{"id":318705,"date":"2025-10-20T14:00:22","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T14:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/318705\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T14:00:22","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T14:00:22","slug":"kus-granddad-ngala-brings-experience-leadership-as-reserve-guard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/318705\/","title":{"rendered":"KU\u2019s \u2018granddad\u2019 Ngala brings experience, leadership as reserve guard"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\tMen’s Basketball\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t<\/a>
\n
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n


\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"article
\n Nick Pearce\/Dalhousie Athletics <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

Dalhousie’s Nginyu Ngala shoots during a game against Acadia on Sunday, Nov. 5, 2023, in Halifax, Nova Scotia.<\/p>\n


\n \t\t\t\t
\n <\/p>\n

Nginyu Ngala had two choices: either begin his professional career overseas or head south to the United States.<\/p>\n

With three years at Dalhousie and one at Laurentian under his belt \u2014 in the Canadian U Sports competition, which gives players five years to play \u2014 Ngala was pretty sure he would have a fifth year of college basketball eligibility at his disposal if he went stateside.<\/p>\n

He had interest from a handful of wide-ranging mid-majors: Florida A&M, Robert Morris, UNLV, a couple schools in the America East Conference closer to his native Montreal, Quebec.<\/p>\n

Then Kansas entered the picture.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just juggling between both,\u201d Ngala said, \u201cbut I couldn\u2019t pass up on the offer (of) being a Kansas Jayhawk and playing for Bill Self.\u201d<\/p>\n

The final piece of KU\u2019s set of 13 scholarship players for the 2025-26 season, Ngala first heard from Self the first week of July, visited Lawrence later on and signed by the end of the month.<\/p>\n

The Canadian guard had always dreamed of playing in the U.S. and had the chance to make the leap out of prep school, but didn\u2019t like the opportunities at his disposal then. Instead, he bided his time and embarked on a successful career in U Sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think my journey is kind of an unconventional path,\u201d Ngala said. \u201cStarted off in Canada, played four years there, you know, you don\u2019t usually see guys my size, my situation, go from Canada to the States. It\u2019s been a bumpy road, but I couldn\u2019t have been in a better situation, how it played out now with one year of eligibility left.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 5-foot-10 guard is a fully formed player at 26 years old \u2014 \u201cHe\u2019s the OG of the team, we call him granddad,\u201d fifth-year guard Melvin Council Jr. said \u2014 who made a forward-thinking choice with an eye toward his future career prospects inside and outside of basketball.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew that obviously, this is a big, big program, known as a winning school, but I\u2019m also looking for the opportunities after this in the future,\u201d Ngala said. \u201cI just thought being here would help me in my professional career as a basketball player, and after I\u2019m done playing. It was like two birds, one stone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back in the present, chances are that Ngala won\u2019t see the floor a great amount this year. Self has put it pretty straightforwardly: \u201cHis value is in practice.\u201d<\/p>\n

A role primarily in practice can be pretty important when one is practicing against a potential future No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft. Ngala called Darryn Peterson \u201ca generational talent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe in large part wanted him \u2014 now I\u2019m not saying he\u2019s not going to play \u2014 but we in large part wanted him because we thought he could be a little guy that could play underneath Darryn in halfcourt offense and stuff like that,\u201d Self said, \u201cbecause there\u2019ll be plenty of possessions where he\u2019s being guarded by a bigger guard, but now we wanted to have many possessions where he\u2019s guarded by a guy that could play underneath him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis value in many ways is making sure that the other guy is ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a role well suited for Ngala, who said he sees his job as to \u201ccome in, be a leader, bring my experiences from the previous teams I\u2019ve played with, do my job, hit open shots like I\u2019ve been doing \u2014 I shot 40% last year (from 3) \u2014 push the ball, lead the guys, older voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

It took some time for him to accomplish one of those bullet points in particular: growing into the role of a leader on a relatively established team already several months into its offseason training.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy first two weeks it was kind of like a feel thing, of how am I going to lead into this role that Bill wants me to do, but in my third week he told me, \u2018Just be you, do what you been doing, lead the guys with your voice,’\u201d Ngala said. \u201cAnd I\u2019ve been leading for the last three years now in my role \u2014 just lead with humility, lead with experience and lead with a voice. It\u2019s coming along now as we\u2019re coming into the season. I feel like I\u2019ve been more of a voice and outspoken.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ngala recorded scoring averages in double figures each of his four years at Canadian universities, and averaged 14.9 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 3.1 assists per game last season at Laurentian. The experience most applicable to his new gig at KU, though, might be his summer spent with the Montreal Alliance of the Canadian Elite Basketball League, a professional team on which he was able to preserve his eligibility by playing as a student.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me it was like learning, playing with high-level program guys and guys who played at high-level D-I,\u201d Ngala said. \u201cIt actually helped me here with knowing the pick-and-roll game, playing under a G League coach that I had played for over there in Canada. I think it really helped me in terms of mentally and being prepared for bigger guys, bigger guards and just more length on the court.\u201d<\/p>\n

The length has been an adjustment for Ngala, as has the greater speed of the American game. On the flip side, time will tell whether opposing teams get exposed to Ngala\u2019s own skills over the course of the season, but he\u2019s certainly made his teammates work this offseason. Council said Ngala is \u201cplaying the game the right way, making us think a little bit quicker and faster.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to lie, Gee has been a perfect group piece for us,\u201d forward Tre White said. \u201cI feel like he pushes in practice, he\u2019ll make us pay for everything when he\u2019s on the scout team \u2026 He\u2019ll run off six 3s in a row, he\u2019ll split screens, throw lobs, he definitely keeps us honest when we\u2019re guarding him, going against him and stuff like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added forward Bryson Tiller: \u201cGee\u2019s been phenomenal. He\u2019s great on third team, and he just brings a competitive nature every day that we need on our team.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it was looking to fill its final roster spot, KU wanted someone with a few baseline skills: a ball handler who could shoot and play with pace. It found Ngala late \u2014 even after its other relatively late additions, in Kohl Rosario and Paul Mbiya \u2014 through correspondence with agents, and thankfully for Ngala, got him cleared with a waiver through, as he put it, \u201ca lot of back-and-forth with the NCAA.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI love his personality,\u201d Self said. \u201cI think it\u2019s terrific. And he wants to be here, and he had opportunities to go to other places, maybe probably have a bigger role. But he knows the time to score, he knows the situation and he can be a nice piece for what we need and he can also be an insurance policy, so to speak, and that\u2019s what he came here for, to be a part of Kansas. I\u2019m really happy that he\u2019s here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n
\n
\n \"\" <\/p>\n


\n PREV POST
\n Watts provides lone goal as KU beats Cincinnati \n <\/p>\n


\n <\/a>
\n
\n
\n <\/p>\n


\n NEXT POST
\n KU\u2019s \u2018granddad\u2019 Ngala brings experience, leadership as reserve guard \n <\/p>\n


\n \"\" <\/a>
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\"Author<\/p>\n

Written By Henry Greenstein<\/p>\n


\n Henry is the sports editor at the Lawrence Journal-World and KUsports.com, and serves as the KU beat writer while managing day-to-day sports coverage. He previously worked as a sports reporter at The Bakersfield Californian and is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis (B.A., Linguistics) and Arizona State University (M.A., Sports Journalism). Though a native of Los Angeles, he has frequently been told he does not give off “California vibes,” whatever that means. <\/p>\n

\u25bc<\/p>\n


\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Men’s Basketball Nick Pearce\/Dalhousie Athletics …\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":318706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[1339,1317,1337,1338,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-318705","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-basketball","11":"tag-ncaabasketball","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115406860053202897","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}