Why Ochai Agbaji fell into his parents’ arms, crying, after Kansas Jayhawks’ title win
READ MORE
KU commemoration: What it took to win a championship
The Jayhawks are 2022 NCAA Tournament champions. Dive into the stories behind the win or pick up the special commemorative section.
Expand All
Red, white, blue and gold confetti poured onto the Superdome’s basketball court, but Kansas senior Ochai Agbaji broke free from the celebration and walked toward the east stands.
He waved first, as if to gather the attention of three specific people, but they were already staring in his direction. They’d been waiting.
His father, Olofu, approached first, and Agbaji collapsed into his arms. Olofu gripped tightly, repeating a single phrase over and over again.
“You’re a champion!” he said. “You’re a champion!”
By the time his mother approached, Agbaji had already burst into tears, overcome with emotion after Kansas defeated North Carolina 72-69 in the NCAA national championship game. Agbaji knew it would all come flowing out at some point, he’d later say, but he didn’t know when. Upon reflection, it only made sense this was the moment.
With these people.
“They’re the ones who know everything I’ve gone through,” Agbaji told The Star. “They know the path it’s taken for me to get to this point. Just to share that moment with them, man, that was special.”
His sister arrived next, and by then, former Kansas players had crept nearby. Aaron Miles and Drew Gooden pulled out their iPhones to record the embrace, as if former NBA players were starstruck by the kid who once ranked as the nation’s 334th best high school player.
Brandon Rush and Mario Chalmers, members of Kansas’ last championship team, eventually approached, too, hoping for a handshake.
“That guy,” Rush would say, “might go down as having the best KU career in history.”
This is how the journey ended Monday night, Agbaji being selected as the Final Four’s most outstanding player, after being selected as the Big 12 tournament’s most outstanding player, after being selected as the conference’s regular-season most outstanding player.
But none of that is what prompted the emotion with his family.
For that, we have to go back.
To the beginning.
Agbaji, and you know this part of the story, traveled into the second semester of his high school senior season at Oak Park without a scholarship offer from a Power 5 conference, despite the fact that high school coaches across the Kansas City metro were gushing about his potential.
It grew confounding, even frustrating, to some who termed it the best example of Kansas City high school basketball being overlooked. Agbaji contemplated whether he needed to take a lower-level offer for fear that it, too, would be removed from the table if he let it sit there too long.
And then KU called. At long last. It was February of his senior year when the Jayhawks offered him a scholarship. Agbaji was ranked as the 334th best player in his class. That’s right — not just the 334th-best high school player, the 334th-best senior. His mother, Erica, prepared for a conversation about the next steps.
Unnecessary.
“I don’t need to think about it,” he told her. “Bill Self just called me. I’m going to Kansas.”
The four people to share those 60 seconds together Monday night wouldn’t call this an underdog story. They think of it as vindication for what they always knew was possible. For what they’ve spent years trying to convincing the rest of us.
And as for the rest?
Well, even KU didn’t yet know what it had. Self red-shirted Agbaji his freshman year, thinking, hey, certainly this kid is going to stay all five years, not just four. By midseason, KU center Udoka Azubuike suffered a season-ending hand injury, and only then did Self decide to burn Agbaji’s redshirt. The big man is out. Why not try to play small?
“Just seeing his growth, his development, is amazing to me,” former KU point guard Devon Dotson, who arrived in Lawrence with Agbaji, told The Star. “I didn’t see this happening, honestly. I mean, you knew, from seeing him in practice freshman year, the potential. But no, I didn’t know he’d reach this level.”
The rest of the story is fairly cookie-cutter for an All-American — there was obvious improvement every year, the result of offseasons in the gym. He even spent last summer working out with NBA star Damian Lillard. He’d tested the NBA waters, hoping to be lured by the league, but the feedback told him to stay another year.
Once more, he’d have to do a little more convincing.
“Everything he went through, everything he sacrificed,” his dad, Olofu, said. “This is why he did it. This is why he came back. He came back to do this.”
He came back a different player. He didn’t want to return to the NBA Draft process as the same player he’d entered it once before. And as much as he pinpointed a stronger work ethic, he wanted to play with more emotion on the court. With more leadership. With more swagger.
That came from an unusual spot.
While playing basketball with grade-school kids at a summer camp at Kansas, Agbaji played alongside Remy Martin for the first time. Martin had just transferred in from Arizona State. And with kids making up part of the opposition, Martin couldn’t help but play with energy. With that emotion Agbaji knew he needed.
“That’s what gave me my swagger,” Agbaji said. “That all came from Remy.”
Still, it was Martin who was selected as the Big 12’s preseason player of the year.
Maybe finally we’ll believe.
“In the next five years,” Rush said, “his name is definitely going up there in the rafters.”
With the trophy in his hands, Self called Agbaji the program’s most accomplished player since Danny Manning — which makes him the most accomplished player since Self took over in 2003. He’s coached 22 McDonald’s All-Americans.
And one kid ranked No. 334.
The one left standing Monday.
This story was originally published April 5, 2022 at 3:46 AM.
