returns three post players in Kyvin Goodin-Rogers, Alexis Jennings and Alyssa Rice, and the Cats already have signed 6-foot-2 freshman Batouly Camara, rated as the ninth-best post player in the class by ESPN.
This story was originally published May 9, 2015 at 12:54 PM with the headline "Kentucky women land commitment from nation's No. 1 junior-college basketball player."