KU basketball recruit Joel Embiid to narrow list next week

Cameroon basketball sensation Joel Embiid, a 7-foot, 220-pound senior center from Rock School in Gainesville, Fla., is making an official recruiting visit to Marquette this weekend.

It marks the fifth — and final — visit for Embiid, a late-bloomer who is currently unranked, but expected to wind up somewhere in the Rivals.com Top 50.

Embiid, who was in Lawrence for the Oct. 12 Late Night in the Phog, has also visited Florida, Texas and Virginia.

Fellow Cameroon native Luc Mbah a Moute of the Milwaukee Bucks has been assisting Embiid in the recruiting process.

“It’s really tight between those schools,” Mbah a Moute told the Racine Journal-Times. Embiid is new to the workings of major-college basketball. He took up the sport less than two years ago.

“We’re going to narrow it down to three schools next week,” Mbah a Moute told the Journal-Times. “We’ll be looking for an opportunity to play a lot right away. He hasn’t played that long and needs to continue his development. And, of course, we’re going to look at academics and what these schools can offer him.”

Embiid will major in business, the Journal-Times reported.

DeCourcy’s view: Mike DeCourcy of the Sporting News, who was a panelist at Bill Self’s “A Courtside View” on Thursday night at Crown Toyota, wrote a piece about the Jayhawks on Friday.

“KU is very good. The Jayhawks have an abundance of players who can score and will develop into another of coach Bill Self’s typically stingy defensive teams. It is not likely to be a No. 1 seed, though that’s not impossible, but Kansas will be a fixture in the top 10,” DeCourcy wrote.

Kabongo status unknown: Texas is awaiting word from the NCAA on the fate of sophomore point guard Myck Kabongo, who is under investigation by the NCAA. The Austin American-Statesman said the organization “is trying to determine whether a pro agent paid for his trip to Cleveland last spring. That would constitute an NCAA violation and could compromise Kabongo’s eligibility.”

Word is expected in time for the Nov. 9 season-opener versus Fresno State.

Freshman Javan Felix, 5-11 from New Orleans, will likely start at the point if preseason All-Big 12 pick Kabongo is ruled out.

“Javan’s going to shock the country,” UT’s Sheldon McClellan told the American-Statesman.

Coach Rick Barnes told ESPN: “Playing the ‘what-if’ game, we expect what can go wrong will go wrong. We actually have that attitude and have tried to develop more than one point guard. That’s why we wanted a style of basketball where if someone goes down, we don’t have to make that big of an adjustment. We are always constantly developing guys. It is what it is. It’s out of our hands, and out of his hands.”