The Justin Joyner era
at Oregon State is off to an impressive start.
Six months removed from a charismatic introductory press conference
, Joyner's program signed several key transfers. Now, they're earning commitments from prized prep athletes from across the country.
This week, the Beavers earned verbal commitments from guard Malcolm Price, and forward/center Emmanuel Ahamefule.
Price, a combo guard from California, measures up at 6'1" and 170 pounds, and currently holds a 4 star rating from 247Sports. In addition to the Beavers, he boasts offers from Big 12 Conference members West Virginia, plus mid-majors UC Santa Monica, Radford, and Yale.
Despite attending high school on California's central coast (Santa Maria, CA), Price hails from Sweden. In 2024, he played on Sweden's under-16 team at FIBA's EuroBasket Division B
tournament, averaging 17.2 points per game across 6 games.
Price is currently a senior at St Joseph High School, a private Catholic school known for producing former Jacksonville Jaguars starting quarterback Mark Brunell, and former Tulane/Duke/Miami quarterback Darian Mensah. Price matches that legacy with his own pedigree: his older brother Julius is a 4 star shooting guard who enrolled at Stanford this past June.
At 6'9" and 215 pounds, Emmanuel Ahamefule has dominated the Bay Area prep basketball scene. Now, he boasts scholarship offers from Oregon State, Big Ten member Maryland, ACC bulwark Virginia Tech, SEC mainstay Mississippi State, and others.
Like Price, Ahamefule comes from overseas, despite playing high school basketball in California. Earlier this summer, Ahamefule played for his home nation Great Britain's under-18 team at FIBA's EuroBasket Division B
tournament. Across 8 games, Ahamefule averaged 14.1 points on 45.6% field goal shooting, 5.6 rebounds, 1.0 steals, and 1.1 blocks in 29.7 minutes per game. In one particular matchup versus Cyprus
, the British big man exploded for 29 points on a red hot 72.7% field goal percentage, scoring all across the floor, and reaching the free throw line 16 times.
After flying under the radar, Ahamefule drew attention from college coaches across America after participating in the aforementioned EuroBasket
in Croatia and Adidas' EuroCamp
in Italy this past summer.
Thanks to these two commitments, Oregon State has rocketed up recruiting rankings. Before they play their first game later this Fall, Justin Joyner's program currently boasts the 13th highest spot
on 247Sports' 2027 recruiting class Team Rankings
, outpacing every other Pac-12 school. Utah State is ranked 17th in the same list, Gonzaga sits at 27th, Colorado State is positioned at 40th overall, and the rest are unranked.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/oregon-state as Oregon State MBB Earns Commitments from Two Top Recruits .
