What are the UGA basketball recruits thinking right now?

He signed with UGA back in November. That was a time when things looked hopeful for the Mark Fox era.

That run has ended. Fox’s ouster ended a period of uncertainty for Ngumenzi. Yet it hasn’t darkened his outlook for the program.

What if the Bulldogs hire Thad Matta? He’s hopeful things will work out to benefit Georgia.

“I look at the search as another step in the future of the program,” Ngumenzi said. “I’m eager to see who they decide to hire and hopefully we keep coach Jonas (Hayes) on staff.”

That, according to Ngumenzi, might be Matta’s (if that is the hire) biggest recruit.

“Keeping coach Jonas (Hayes) around is important to me because of the way he recruited me and the relationship that he and I have built in that process,” he said.

Ngumenzi said he’s in close contact with Norcross senior forward JoJo Toppin. That was the other forward the Bulldogs signed back in November.

They both feel the same way about Hayes.

“I feel like with coach Jonas (Hayes) on the recruiting staff we can get any player that is big in the state of Georgia,” Ngumenzi said. “That’s why I feel like he needs to be around because he knows how to recruit the players that will turn this program in the right direction.”

He had a natural personal connection with the man he thought was going to be his college coach. But the coaching change that will happen at Georgia did not stun him.

“The change of coaching hasn’t affected me in a big way,” he said. “I fell in love with Coach (Mark) Fox and his staff as well as his family. But I also understand that college basketball is a business and that things like this happen. I’m just trying to wait and see what happens.”

Committed to UGA or to the previous staff?

Where do the loyalties lie for Ngumenzi? Is it to the previous staff? Or is it now to Georgia basketball?

“I committed to Georgia because I felt like it was the best fit for me,” he said. “The coaching staff was a plus. With the hiring of a new coaching staff, I’ll have to sit down and meet the new coaches. Then we can go from there.”

He sounded very sensible in his reasoning for what lies ahead.

“I can’t think of a scenario that would make me not want to play for the University of Georgia,” Ngumenzi said. “But just because I can’t think of one doesn’t mean that one doesn’t exist.”

The future of UGA basketball 

The Bulldogs signed Ngumenzi and Toppin in the class of 2018. That was during the traditional early period for basketball. Georgia still has one priority verbal commitment left in the class of 2019.

That’s 4-star forward Elias King. King ranks as the nation’s No. 55 overall prospect for 2019. When King and 5-star guard Ashton Hagans committed after that big Georgia Tech win earlier this season, the Bulldogs briefly held the No. 1 ranking for their 2019 class on the 247Sports composite.

King is still committed. For now. Hagans has since backed off that pledge and is reclassifying to the class of 2018. The general instability regarding the last few weeks of the Fox era meant a chance for some of college basketball’s elite to woo Hagans.

“I feel like there is a chance to (still) sign Hagans and you could say he completes the 2018 class,” Ngumenzi said. “Either way, we are coming in strong.”

Look for the Bulldogs to have at least one more scholarships to play with for 2018. That is if both of the team’s November signees stick with their letters of intent and do not ask for a release.

Georgia had 13 players on scholarship this season and three of those slots are coming open after player eligibility was exhausted by three seniors of the 2017-2018 team.

Ngumenzi doesn’t know much about the man that Georgia has offered the job to.

“I don’t know much about coach (That) Matta,” he said. “I’ve been hearing good things about him and his coaching technique and the players he has put in the NBA.”

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