Local Four-Star Big Emmanuel Kanga Is a Patriot

By
Palmer Johnson
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Tony Skinn’s 2025 class continues to come together, as four-star 6’8 center Emmanuel Kanga has committed to playing for your George Mason Patriots, and will be donning the green and gold.

Emmanuel is of Gabonese descent and played in some high-level African leagues. He attends Mount Zion and plays for DC Premier. A DMV guy.

Kanga is a four-star prospect on On3, earning a rating of 92, and a overall ranking of 91. That’s top 100! He is the 13th ranked center and 4th ranked player in the state of Maryland.

247Composite has Emmanuel as a .9344, the 125th player in the country, 22nd center, but 3rd player in the state of Maryland.

Kanga took an official visit in mid-September, and soon after, Devin Booker committed to being a George Mason Patriot. On that livestream, Adam Finklestein said that Mason fans had some good news coming soon, and it seems that this was it.

I wrote a visit article that has a lot of information from when he visited, so I would recommend reading that first.

It was down to Mason and Loyola Chicago for Emmanuel, but he made the right choice to come to Fairfax.

That is a good school to be going against for a big man, considering they got Miles Rubin recently, an A10 DPOY candidate and one a player on the short list of guys in the A10 that could reasonably end up in the NBA. They have an eye for talent; you know who else does? Steve Curran.

Steve Curran has been an awesome big man coach in Olean and Fairfax, with him developing Chad Venning and Amari Kelly, just to name a few recent examples. Kelly went from a guy who was seen as a low-end starter in the conference to someone who was getting NBA Draft workouts within one season.

This is what makes me excited about getting a toolsy big man like Kanga; Curran is probably going to get the maximum potential out of him.

Emmanuel Kanga Scouting Report (DC Premier vs. Canada Elite U17 UAA)

I used the first couple minutes of this game to get a feel for his defense in his visit article, and I will watch the entire thing to get the full scope of what to expect from Emmanuel Kanga.

In regard to his athleticism, Kanga seems to be an average to above-average A10 athlete in most ways, but has some awesome verticality. That vertical athleticism was shown when he caught a lob on defense that wasn’t thrown particularly low.

Since we’re already on his defense, let’s talk about that. First off, post defense.

On his team’s first defensive possession, Emmanuel forced a travel in the post. On another possession, he covered his big man matchup on the perimeter, then in the post, and eventually forced a bad pass after seven seconds of great defense.

Throughout the game, Kanga didn’t have too many post defense possessions, but he was very impressive in the small sample size we got. I imagine that the other team had a scouting report that said they might as well not even try to go against the big man down low.

Next up, his pick-and-roll defense, which is what makes me most excited about him. Emmanuel is very good at playing the PnR, as he can deny the ball from the roller while also not giving the ball-handler a wide-open lane. Kanga is very good at deciding when to stop dropping and attack the ball-handler, also having the athleticism to send the shot back.

I think that his pick-and-roll defense could be his premier skill that earns him playing time very early on in his career against certain teams. A lot of young big men struggle with this early on in their career, and is often one of the primary reasons they cannot see the floor.

Now, let’s get onto his help defense. There was one play that really wowed me. Kanga helped over fast, fell for a pump fake, but managed to stay vertical enough to not get called for a foul. He ended up contesting the shot after getting back on the ground, forcing the player to miss the rim by a foot. Emmanuel actually used the backboard to push himself away from the offensive player, which I am not sure of the legality, but I have to respect the resourcefulness.

Kanga seems to be very good at getting in position to help, but has trouble finishing the play well. Positioning is super hard to teach, so I would rather his positioning be consistent than him being late but performing well when occasionally on time.

Now, let’s talk about his switchability. Emmanuel was forced to guard a wing on the perimeter and while the guy did make a three in his face, it definitely was not awful defense. Kanga has the ability to cover both fours and fives on the defensive end, which is useful versatility to have.

For some connective stuff, the big man stopped a fast break by sprinting to the paint, and forced his opponent to pass it out to the perimeter, which stopped any momentum they had. Kanga also forced an over-the-back when he got in good position for a board.

