'Dawgs End Early Signing Period With A Bang.

Mark Fox finished the early signing period strong this afternoon with the commitment of Pebblebrook F/C Derek Ogbeide. The 6'8, 240 pound Nigerian native moved to Atlanta last year from Toronto. He chose Georgia over Houston and Memphis, which had actually been eliminated prior to today.

Ogbiede is rated the #156 prospect in the country by 247Sports, and #206 in their industry-composite rankings. He provides a big, physical inside complement to Georgia's prior 2015 signees, Athens guard William "Turtle" Jackson and small forward/shooting guard E'torrian Wilredge. Fox has been much-maligned (often rightfully so) during his time in Athens for not bringing in the talent required to win in the SEC.

However over the past couple of recruiting cycles he's done a better job of hanging in and even winning battles for some solid Peach State prospects. While keeping the big boys away from national top 10 prospects like Wheeler's Jaylen Brown will always be difficult, I think Fox can build a winner in Athens by landing and developing that next tier of instate talent, guys like Jackson and Ogbeide who'll be around for 3-4 years rather than jumping to the NBA. Win enough and send enough of those guys to the league and your recruiting becomes a lot easier. Until later...

Go 'Dawgs!!!