On Kansas senior Ochai Agbaji’s dunk and how it relates to Mizzou, K-State job openings
The still shot shows Ochai Agbaji’s head nearly even with the rim, his arm stretched about two feet above it and a helpless TCU defender part of the poster.
In one lob off of an inbounds pass Friday at the T-Mobile Center — one really, really electric lob — Agbaji showed that the best player in the Big 12 Conference is probably also its most athletic.
And for a moment, you could forget that this NBA prospect once traveled into his senior year of high school practically begging a Power 5 school to offer him.
Some forgot.
For other programs to forget about him, they would’ve had to acknowledge him in the first place.
On an evening in which Agbaji scored 22 points to lead Kansas to a 75-62 victory in the Big 12 Tournament semifinals against TCU, a program once thought to be KU’s top rival fired its head coach. Missouri moved on from Cuonzo Martin after five years. A day earlier, another of KU’s rivals, Kansas State, parted ways with head coach Bruce Weber after 10 years.
The relation in all of this?
Agbaji.
Stick with me for a minute. Agbaji, a player who has transformed his game into a potential lottery pick was once out there, ready to be scooped up by a Power 5 program that might have him. By early second semester of his senior year at Oak Park, he had zero Power 5 offers. Really. Not a one.
At that point, I traveled out to one of his high school practices one afternoon and asked if Mizzou had shown any interest. He shook his head. By the time he committed to KU a couple of weeks later, his senior year nearly complete, Mizzou and Kansas State hadn’t even offered him.
KU pounced late. He’s now the Big 12 Conference player of the year.
And look, once KU enters the picture, this would likely be a moot point with Agbaji. That offer overwhelmed him, and he committed just five days later.
And who’s to say Agbaji transforms into this player if he attends another school?
I get all that. But it might be relevant with the next guy. Or the player who never does receive that overwhelming offer. What if Agbaji hadn’t? Are we to believe Mizzou and K-State were next on the list? They didn’t even register for the reception.
Agbaji is one example. One thread in the larger cloth of this story.
For Kansas State to turn around the trajectory of its past three years and Mizzou the trajectory of its past decade, this is where it starts. They can’t afford to miss that kind of talent — or can less afford it, I should say — particularly when it’s residing in the nearest metro.
Agbaji wasn’t some late bloomer in Kansas City. He scored 23.1 points per game as a junior. KU might have had its eyes on bigger fish at that point, but it remains inexcusable Mizzou and K-State didn’t bother yet to look.
There will be more examples. The new coaching staffs — whomever that winds up being — should take the lesson. Identify a player early. Build a relationship with him early.
I’m not saying it’s easy. It will take considerable work. And heck, it still might not even prove fruitful — KU or some other prestigious program like it could swoop in late and ruin a year’s worth of work. That’s the business.
But it has to be part of the plan, even if it’s not guaranteed to always be part of the solution. Because recently, it’s been the problem. At least on the Missouri side, where the program will be making its fifth hire in 16 years. Talent oozes out of St. Louis but then oozes right out of the state, or in the case of another player here at T-Mobile Center, KU point guard Dajuan Harris, the talent oozes right out of its own backyard.
It’s a long road and certainly an difficult one to turn around. But the Mizzou opening offers opportunity for a turnaround, even beneath the Jason Tatums of the world.
It’s easier than ever to scout and identify talent nationally, but the path forward starts with a trip down the road.
This story was originally published March 11, 2022 at 11:16 PM.