On offense, his first offensive touch had him get past his man, where Emmanuel then missed a pretty easy shot. I am more impressed with him getting past his guy off the dribble than I am worried with an easy-ish miss.

In regard to his post play, the Gabonese big man got the ball in the post and shot over/through his man, getting a pretty good look at the rim and a make.

Some connective stuff, Kanga sets a very nice screen, and is able to take the ball down the court and not look out of place. That won’t show up on any box scores, but it helps the offense a lot.

Regarding his frame, Emmanuel has flashes of being a good putback finisher. He also had a non-big switched onto him and instantly got the ball, and then dunked it with two smaller players around him.

With his shooting, I’ll cover that below. The free throw form looks pretty good. The big man shot 26-42, 62%, from the line between April and July with DC Premier, which is not an awful number.

Areas of Improvement

You may have guessed this since you didn’t see much about it above, but Kanga has no jump-shot from what I can see. This kind of limits him to exclusively playing the 5, and somewhat offensively limits any lineup he is in. Emmanuel pump-faked a couple of times from behind the arc, but never took a shot. On his DC Premier stat sheet, it says he went 0-3 from three on the season.

Kanga isn’t a dominant rebounder, although I think he could get better at it with some good coaching. When the Gabon native gets good positioning, he doesn’t lose it, but does have a hard time initially getting it. A little bit of his rebounding struggles has to do with his hands not catching the ball every time, which is a bit of a red flag, but I  did not see a large enough sample size to make any blanket statements on that.

Lastly, stamina could be an issue, as Emmanuel did not play for what felt like the entire fourth quarter, and definitely did not get in during overtime of the game I watched. I do not believe he left the game with an injury.

Overall, Kanga seems much stronger on the defensive end than the offensive, but has potential to grow on both ends.

How Does He Fit In?

I mentioned this in his visit article, but this is a very good situation for Kanga to come into. His freshman season will line up with Jalen Haynes’ and Giovanni Emejuru’s last seasons of eligibility, along with Stas Sivka’s sophomore season, which will protect him from having to play early on if he is not ready.

With Kanga being the 4th center on paper as a freshman, redshirting is not impossible, even in this age of college basketball.

Disregarding transfers, a sophomore Emmanuel would then be battling with a junior Stas Sivka for the starting center spot, which would likely end up with at least one of them being a starting-caliber big man.

There are 15 instead of 13 scholarship spots available, so the staff would have an increased opportunity to bring in a more experienced transfer big if they did not believe either Kanga or Sivka could be a starter for them.

I think that Mason’s newest commit will be ready to play major minutes during his sophomore year, as it seems like he is good at things that are really hard to teach, like getting in good position when helping and covering the pick and roll, and needs improvement on things that you can generally improve on, like finishing help defense plays.

Pretty much, this situation is both beneficial for Emmanuel and Mason, as Kanga will not get thrown into the fire, and Mason will have plenty of time to develop the Gabonese big man into what they want him to be before having him play major time.

For a comparison, I think a very good outcome would be what Amari Kelly was during his one year at Mason, but without the shooting, and also more bouncy. That is still a very solid post player, and a great paint defender. Keep in mind, Amari Kelly did not shoot threes until his fifth season of college basketball. I do think he will be a better post defender than what Kelly was, so who knows what Kanga could end up being.

The above comparison might actually just be David Dixon over at Duquesne, but I imagine you are more familiar with Amari Kelly.

So, pulling it together, a medium outcome for Kanga would be a David Dixon type player, who would have made All-Defensive Second Team if it existed in the A10. A high-end outcome would be Amari Kelly with more bounce and better post defense, which is an All-A10 level player. The jump-shot coming around isn’t impossible.

Either way, I would be elated with that kind of production from a homegrown big.

Overall, Kanga is a nice pickup that will provide a high floor to Mason’s big man rotation in the future. You combine his skillset with Steve Curran’s big man development, and anything can happen with this guy.

The 2025 class has a 3 and D wing, a strong defensive center with offensive upside, and hopefully more to come. You cannot complain about how the class has turned out so far, and with some visits happening recently and hopefully in the future, along with the two extra scholarships, I have to imagine that the class will get even better.

Welcome your newest George Mason Patriot, Emmanuel Kanga, to Mason Nation.

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