Me’Arah O’Neal, the daughter and youngest youngster of Shaq, has signed a nationwide letter of intent with the Florida Gators. In a ceremony at her stepfather’s church in Texas, O’Neal selected Florida over seven different faculties, together with her father’s alma mater, LSU. “I went on the Florida go to, and I had a sense that is the place I belonged. And that I used to be going to be most profitable if I went to go play at Florida. I felt like I linked with Coach Kelly greater than I linked with any of the opposite faculties that recruited me. She actually cares about me not simply on the courtroom however off the courtroom. That is essential for me,” O’Neal stated.
The #33 recruit within the 2024 class, O’Neal joins a promising Gators class that additionally contains #16 recruit Alivia McGill, the highest-ranked recruit Florida has ever landed in girls’s basketball. Moreover, O’Neal stated that the selection to signal with the Gators was hers alone. “My household was simply there to assist me. I used to be pressuring myself to decide, however I discovered I needed to be affected person. And I did make this determination by myself,” she stated.
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How Good Is Shaq’s Daughter?
Resulting from WNBA eligibility guidelines, O’Neal will not be capable of declare for the draft till 2028. Nevertheless, she’s made it clear that it is a step she desires to take. “I wanna make it to the WNBA. I wanna maintain my very own identify, I wanna simply be the very best basketball participant that I could possibly be. Simply attain my full potential and get a championship, make All-Star. Do all the large stuff and ultimately make the Corridor of Fame,” O’Neal stated. Moreover, it is a purpose that her father believes is totally doable. “If she retains it up, she will certainly be within the historical past books,” Shaq informed ESPN.
It is nonetheless unclear the place O’Neal’s ceiling is. Nevertheless, each her brothers and her coach suppose she’s one of many subsequent huge issues for girls’s basketball. “I’ve seen it [her game] develop tremendously. As a result of once we had been children, we would all the time go at it. And like I stated, I would tough her up,” famous her brother Shaqir, who performs for Texas Southern. “We’ve not seen the very best of her but, like, not even shut. I feel we’re simply scratching the floor. She’s simply beginning to blossom. … However we’ll see some superb issues,” added her personal coach, ex-NBAer Moochie Norris.
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