NDWH's Abdou Toure Commitment to Arkansas Over UConn Highlight's NIL's Growing Impact

Money talks, and for Notre Dame-West Haven’s Abdou Toure, it seemed to be the main difference between staying at home and becoming a Razorback.

On October 3rd, top-35 recruit Abdou Toure announced his commitment to play for DI Arkansas to further his basketball career. The commitment came in NDWH’s gymnasium in front of students, friends, family and a lot of cameras. 

Toure is entering his senior year as one of the most polarizing Connecticut sports figures of most recent memory. Overall, West Haven and just Connecticut in general isn’t really known for producing any kind of sports talent. NDWH itself has produced low quality division I athletes, whose talent doesn’t even come close to the sweat on Toure’s head.

With over 15 Division I offers, Toure brought his list down to three: UConn, Providence and Arkansas. Truly UConn stands out as they just produced the NBA and WNBA’s rookie of the year in the same season, not to mention pure dominance on the court over the past three-plus decades. Providence provided another close-to-home option for Toure, but that was more of a safe option than anything as a player with his talents would be a guaranteed freshman starter. Arkansas is under one-and-done head coach John Calipari and overall has not seen a tournament championship since 1994 or a regular season division championship since the Bill Clinton administration as well. 

According to CT Insider, UConn offered Toure roughly $200k to bear the Husky logo – but Arkansas offered about two-times as much. 

Abdou Toure grew up dreaming of playing for UConn, but that dream quickly vanished when that first number on the Arkansas-written check went up a few digits. Of course a private jet and two Bentleys also helped as the Razorbacks gave the CT hooper a taste of what a pro career could turn out to be.

Toure’s father, Momoudou Toure, spoke to CT Insider saying, “Money is a big component,” and then contradicted himself by saying “It’s not about money.” The quote came from Momoudou talking about how there were other higher offers than Arkansas, but overall it does seem pretty clear that money and those Bentleys made the difference.

The fact is, UConn and Providence was never truly a legitimate option for the four star forward.

That’s the story now. College commitment isn’t based on the best options academic wise or winning wise, it is based on who will give you the fattest bank account the fastest. Toure just happens to be the latest example in what is a massive pool of other prospects across every college sport.

Now, I would be lying if there weren't other factors as to why UConn didn’t get picked. The biggest being there was a lack of communication from UConn and no guarantee as to playing time, along with no official visit being made. 

Overall, Toure will likely dominate at Arkansas and become a true NBA Draft prospect. One thing is for sure and that is NDWH will have some massive shoes that need filling once Toure takes off to college.

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