PORTLAND, Ore. — The NCAA Tournament has a way of propping up under the radar players, coaches and teams. In March, the forgotten are remembered, and bows are tied on unlikely careers in the most festive, and emotional, of ways.
So it’s fitting that three years after leaving the Oregon Ducks men’s basketball program, Boise State forward Abu Kigab returned to the big stage in the same state where he began his career.
Boise State fell 64-53 to Memphis on Thursday, but it was Kigab who helped the Broncos crawl back from a 38-19 halftime deficit by all of his 20 points in the second half.
“It’s basketball, and sometimes things don’t go your way, and you just have to take that negative and turn it into a positive however you can, and that’s our mentality,” he said.
Kigab put an unexpectedly welcome exclamation mark on a career which featured a far from rosey beginning.
Things at Oregon weren’t going his way, so he made a career-changing decision.
Kigab played sparsely as a freshman for a Ducks team that missed the NCAA Tournament in 2017-18. Then, after logging 15 minutes per game through the team’s first 10 games of the season following and averaging 2.6 points per game, he transferred abruptly.
He found a new home in Boise, and after two excellent seasons, he posted a career-year in this, his final season and he transcended into the face of the Broncos’ program.
“Abu, he embodies what Boise is,” Broncos teammate Emmanuel Akot said.
On Wednesday, Memphis head coach and former NBA superstar Penny Hardaway called that same player a force to be reckoned with. That’s what Kigab, the former Duck who couldn’t get off the ground, has become since his move.
“He’s a winner,” Boise State coach Leon Rice said. “He’s a high-character kid that cares about his teammates and cares about the right stuff. He’s certainly lived up to that. He’s our most vocal leader. We’ve got a lot of leaders in a lot of different ways, but he’s the one that brings the energy to the room and the excitement to these guys, and the confidence that they have.”
Kigab averaged a team-high 14.7 points per game and logged career highs in both rebounds (5.8) and assists (2.4) for a Boise State team which finished with a program-best 27-8 record this season.
“Boise State has just been unbelievable for me,” Kigab said. “I love the family atmosphere that I experienced right away. Coach Rice did a tremendous job of really helping me fit in.”
And that’s always what the mysterious mid-season transfer was about: fitting in. Because players and coaches from both programs will tell you the work ethic and talent was never in question.
“Managers got tired of him always asking for rebounders,” former Oregon guard Will Johnson said.
Kigab spent time on team Canada and was part of the roster that beat the USA in the 2017 U19 World Cup. It was the first iteration to beat Team USA and when Rice began diving into Kigab’s background, he soon learned it was his new forward at the heart of that team — one which featured NBA players such as RJ Barrett.
It didn’t take long for that same effect to wash over the Broncos’ program.
“He holds us accountable, and on top of that, he’s an ultra competitor and a really, really, really good player, and I think sometimes it goes understated,” Akot said.
After his three year turnaround in Idaho, Kigab looks ready for greener pastures and a potential NBA career.
But coach Rice isn’t ready to start thinking about his star’s future. Not quite yet.
“That’s the last game he gets to play in a Bronco uni,” Rice said. “He’s left a legacy here that will never, ever be forgotten.”
