Q&A: St. Augustine head coach Mike Haupt
Texas Tech basketball landed a big commitment on Monday afternoon when St. Augustine combo forward/wing Chibuzo Agbo decided to end his recruitment and play for the Red Raiders. Agbo officially visited Lubbock last week and saw all he needed to give the coaching staff his commitment.
The sharpshooter is thought to be underrated nationally as a 3-star recruit and we reached out to his high school head coach, Mike Haupt, to get to know the newest Red Raider commitment.
What kind of player is Texas Tech getting in Chibuzo Agbo?
Mike Haupt: "First of all he's a competitor who plays really, really hard. He's a great fit for Texas Tech because he's versatile. He's a guy who can play the two, three or the four, which I know is what coach Beard likes to have."
How has Agbo grown since his freshman season to now on and off the court? What's it been like to coach him?
Haupt: "He's always been talented, and I think what's really been impressive to watch is when you looked at Chibuzo as a freshman he didn't look like a freshman. He's always been kind of a big, strong kid so what's difficult in those situations sometimes is there's a lot more pressure on a young man, even before maybe they're ready for it.
I think what's been great about Chibuzo is he's been with our program, we're one of the best teams typically in San Diego, so he's had to grow up in that situation where a lot has been expected of him and the way he's handled that, the poise he's handled that with has been fantastic."
How does Agbo's game translate to the modern college game and does he remind you of anyone you've coached before?
Haupt: "I'm not great at comparisons but what I do know is he's going to be a mismatch. He's going to have a guy that's smaller on him and he's done a really good job of playing with his back to the basket, posting up and facing up. Then he's going to get a guy that's bigger than him and he can take him out and shoot the three, handle the ball and create for others so I think the issue for opposing teams is however you guard him at some point he's going to have an advantage."
Rivals and other recruiting services around the country have Agbo as a 3-star recruit, do you think he's underrated nationally?
Haupt: "I think all of those things are hard to gauge. We're not a program that really hypes up our guys, we just work really hard about trying to make sure that they get better as they get through our program. We worry about winning and team before the individual and sometimes that hurts our guys in the rankings, but really where it helps the guys is when a smart school like Texas Tech sees a kid play, they know if a kid can play or not and that's what they know about Chibuzo."
What are your thoughts on the coaching staff at Texas Tech and their overall program?
Haupt: "Honestly coach Burg did a great job, the whole staff, coach Beard, too. Really what was attractive to Chibuzo and to us as a family, the Saints family, Chibuzo and his mom and dad, was the guys at Texas Tech do a really good job at developing players. Chibuzo is going to go in and work his tail off and he's going to get rewarded for it because he's got coaches and other players around him that appreciate the work he puts in and also are going to guide him to be the best he can be. So that's really what he's excited about, what his mom and dad are excited about and what we're excited about in terms of sending him to the next step."