Chris Dokish, Pittsburgh Recruiting

MEET STEVEN ADAMS; 2012 PITT COMMIT (UPDATED)

By CHRIS DOKISH

When Jamie Dixon became Pittsburgh‘s head coach in 2003, he was left raw 7-footer Aaron Gray, who was recruited by former coach Ben Howland. Dixon developed Gray into a future NBA draft pick. Despite that success, Dixon has since had trouble landing another true center with NBA talent. That doesn’t mean he hasn’t been successful in other ways, though. An undersized physical freak named DeJuan Blair proved to be one of the most dominating centers in Big East history despite being a half a foot shorter than most true centers. And current senior Gary McGhee, who once was even more raw than Gray, has turned into a solid Big East center. But it’s no secret that like every other coach in the country, Dixon longs for the most coveted prize in all of basketball- a big, athletic true center. And his wishes may finally come true in 2012 as last week Dixon and the Panthers got a verbal commitment from Steve Adams, a giant sleeper from of all places, New Zealand.

“He’s about 6’10″, 6’11″, and about 225 or 230 pounds,” says Kenny McFadden, Adams’ coach in Wellington, as well as the Development Officer of basketball in the country. But I think he’s going to eventually be over 7’0″ feet. He’s only sixteen.”

According to McFadden, large is something that runs in the Adams family, both in numbers and the size of the people.

“He’s one of eighteen kids,” says McFadden, “and all the boys are around 6’10″ or 6’11″ and all the girls are 6’5″ or 6’6″. His sister, Valerie Vili, is an Olympic shot putt gold medal winner and is 6’6″. She’s the biggest woman you’ll ever see.”

Size is also one of Adams’ strength, and not just his height. “He has the biggest hands I’ve ever seen. I’ve never shook Shaq’s hand, but his may be the only that are bigger. When Jamie shook his hand for the first time, he said, ‘oh my God’”.

But don’t think Adams is not athletic, says McFadden.

“He has a huge vertical jump. And he can step out and shoot a three-pointer and has even brought the ball up the floor. We don’t have a lot of big men here and when we get one as big as Steve he could easily just stay down low and dominate everybody. But we teach what few big guys we have to do everything”. But his best physical asset, according to McFadden? “His aggressiveness. He’s extremely aggressive.”

At this point, one may wonder why such a talent has gone unnoticed. According to McFadden, that is easily explained.

“In our part of the country you have to pay to be at the top level and his financial situation wasn’t the best. He was the best big man in the country at 15 and should have played in the Under 19 World Championships, but he just couldn’t. But now that he’s older he will be able to play in them.”

McFadden says that Adams, whose mother is Tongan and father is English, has never been to the U.S. but that will change tomorrow when the New Zealand team will play for two weeks in Las Vegas.

“We did fundraising for a year so that we can make the trip and get our kids noticed.”

That may explain why Dixon made the push for Adams now, before the rest of college basketball becomes more aware of the Kiwi behemoth. And for that Dixon can thank McFadden.

“We played professionally in New Zealand together many years ago,” says McFadden, who played for George Raveling at Washington State. “And we have been friends ever since. When Jamie was down here for the World Championships, we sat down and I told him about my players. He was interested in Rob Loe (6’11″ center) at the time, but he went to play at St. Louis. And I told him about Steve, and I told him that he was even better. He is bigger and more skilled than Rob was.”

And to show the range of the eighteen member Adams household, McFadden adds, “Both Jamie and I played with one of Steve’s older brothers. He was in his forties and Steve is just sixteen.”

When asked if Adams knows anything about the excellence of Pitt in college basketball, McFadden replies, “Not really. Pretty much just what we showed him on the internet.” But McFadden doesn’t foresee a culture clash for the young Adams. “I think he’ll be fine. His best strength is his work ethic. He works out at 6 AM every morning then goes to a private school that we put him in. Then after school he works on basketball again. He works with the pros down here like Eric Devendorf who played at Syracuse.”

As for the future for Adams, McFadden doesn’t mince words. “His aspirations are to play in the NBA and I think he can. We’ve had a few others from here play in the league, like Sean Marks (9-year veteran who played at California), and he is going to be better than all of them.”

*********Follow NBE Sports on Twitter: http://twitter.com/NBESports*****

Sports fans should also visit StubHub.com – The Safe Way to Buy & Sell Tickets Online for tickets to any NCAA event or NBA, MLB, NHL game or UFC, WWE or concert tickets at an arena near you this spring.

Be Sociable, Share!

•