Harvard PG Mack cancels trip to UVA, favored to land at G’town

By Jerry Ratcliffe

While only one of two expected guests from the transfer portal made it to Charlottesville last weekend, another is headed this way.

Toby Okani, a 6-foot-8 forward from UIC (Illinois-Chicago) is slated to officially visit Virginia on Thursday and Friday of this week. Okani is a grad transfer student, who has already picked up a dozen offers from the likes of UCLA, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Clemson, FSU, West Virginia, Xavier and St. Bonaventure.

A standout defensive performer, Okani has a seven-foot wingspan and massive hands. He made the All-Missouri Valley Conference All-Defensive Team last season and averaged 2.0 blocks per game. Offensively, he averaged 11.1 points and 6.8 rebounds per outing, while making 39 percent of his field goal attempts, 32 percent of his 3-pointer tries and 57 percent of his free throws.

Okani is originally from Orange, N.J. and began his career at Duquesne before transferring to UIC, where he has started the past two seasons.

Meanwhile, former Harvard freshman star Malik Mack, the No. 1 point guard in the transfer portal, canceled his weekend visit to Virginia and apparently is headed to Georgetown.

Mack was scheduled to visit UVA over last weekend, along with St. Mary’s forward Joshua Jefferson, but Mack was a no-show. Jefferson did visit, his first of three scheduled visits this month (the other two stops are Iowa State, April 19-21, and TCU the following week). Jefferson canceled a scheduled visit to VCU immediately after his stop in Charlottesville.

Observers believed Mack was a perfect fit for Tony Bennett’s system, particularly on defense. The Ivy League Freshman of the Year averaged 17 points and 4.8 assists per game, and would have given the Cavaliers a point guard with a year of college experience.

UVA’s two returning point guards are Dante Harris and redshirt-freshman Christian Bliss, who did not play last season.

According to a source, Mack was set to visit both Georgetown and UVA over the weekend, but canceled his visit to Charlottesville. On3.com published an updated prediction on Mack’s transfer destination on Sunday, prognosticating that Georgetown had a 99.9-percent chance of landing the former Harvard star, who is originally from Oxen Hill, Md.