PF Norense Odiase Commits to Texas Tech

You'll get a better profile on Sunday, but Seth C is out of town this weekend so he is unable to post the story at this time.

Norense Odiase - Power Forward (Elev8 Sports Academy, Delray Beach, FL)

Height: 6'9"    Weight: 265lbs

Ratings: 84 by 247 / NR by ESPN / NR by Rivals

Interest: Texas Tech (COMMITTED 3/14/14), Georgia (Warmer), Ole Dominion (Cool), TCU (Cool)

Norense Odiase pulled the trigger Friday afternoon and picked Texas Tech over Georgia, making him the 6th (and likely final) commitment of the class. Norense is originally from the Ft. Worth area and played there before his senior season, when he went to a Florida Prep School. There, Norense received attention from some programs, including hometown TCU, Ole Dominion, Georgia Tech and Tulane. Eventually though, he ended visiting and narrowing it down to Georgia and Texas Tech. Norense was in the house for our upset game over Texas, which generated two commitments from West Plains Missouri State players. His commitment means that Texas Tech has another big, young body behind Jamison and Tolbert, and another body that could likely play the 5 position. If you take a look at Norense's film, he looks a lot like Cameron Ridley. Both have big bodies, play deep in the post and are powerful on the defensive end. He backs down his opponents to get in the post, where he shoots a majority of his shots. Unlike Ridley though, he is pretty agile for a guy his size. He can run the floor pretty well and can operate on the outside if needed too. His passing isn't the best right now, but the fact that a big man always has his eyes up looking to pass is promising. I see a lot of potential upside with Odiase, and I'm glad Tubby has the change the develop his abilities behind the already young group of big guys. Congrats to Norense on the commitment and get your guns up!

This marks the 6th and final commitment for Red Raiders, as now all 13 scholarship spots are filled on the roster (Turner, Tolbert, Gotcher, Hannahs, Foster, Ross, Onwausor, Gray, Evans, Smith, Jamison, Williams and Odiase). Texas Tech is scheduled to have Abdoulaya Gueye visit next weekend, but no scholarships left on the roster, I'm not sure if he would still visit. For the upcoming year, Texas Tech has two scholarships they can use. The 2015 class has a good amount of talent looking at Tech, so I wouldn't be surprised if Tubby and Co can pull in two 4-star recruits in 2015.

UPDATE:#1

Wreck'em247 quickly put up a story about the commitment, and in the article, Norense explains why he did pick Texas Tech over Georgia in the end:

"I wanted to be part of what Tubby Smith is building at Texas Tech and having my brother at Texas Tech was big too," Odiase said. "It was real tough. It basically came down to Texas Tech and Georgia. They came on real strong at the end."

Being close to home and with the brother is what ultimately drove Norense to come back home to Texas. And, of course, having one of the greatest coaches in basketball history helps a little bit too. His decision could've gone either way, and luckily Texas Tech will be able to work with him and turn him into an animal. There was another quote that stuck out to me in the article:

"We’re coach Smith’s first recruiting class here at Texas Tech and everybody is saying Texas Tech will be back in the tournament in a couple of years."

So there's the goal for this basketball team, two years or so. Can we do this?