Ti20 OTB: Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu Interview

Tigers in 20: A Memphis Tigers Athletics podcast

The newest Tiger basketball commit, Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu, joined GoTigers247 in his first interview since committing to Penny Hardaway and the Memphis Tigers. Kao withdrew his name from the NBA pre-draft process on Monday, May 30th and immediately committed to play for Memphis in 2022.

Kao played last year for UT Arlington after coming from Southwestern Assemblies of God, a NAIA school in Waxahachie, Texas. Kao has spent the summer going through the draft process and spoke about how much his confidence has grown after seeing his skill set match up against prospects with better credentials. Kao credits his coaching and willingness to work hard for his development over a relatively short period of time since he has started playing basketball.

At the age of 13, Kao moved to Mesquite, Texas from western Nigeria after the devastating loss of his parents at an early age. Kao speaks about his goal driven mindset and how his resilience has allowed him to take tragedy and uncertainty in his life and turn it into a positive. He believes God has great purposes for him in athletics and believes that "everything happens for a reason."

Kao details the conversations he has had with Penny Hardaway and describes his main goal of being the National DPOY for college basketball next year. On top of being a stalwart defender, Kao goes into great detail about his development in rebounding the ball and how a switch flipped in his brain last year on how to be a more effective rebounder at his position. Kao then describes his NBA pre-draft roommate, Lester Quinones, and how their relationship has developed during this summer. Kao spoke about playing with an elite point guard like Kendric Davis and the "pick your poison" decisions opposing defenses will have to make to stop the Tigers from scoring on fast breaks.

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