Amanze Egekeze could have waited, using the final month of his AAU season with the Illinois Wolves to show college basketball coaches what he is really capable of doing.

But in the days after Belmont University made the 6-foot-7 Huntley senior a scholarship offer last Sunday, the need to put his college choice off faded.

Egekeze verbally committed to join Belmont's 2014 recruiting class on Thursday, allowing him to focus solely on his final year with the Red Raiders. Despite missing half his junior season while recovering from tendinitis surgery last September, Egekeze averaged 12.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game while helping Huntley to its third straight Fox Valley Conference title.

Egekeze also had offers from DePaul, Loyola, Indiana State, Toledo, Wright State and the University of California-Davis. He had also drawn interest from several Big Ten schools including Michigan, Wisconsin, Purdue, Iowa, Northwestern and Illinois.

"It's kind of like a marriage when you're making this decision – you want someone who wants you," Egekeze said Thursday night. "Belmont made it clear right from the start they wanted me.

"I just felt like it was time and that this was the right decision."

Egekeze, who is the first Division I basketball player to come out of coach Marty Manning's Huntley program, said he struggled with making a decision so early for a couple days this week.

But after weighing his options, he wondered what he was waiting for and decided on Rick Byrd's Bruins program that went 26-7 last season, finished 14-2 in the Ohio Valley Conference and that has made three straight NCAA Tournament appearances and reached the tournament six times since 2006.

Manning said Thursday night that coaches he spoke with like Egekeze's versatility as well as his potential to grow as a player, building off his natural abilities. They also liked his character.

Egekeze said having the ability to play right away also factored into his decision, choosing the smaller, Nashville-based school over a possible chance to play at the Big Ten level. He also appreciated the stability he found with the Bruins, a program that hasn't had a player transfer out over the past 10 years.

"Out of all the offers I had, there was none that really compared to Belmont," Egekeze said. "A lot of the schools were genuine, but at the same time, they weren't as consistent as (Belmont) was and I didn't want to take the risk of waiting for something or going to a big-name university and end up hating it there.

"Just knowing I picked a place where there was everything I've wanted in a school, it really takes a really huge load off and now I can really focus on the things I need to get better at and not worry about anything. So it's a good situation to be in."