Abdou Toure played really well in an offseason high-school all-star game
Abdou Toure is part of John Calipari's star-studded Arkansas basketball recruiting class. Best of Arkansas Sports has new details from the recent (April 11) Nike Hoop Summit showcase event in Portland. The game showed why Hog fans should be really excited about the player they are getting:
"Toure was the leading scorer for Team World, finishing with 19 points, 6 rebounds and a whopping 5 blocks while shooting 8 of 13 from the field and 2 of 3 from behind the arc. He played for Notre Dame High in West Haven, Conn., but he represents his parents’ native country of Guinea in international competitions.
"Team USA came out on top in a 102-100 overtime thriller; Arizona commit Caleb Holt led the way with 24 points, and Smith had 13 points and 5 rebounds. While his offensive production was the first thing to meet the eye, Toure’s defensive performance was arguably even more impressive — particularly the shift he put in against Tyran Stokes, the consensus No. 1 overall prospect.
"Despite ceding two inches and 25 pounds to the burly forward, Toure took the burden of matching up with him and blocked his shot three times. Stokes finished with 15 points, 4 turnovers and zero assists; despite being one of the best rebounders in the class, he had just 2 boards.
"The Louisville, Ky., native also fouled out; Toure drew the offensive foul that sent him to the bench for good with 56 seconds left in regulation.
“'He just made the night oh so tough for the No. 1 rated player in the country,' Hogville’s Kevin McPherson said postgame. 'Just harassing him all night. … He put Tyran Stokes out of the game and frustrated him.'”
Being able to play extremely well against other elite high school prospects bodes really well for Abdou Toure and Arkansas. John Calipari seems to have nailed this particular recruitment. Now it's a matter of finding good portal pieces to round out the roster and give Toure adequate structural support.
Arkansas has a lot of talent coming into the program, and as we saw with Darius Acuff, one luminous star can do a lot to lift the overall product. However, Arkansas was only a No. 4 seed last season. It was not a No. 1 or No. 2 seed. The amount of talent and production needed to reach the top tier of college basketball is something Arkansas doesn't yet have. John Calipari has to take more steps and make more moves to truly lift the Hogs to the national championship or Final Four tier in college basketball.