NEW YORK— Ochai Agbaji came dangerously close to waving good bye to college basketball last June when he declared for the NBA draft as a junior.The 6-5 two way star wing from nearby Kansas City, who led the Jayhawks in scoring, put his name in the NBA draft pool three weeks after an unsettling 86-51 NCAA early round loss to the University of Southern California, He trained for the NBA combine in Phoenix and worked out for Atlanta, Toronto and New Orleans, before finally putting that thought out of his head and announcing he would return to campus for his senior year.
Agbajj celebrated by scoring a career high 29 points as the third-ranked Jayhawks defeated feisty, but turnover prone Big Ten rival Michigan State, 87-74, before a crowd of at the Champions Classic in the Garden. It was one of the great individual performances in the history of this luminous four- team event that also included Duke’s 79-70 victory over Kentucky in a battle of two Top 10s.
On a night when the Garden honored Duke Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski, who was making his final appearance in the world’s most famous arena, Agbaji stole the show, taking us on a magical ride in this magical place. “I came back for this,” he said. “To be on this stage at this moment. Lead my team to a win I know my team has the utmost confidence in me. That’s why I chose to come back and do something with this season.
“I made the right decision. I know I did.’’
Agbaji has had moments of brilliance in his career — scoring 20 or more points eight previous times– but nothing like this. He shot 9 for 16, 3 for 6 from the three and 8 for 8 from the line with no turnovers. He also drew seven personal fouls, playing his most complete game to date. Kansas led by seven at the half before Michigan State cut the lead to 48-45. After a timeout, Agbaji caught an alley-oop for a dunk and then converted a steal into another dunk to restore order.
“He’s had some big games in the past. I don’t know if he’s had a bigger game on a bigger stage with the bright lights. Some of our players labored in the first half, but he basically carried us. I’m really happy for him and he was really good.”
College basketball has made so much of the one and done phenomenon, but Agbaji chose to spend four years in developing into a shining star in Self’s program. “I actually think Ochai is a first round pick who wasn’t going to get drafted in the first round,” Kansas Hall of Fame coach Blll Self said. “I think he always thought he could be a dude but I don’t knew if he ever believed it in his core if he was ready to be a dude.
“The way our system is set up, you’re not a one-and-done, you’re not a two-and-done, you’re a failure in college,” Self said. “It’s such BS. because some guys aren’t ready to be that– emotionally, talent wise, they haven’t had the same experiences. There’s some guys, even though they could be a one-and-done, they’ve had experiences that some juniors and seniors hadn’t had yet thought the circuit and all this stuff This dude didn’t start for his AAU team. He was top 300 I think he was 346th when he recruited him.”
Kansas, which looked like the best team in the Garden on opening night, played like an early season Final Four candidate, scoring 44 points in the paint against the Spartans, despite playing without 6-8 redshirt sophomore forward Jalen Wilson, the team’s leading rebounder, who was suspended for a DUI.
This is Self’s deepest team ever. The Jayhawks—who were selected as the Big 12 pre-season favorite– used 11 players against Michigan State.
Kansas may have 10 new faces on the roster, but in a year where super seniors can gain a free year of eligibility because of the Covid Pandemic and first- time transfers are automatically eligible in the portal–the Jayhawks have five seniors – starters Agbaji, improved 6-10, 250 pound center Dave McCormick, offensively prolific guard Remy Martin and backups like transfer guard Jalen Coleman-Lands and forward Mitch Lightfoot and a junior forward Christian Braun —who can all play major minutes in Big 12 competition.
Martin, a super senior transfer from Arizona State, was a three time All Pac-12 selection who led that conference in scoring last year with a 19.1- point average and had four games of 30 points or more, arrived in Lawrence with huge expectations. He was selected as the Big 12’s pre-season Player of the Year, but got a dose of reality when Self did not start him an exhibition game against Emporia State, benching him in favor of senior walk on Chris Teahan because he had been disappointed in Martin’s defense. .
Martin was a non-factor in the first half against Michigan State, but then came to life, scoring all 15 of his points grabbing six rebounds and contributing two assists in the final 20 minutes, showing flashes of what the Jayhawks are hoping they are getting. Martin is a natural scorer but is still a work in progress when it comes to facilitating the offense. If he grows into the position.
