A former Kentucky Wildcat, nearly forgotten, is about to be an NBA draft pick
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Ugonna Onyenso blocked 105 shots in 36 games for Virginia in 2025-26.
- Onyenso averaged 6.5 points and 4.9 rebounds per game in his senior year.
- Recent NBA mocks project Onyenso as a probable second-round pick in 2026.
Ugonna Onyenso is just days away from becoming an NBA draft pick.
A little more than a year ago, such a scenario would’ve been difficult to fathom.
Back then, Onyenso found himself at a basketball crossroads, and, even for a young player who had displayed plenty of optimism throughout his college career, the path ahead didn’t appear to be all that promising.
Following his first two seasons spent at Kentucky, the 7-footer from Nigeria hit the transfer portal, part of the UK roster exodus that occurred after John Calipari left Lexington to take the head coaching job at Arkansas.
Onyenso had shown potential as a Wildcat, and his shot-blocking exploits had earned national attention at times. So when he committed to Kansas State in the spring of 2024, expectations were high heading into his junior season.
Ten days after that commitment, however, K-State landed former Illinois standout Coleman Hawkins, the top remaining player in the portal and an addition that shook up the frontcourt situation that Onyenso thought he was walking into.
The ultimate result: Onyenso played only 11.1 minutes per game. He posted career lows in blocks, rebounds and shot attempts per game. With one year of NCAA eligibility left, his college basketball career seemed to be on the rocks.
“To be honest, I thought I was gonna play for a low major coming out of Kansas State,” Onyenso told the Herald-Leader at the NBA Combine in Chicago last month. “But it’s all about giving me a shot. Opportunities. You feel me? And I really thank my coach at Virginia for giving me a shot. That was all it was.”
During the 2025-26 season, Onyenso and new Virginia head coach Ryan Odom proved to be a perfect match.
Odom was entering his first season in charge of the Cavaliers, and he needed players. Onyenso was entering last-chance territory to prove himself, and he simply needed the opportunity.
In Charlottesville, he found it.
Onyenso never started a game at Virginia last season, but that didn’t matter. During his senior year, he took more shots and blocked more shots than in his previous three college seasons combined. The Cavaliers also finished with a 30-6 record — a remarkable turnaround from UVA’s 15-17 mark the year before — and managed to win the program’s first NCAA Tournament game since the 2018-19 national championship season.
“It’s about playing for a team, playing for a coach, that’s gonna let you play a little bit,” Onyenso said. “So fortunately for me, my last year at Virginia, the coach, he let me shoot the ball a little bit. So it’s about showing the little things I know how to do, like passing the ball a little bit, shooting the ball a little bit. It’s a learning process for me. I feel like the more I learn, the more I grow. And it’s also about being in the gym all the time, because the more you work on your stuff, the more it shows.
“But I’m really grateful for the little things that I know how to do best, you know, which is impacting winning on the defensive side of the game.”
Onyenso did indeed get more of a green light as a scorer last season. He was 10 for 36 from 3-point range after taking a grand total of one 3-pointer over his first three years in college. He dished out 21 assists as a Cavalier after accumulating just nine during the previous three seasons. He averaged 6.5 points and 4.9 rebounds per game, both career highs.
But that shot-blocking ability, once again, is what he was known for most. That was the case before he even started his college career. That’s what landed him a spot at the NBA Combine last month. And that’s why he’ll hear his name called in this year’s NBA draft.
In that area, Onyenso is a singular talent. And he’s learned to embrace it.
“It’s all about focusing in on what you know how to do best,” he said. “Like, I paid even closer attention to shot blocking. You know, everybody has their own role to play. I’m like, ‘What is it that I got to do to help a team win?’ I got to be really good at something to help a team win. So, for me, it’s been shot blocking, since I started playing basketball. Like, I didn’t train for it. It’s natural. It’s all about the timing and everything. So I feel like, being able to block shots, if I can do that at a really, really high level, I can help teams win.”
