The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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[ 2023-24 BASKETBALL PREVIEW ] 44 THE WOLVERINE ❱ NOVEMBER 2023 fallen in love with basketball, and that's what I wanted to do. After that, I told my mom, I told myself, I told my dad, I told anybody who would listen to me that this is what I'm going to do. This is what I love doing. That's when the gym- rat phase started. I realized in that year spent away, even as a little kid, that I couldn't really live without it. Ever since then, I've just been hooked." Even then, Nkamhoua progressed as a self-described "late bloomer." He experienced no moment of realization that his skills were so refined, basketball would one day take him far away. He didn't get such an assurance at home or from coaches. He just decided it would be so. Then he made it so. "From Day 1, I told myself I was going to do it," Nka- mhoua said. "It was less of a realization, and more of a stubborn kid, saying this is what I'm going to do. Everybody's like, 'It's not going to be that easy,' and in my head I'm like, OK, then I'm just going to have to do whatever I need to do, however hard it is, however much I've got to go through, to get it done. To get there. "Nobody really told me, 'You're good at this,' or 'You can make it really far.' My dad was always supportive, and so was my mother … but parents ARE. It meant the world to me, and it was definitely good to have supportive parents. But it was never like, NOW I really know I can do this, so I'm going to start buckling down. No … I always wanted to do it, and I was always going to do it — some way or the other. I knew I was going to play basketball. "I worked hard for it. I worked every single day. There was a growth in how I worked. Being a gym rat, you might not know what you're doing in the gym. That's how it was for me, for a really long time." COMING TO THE USA Not surprisingly, Nkamhoua missed his father. He sought a way to be with him, when Christian Nkamhoua resided in London. "I wanted an opportunity to live with him," Nkamhoua said. "Ever since my teenage years, I had been bugging my mom and my dad about whether I could live with him, whether it was in England or wherever. I felt like, if I have a dad who cares for me, then I should learn from him. I should be around him. He should be in my life. I want him to be in my life." London wasn't to be. Nkamhoua's dad wound up in Maryland, getting re- married. His son got his wish, moving to the United States with the couple. The young man checked off a pair of boxes with the bolt across the big pond. His dad came back into his life on a deeper level, and the new locale provided an unlimited opportunity to pursue the sport he loved. "The decision ended up being very heavily basketball-related, at that time," he said. "It was still very much wanting to live with my dad, wanting to grow as a young man, learn from my father. But everything lined up so well. I was really, really, really strongly pushing it. I knew if I was to come to America, to the United States, to Maryland, it would help me with basketball a lot. "It would help me get away from the situation I was in, in Finland, basket- ball-wise. I felt I was a little stuck." He wasn't stuck with a language bar- rier, by any means. His family spoke flu- ent English while he was growing up, and students in Finland began studying English when they reached the third- grade level. That alone made it much easier to make the transition. Basketball took care of the rest. Nkamhoua won't dwell on any dif- ficulties he experienced. For him, focus on his sport overcame everything. He knew what he wanted to do, and all else faded away. "It's almost bad, how tunnel-vi- sioned and in my own world I can get," he mused. "Just like with weather, other p e o p l e , a ny t h i n g going on outside o f wh a teve r I 've go t go i n g o n , i t didn't really mat- ter to me. Whether I had friends or not … there would be some days I would be bored, I would be alone and be sad, but it wouldn't be the end of the world for me. It was the first time in my life I could walk across the street and go into a gym. "I just played basketball. I ended up meeting people through basketball. The people I made friends with through basketball were like-minded. Wherever you go in the world, you can find peo- ple who, even though they're different, they're still similar. Basketball players have very similar qualities. "Maybe I faced some things. The first time I ever faced culture shock was Voice Of The Wolverines Weighs In On Nkamhoua Brian Boesch, Michigan basketball radio play-by-play announcer, comes into the season well aware of grad transfer forward Olivier Nkamhoua, his career at Tennessee and what he could potentially bring to the Wolverines. The upside, Boesch noted, can be considerable. "At his peak, Olivier can be one of the best players in the Big Ten," Boesch said. "That's going to be the fascinating thing for the fans to watch this year. Michigan needs him to be consistent. When he's great, he can be the best player on the floor, in any league he plays in. The question is, can he get to the point where he is that good as much from a game-by-game standpoint as the team needs? "I think it's there. You saw it against Duke in the NCAA Tournament, and there are other examples. From what I've heard, people in the building have been really impressed with what they've seen from him. Now the challenge is, can he get it done on a game-to-game basis? If he can, I think Michigan is in a much better spot. They didn't have somebody with his two-way abilities consistently last year." The Wolverines feature a host of new parts this season. A Finnish import desperately wants to get them across the finish line on Selection Sunday. — John Borton ❱ Nkamhoua "I wanted to go somewhere that the staff would pour their knowledge onto me, teach me and help me grow as an indi- vidual as well as part of the team. … As a competitor, I also felt there was a gap here that I could fill."