Agbaji gets bad, and that’s good

Then came Agbaji’s guarded, off-balance three-pointer with 7.3 seconds remaining in overtime to send the game into double-overtime, during which he grabbed a pair of key defensive rebounds and made two free throws, and the huge smile was back. It certainly didn’t dim in the jubilant postgame locker room.

“This right here,” Braun, a junior guard, said of the team’s unquestioned senior leader, “is a bad man! National Player of the Year, First Team All-American, Ochai Agbaji!”

With his usual quiet charisma, Agbaji acknowledged the praise with a small wave, taking in the sort of moment he couldn’t have dreamed of as an unassuming underclassman. Then came coach Bill Self, who exclaimed, “We’ve got the best player in America right here on our team. That was as bad-a-boy performance as I’ve ever coached.”

Agbaji’s 37 points (including seven of 12 from beyond the arc) and seven rebounds (all on the defensive glass) in the revenge match against Tech were both career highs and cemented his status as one of the country’s elite wings. It’s a role he’s grown into over a long KU career—until missing the Feb. 1 game at Iowa State, Agbaji had made 97 consecutive career starts in 103 games played—and it didn’t happen by accident.

Agbaji, of Kansas City, Missouri, entered the NBA’s predraft workouts, but returned for his senior season after hearing from Toronto’s general manager that he needed to become more assertive.

“That’s been on repeat in my head,” Agbaji says, “since the moment I got told that.”