It’s worth noting that his breakout season at Virginia happened to be the first of his college career played under fortunate circumstances.
Onyenso was still just 17 years old when he arrived in Lexington as a freshman in 2022. He also came to campus late, right around the time fall practice began and after his new teammates had experienced months of jelling opportunities over the summer.
That didn’t matter as much at the time. Calipari had brought back Oscar Tshiebwe, the reigning national player of the year, to be his starting center, and Onyenso knew full well that he was signing up for something akin to an apprenticeship in Year 1.
Still, he showed his promise early on, averaging 7.5 points, 7.0 rebounds and 3.5 blocks over UK’s first two games, which Tshiebwe missed due to injury. Once the Kentucky star returned, Onyenso took a backseat. He barely played at all over the final two months of the season.
Year 2 was supposed to be his breakout season, but Onyenso suffered a broken foot during the Cats’ summer trip to Toronto and didn’t even make his sophomore debut until the middle of December.
He emerged as Calipari’s starting center a few weeks later and held down that role for the rest of the season, currying the coach’s favor over highly touted big men Aaron Bradshaw and Zvonimir Ivisic.
Onyenso’s sophomore year featured plenty of highlights — his 10 blocks against Ole Miss tied Hall of Fame center David Robinson’s Rupp Arena record — but it ended with UK’s shocking loss to Oakland in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, a result that preceded Calipari’s departure. Onyenso, along with every other scholarship player on the team, left, too.
Kansas State was supposed to be his launching pad to the NBA, but he never really clicked amid the team’s crowded frontcourt. He wasn’t even considered one of the top 250 players in the transfer portal last year, before Odom gave him a shot to man the middle for Virginia.
“It’s all about how mentally tough you are,” Onyenso said. “For some players, if they’re worried about how they’re not playing, it kind of shows the kind of person they are. So the ups and downs that I had between my sophomore year at Kentucky and at Kansas State, it really taught me a lot; and how mentally tough I am. …
“I know what my future looks like. I know the kind of player that I am. It’s all about the right fit. I feel like things happen for a reason. So Kansas State didn’t work out. It is what it is. I still kept my cool.”
Onyenso blocked 105 shots in 36 games at Virginia last season, despite playing only 18.6 minutes per game off the bench. To put that in local perspective, only Anthony Davis (186 blocks) and Willie Cauley-Stein (106) have more swats in a season at Kentucky.
The former Wildcat also led all of high-major college basketball in blocked shots last season, despite fearing he might have to play at the low-major level when his transfer window opened.
The year spent at Kansas State might be viewed as a lost one for Onyenso’s development, but he learned perseverance and patience. As for the two spent in Lexington? He smiled when reflecting back on the memories.
“It was a fun experience, playing for Coach Cal,” he said. “You know, it was like my dream, when I started playing basketball, I wanted to play for a Hall of Fame coach. And I was fortunate enough to play for Coach Cal and with the kind of teammates that I had that time. It was a really fun experience. And playing against Oscar every day in practice, it was really intense in practice every day. But I still got to learn from him. I’ve been saying this the whole time, it’s all about learning for me.”
That willingness to learn has Onyenso in a good place now.
The most recent NBA mock drafts from the most prominent outlets have him safely in the top 60, with USA Today (No. 32 overall), CBS Sports (No. 40), Yahoo Sports (No. 41) and ESPN (No. 46) all projecting him as a second-round pick.
What a difference a year makes, if that year is spent with the right mentality.
“It’s all about the right fit, to be honest. So that’s what it is,” Onyenso said. “And then being able to show that, if you’re given the opportunity, you’re gonna produce. And the way I did that was I lived in the gym at Virginia.
“I wasn’t on the draft boards leaving Kansas State. But after Virginia? I mean, it’s a good opportunity. I’m here. I thought I didn’t have a shot anymore, to be in this situation. So it’s all about the right fit. And I’m really grateful for the challenges that I had.”
