By SAM LANCE
MESA, AZ — At 16-years-old, Baba Oladotun is the unanimous No. 1 prospect in the class of 2027. The 6-foot-9 forward out of James Hubert Blake (MD) can be simply unstoppable at times, and he has a skillset that’s comparable to the sponsor of his AAU team, Kevin Durant.
At the first EYBL session of the summer, Oladotun showed off his versatility, averaging 11.7 points, 6.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.3 blocks to help Team Durant to a 2-1 record. He’ll now be playing up with the 17u program in Memphis for EYBL’s first live session of the summer, where coaches will be courtside to take in all the action.
“I can spread the floor,” Oladotun said of his game. “I can play any position on the court. I can play whatever you want me to play, both offense and defense. And the three ball is definitely one of the best parts of my game, my ability to spread the floor.”
KD and his mom watched 5
Baba Oladotun and his 16U Team Durant squad at EYBL Session I in Arizona
@nikeeyb
Team Durant: 60
Utah Prospects: 47 pic.twitter.com/Epc7YDhial— SportsCenter NEXT (@SCNext) April 26, 2025
There’s no doubting Oladotun is a special prospect due to his abilities on the court. But it’s what you don’t see off the court that really makes him unique. The five-star has a strict training regiment, and it all started during the pandemic, when Oladotun was just 11-years-old.
“He started going harder in his drill,” said his father, Ibrahim Oladotun, who was born in Nigeria and came to the United States to play basketball at Virginia Tech. “Back then, he was doing things on his own in the back yard, sweating it out, writing 3-4-5 pages of drills to do on his own. The best way I can describe it is he became an alien… It was surprising to me. I was like ‘wow, this is a big change.’”
Nowadays, Oladotun pretty much has every day planned out to the minute. School. Library time. Strength and conditioning. Working on his game in the gym. Quiet Bible study. That’s all part of a regular day for the five-star.
“He’s driving the car right now,” Ibrahim said. “I don’t drive as much. He’s driving the process right now.”
After Ibrahim played at Virginia Tech, he had stints professionally overseas in England and Cyprus. He started coaching his son in fourth grade during rec league basketball because it was ‘just something to do’. Now, he’s now Oladotun’s main trainer.
Ibrahim never really imagined his son playing basketball at this high of a level, saying he didn’t just wake up one day and decide he wants his son to be in the NBA. It’s a dream that never crossed his mind.
“Until the MADEHoops thing came out, I feel like it was just a thing for me to do to spend time [with him],” Ibrahim said. “I enjoy basketball. I love basketball. And I love to see my son. So he played, I coached a little local, non-travel rec team from the city. So it was one of those situations where it was comfortable for me to do.
Ibrahim continued:
“I was just having fun. In a way I’m still having fun now. Everyone I’ve talked to, including all these stakeholders or whatever you want to call them prospecting — from agents, to coaches and prep schools to wealth manager — all of this I’m not jumping about quite yet. I’m still trying to raise him as normally as possible and keep doing what we’re doing… I just want to keep his life normal, life outside basketball. That’s always something I keep in mind as a father. It’s tough to do. But I just want to do my best and make sure that I keep him in work mode as long as I can. Because the society and the pressure for him to go faster is very hard.”
Part of that normalcy is Ibrahim’s emphasis on library time. Gym culture was introduced to Oladotun at a very young age, so Ibrahim realized he also needs to give his son a ‘consistent library culture.’ Oladotun has embraced this, and said himself reading is his favorite hobby.
“I just let him know if his dream is to dribble and get better, the other side of the house of knowledge is called library,” Ibrahim said. “He’s been very good studying and he’s really gravitated towards that. We have this room here called collaboration room. So I sit with him sometimes, we talk through some books. Sometimes he goes and does his quiet time Bible study in there as well in the morning before he does his homework… It’s just a really good thing to introduce that culture of reading and just being in a very quiet place. You’re not going to dribble the ball in the library and you’re not going to read books in the gym. He has to understand it’s two things.”
On the recruitment front, Oladotun has amassed 30+ offers from several of the top programs in the country. His father said John Calipari of Arkansas, Jerome Tang of Kansas State, Mark Pope of Kentucky and Damon Stoudamire of Georgia Tech were some of the head coaches who came in person to offer Oladotun at his high school.
“Pretty much every great school out there has been reaching out one way or another, either formally or informally or through the grapevine,” Ibrahim said. “So we take all of that with a grain of salt. We just feel like the most important thing for us is to be the hardest working of everybody in high school. Not just class of 2027. He wants to be the hardest working player. Baba can influence the game without making one jump shot, you know what I’m saying? He can be multi-dimensional. And with schools, when opportunity comes officially — we can start getting direct calls starting June 15 — we’re going to take care of it then.”
Oladotun has taken two unofficial visits so far in the process to USC and UCLA. He broke down those two programs to ZAGSBLOG:
USC: “Great place. It’s in SoCal, so great atmosphere, great weather. Great coaching staff. Very good family atmosphere and the coaches really love me over there.”
UCLA: “Another in SoCal, so great weather out there. The coaching staff, they love me. Everyone’s just good people all around.”
When choosing a school, Oladotun is looking for a few key aspects in a program.
“It has to be a great institution, like a good school all around,” Oladotun said. “I’d say it would have to be like a stable coach there, a great historic coach that’s had success in the past. Especially with sending players to the league, which is my long-term goal. That’ll be the main ones.”
As his father said, Oladotun is focused on basketball right now and not the recruitment process. He doesn’t have any visits planned and will maybe start to think about taking some when the contact period opens and he hears from coaches.
When Oladotun takes the court in Memphis, the spotlight is sure to follow with NBA Scouts, college coaches and fans eager to see the No. 1 prospect in action. Still, the noise of recruiting and NBA dreams remains secondary to the grind Oladotun has embraced since he was a young kid crafting drills in the backyard. His father sees this as the heart of his son’s greatness.
“I think it’s his personal drive and work ethic,” Ibrahim said of what makes his son special. “Discipline and obsession. Focusing on every little detail. That’s the biggest thing for me.”
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