Winnipeg high school hoopster to suit up for NCAA Div I school

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This article was published 19/07/2024 (744 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Ramogi Nyagudi, one of the most celebrated basketball prospects in Manitoba history, is taking his talents to the NCAA.

Earlier this week, the 6-9 power forward from Winnipeg committed to play with the Division I University of St. Thomas Tommies in Minnesota beginning this fall.

“At the start, there’s a lot of people in my ear about what I should do or where I should go,” said Nyagudi by phone from St. Paul, Minn., Friday. “But I started looking at my own values. I did a lot of praying about it. My family did a lot of praying and I came to the decision that I have to go to St. Thomas.”

The Minnesota-born Nyagudi was a standout at St. Paul’s High School in Winnipeg for his Grade 10 and 11 seasons and followed that with an impressive campaign at DME Academy, a Wisconsin prep school, earning a scholarship offer from the University of Maryland while averaging 17 points and nine rebounds in Grade 12.

Nyagudi’s transition to the NCAA comes with a major change. His family belongs to the Seventh-day Adventist Church and as such, he observed the Sabbath on Saturdays, meaning the time between sundown Friday until sundown Saturday was a biblical time of rest and worship.

Adherence to this rule meant no basketball for Nyagudi during that time.

“The only thing that has really changed is that I’m just going to play on Saturday,” said Nyagudi, who turns 18 on Aug. 7. “All my principles stay the same. I’m still going to go to church when I can. I’m still going to make sure that it’s a holy day, but I’m going to make sure that I played as hard as I can, but also worship and show while I’m playing, that I’m not playing because it means that I’m playing but because of the gifts that God gave me.”

Nyagudi made the decision to play Saturdays prior to suiting up for Canada’s U18 squad at last month’s FIBA U18 Men’s AmeriCup in Buenos Aires.

“I was really struggling with the decision,” said Nyagudi, who helped Canada to a bronze-medal finish in Argentina. “I talked with my family about it and I ultimately came to the decision, ‘Yes, I’m gonna play, but I’m gonna keep the same principles.’”

Nyagudi is a major recruiting prize for the Tommies and head coach Johnny Tauer, who took his program from Division III to Division I in 2021.

Tauer was tipped off about Nyagudi by a pair of Twin Cities coaches — Wayzata’s Bryan Schnettler and Academy of Holy Angels’ Jimmy Mireri, who also happens to be Ramogi’s uncle.

“There was this serendipitous connection that he had lived in Minnesota for eight years and his dad (Robert) actually was a graduate of the University of St. Thomas,” said Tauer, who guided the Tommies to Division III national titles in 2011 and 2016.

“Certain things in recruiting have to align for there to be a fit and so I reached out to him and just started getting to know him and was incredibly impressed by his character, his maturity and his love of being a teammate.”

Nyagudi is part of a five-member freshman class at St. Thomas, which plays in the Summit League.

“The things that stands out about him — No. 1 is his versatility — he’s able to guard multiple positions,” said Tauer. “Anytime we’ve seen him play or work out, I think the thing that stood out is he’s unselfish and has a willingness to pass the ball and two, he plays exceptionally hard. I mean, he has a motor like very few players I’ve ever seen. And three, he’s a great teammate.”

Nyagudi began working out with his new teammates this week.

“He has a lot of work to do and he knows that,” said Tauer. “He’s hungry to improve and I think that’s another part of his excitement of being here is that he really felt with the coaching staff and the culture and the players, that this is a place that he’s going to improve because he has a really, really high ceiling.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca