BY REYNALD MAGALLON
Rain or Shine is tapping the services of Nigerian big man Daniel Ochefu as the team’s reinforcement for the 2022 PBA Commissioner’s Cup.
Elasto Painters head of basketball operations Caloy Garcia confirmed the development, disclosing the 6-foot-10 center/forward had already signed with the team and is expected to arrive in the country by next week at the earliest.
Ochefu played for Villanova in college where he took part in the Wildcats 2016 conquest of the NCAA tournament and received All-Big East Honorable Mention award.
Ochefu went undrafted in the NBA draft of the same year although was later signed by the Washington Wizards. He then played with a couple of teams in the G-League after a year, the last one with the Stockton Kings where he averaged 14.3ppg, 8.8rpg, 2.2apg, 1.0spg and 1.0bpg in 39 games.
He had stints with Breogan Lugo in the Spanish League and Ibaraki Robots in the Japan B2 League 2019-2020 season putting up decent numbers 13.5 points, 11.1 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.5 blocks.
He last played with the Samsung Seoul Thunders in the Korean Basketball League.
With the Elasto Painters, Ochefu is expected to man the paint and provide the inside scoring which will complement their sweet shooting forwards in Beau Belga and Norbert Torres.
His presence inside the paint could also give Rain or Shine’s talented guards in Gian Mamuyac, Rey Nambatac and Andrei Caracut enough space to operate.
Owned by the families of Raymond Yu and Terry Que, ROS is looking to bounce back after missing the Philippine Cup playoffs, finishing at the ninth place with a 4-7 record.
A 1-6 start to the conference spelled doom for Rain or Shine as its last ditch effort for a spot in the playoffs went for naught after falling to Magnolia in its final assignment.
