Ochai Agbaji

Kansas senior Ochai Agbaji was named the Final Four most outstanding player after the Jayhawks beat North Carolina for the 2022 NCAA national title.

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. 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. Agbaji was ranked as the 334th best player in his class. Here’s the teams’ history It was February of his senior year when the Jayhawks offered him a scholarship. This is why he came back. They think of it as vindication for what they always knew was possible. Self red-shirted Agbaji his freshman year, thinking, hey, certainly this kid is going to stay all five years, not just four. I mean, you knew, from seeing him in practice freshman year, the potential. His mother, Erica, prepared for a conversation about the next steps. 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. Just to share that moment with them, man, that was special.”

With his level of play in New Orleans, the senior was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four. Between the two games, Agbaji scored 16.5 points per ...

With the Most Outstanding Player award wrapped up, Agbaji has claimed numerous individual honors in addition to the biggest team award in the country. His career averages are 13.5 points per game with 44.8 percent shooting and 37.3 percent shooting from 3 with 4.4 rebounds and 1.6 assists. “I don't really care because we won the national championship,” Agbaji said. With his level of play in New Orleans, the senior was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four. Between the two games, Agbaji scored 16.5 points per game on 58.8 percent shooting from the field. He’ll enter the NBA Draft this spring and pursue an NBA career. NEW ORLEANS, La. — Ochai Agbaji has officially put together one of the best seasons of any Kansas player in the program’s history.

Ochai Agbaji, Milwaukee born and the son of former UWM basketball players, capped a sensational senior season with a title and Final Four honor.

Ochai played right away as a freshman at KU and has morphed into the player of the year in the best men's basketball conference in the country, the Big 12, this season. He transferred into the program from Vincennes junior college in Indiana. She posted 20 career double-doubles and finds her name all over the Panthers record book in rebound and block categories.

A relatively local product out of high school, Agbaji played four seasons for head coach Bill Self and the Jayhawks. Agbaji developed into the Big 12 ...

“Having the trust of my guys, having the trust of coach, I think that obviously grows with time, your maturity and learning more about yourself and all that stuff,” Agbaji said. And behind a performance that played a part in Agbaji being named the Final Four's most outstanding player for the NCAA tournament, he took his legacy to a new height. “If I really had a most outstanding player throughout the entire Final Four, it would be David,” said Agbaji, highlighting his senior forward teammate David McCormack. “We got here at the same time. Manning, a national player of the year honoree and member of the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame, among other honors, is hard to argue against. Self is putting Agbaji behind only Danny Manning, who was there Monday at Caesars Superdome to see the Jayhawks capture a national title. A national title when Agbaji is widely considered to be the best player Self can put on the floor, changes things.