When 2019 wing Majok Deng released his final 12 schools on Twitter on July 7, it included many of the schools you’d expect for a four-star prospect, like Arizona, Duke and UCLA.

But Northwestern also appeared on Deng’s list, for a couple reasons.

One is the excellent education the school offers, as Deng explained that he’s looking for “a high academic school that also plays basketball well.” That’s why other academic-minded schools like Stanford, Cal, Princeton, Georgia Tech, Rice and Vanderbilt also made the cut.

But the other, more important reason was that Deng’s cousin, NBA player Luol Deng, strongly advised him to include the Wildcats among his finalists. Why? Because Northwestern head coach Chris Collins recruited Luol to play at Duke way back in 2003, and Luol had nothing but great things to say about him.

Get the inside story on Majok Deng, the Tucson (Ariz.) Salpointe standout who never played basketball until he emigrated from war-ravaged South Sudan just eight years ago and now is one of the most sought-after players in the nation.