A new frontcourt pair has arrived on Wichita State’s campus with the likes of Emmanuel Okorafor and Will Berg.
“They are fantastic, they are mobile,” said Joy Ighovodja, a junior guard on the men’s basketball team. “They run faster than any big that I’ve seen.”
Okorafor and Ighovodja have known each other for five years, stemming back to their time in the NBA Academy Africa program. They’re both also Nigeria natives.
Berg, on the other hand, is from Sweden, having transferred from Purdue University over the offseason for his junior year.
“We all vibe with each other,” Berg said. “I feel like there’s no cliques or anything. It’s just a big group of people hanging out with each other. Me, Noah (Hill) and Manny, I feel like we get a little bit of a closer relationship, since we’re doing drills together all day, practicing together, we work out together. Those are the faces you see the most.”
Okorafor, affectionately known as “Manny,” transferred from Seton Hall for his senior year, having also previously played at Louisville. Spending time with teammates over the offseason, Okorafor explored Wichita, a far cry from the sprawling metropolis of home of Lagos, Nigeria.
“My favorite part of the city so far, I don’t know what they call it in downtown, the Brother’s Keeper (Keeper of the Plains). I call it the Brother’s Keeper,” Okorafor said. “It’s cool, like somewhere you can just go and walk around, and just clear your mind and just see the views.”
Okorafor’s introduction to the city also included a new barber by the team’s local guide, redshirt freshman TJ Williams.
“He’s been a really big help when I came here,” Okorafor said. “He’s the one that got us a barber for haircuts and stuff. He’s been showing me around.”
With a busy basketball season coming up and the fact that these players will be spending most, if not all of their time together, they said it just makes sense to be friends.
“We live together in one big apartment. We all stay at Seventeenth,” Ighovodja said. “We see each other every day. We’ve been to (escape rooms) … My group won, but it’s hard because you’re trying to find stuff, and not everyone is going to agree with each other, right? We have to learn how to work together and make everyone’s opinion valuable.”
The importance of brotherhood and family is seen on Berg’s tattoos as well.
“These are my parent’s names, Martin and Jessica,” Berg said, pointing to his left arm. “My mom, she loved lilies, so my arm is covered in lilies, and it goes down my back, too. I have a good portrait of me and my dad on my chest, and some pictures of me and my mom on my leg.”
For these new faces, Ighovodja said it was important to put the team above themselves as individuals.
“We just got to play for the name in the front, so that you can all know the name in the back,” Ighovodja said.
