photo by: Nick Pearce/Dalhousie Athletics

Dalhousie's Nginyu Ngala dribbles during a game against Saint Mary's on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024, in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Updated 1:58 p.m. Friday, July 25, 2025:

On Monday, Kansas men’s basketball coach Bill Self said he was looking for an experienced player who could run the point to serve as an “insurance policy” for this year’s roster; by Friday, he had a commitment from that type of player.

Former Laurentian University point guard Nginyu Ngala is joining KU, he confirmed to the Journal-World.

The 5-foot-10 Ngala is originally from Montreal, Quebec, and played four seasons across five years in the Canadian U Sports college basketball system. The first three were at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and the most recent was at Laurentian in Montreal, where he averaged 14.9 points, 4.6 rebounds and 3.1 assists and shot 39.2% from deep on 153 attempts.

At the conclusion of the 2024-25 season Ngala was named to his conference’s all-star team and was the Voyageurs’ male athlete of the year across all sports.

A graduate of English-language Vanier College in Montreal — students in Quebec attend college prior to university — Ngala did not play his first year at Dalhousie due to the pandemic. He then scored in double digits for the Tigers each of the following three seasons, headlined by a 2022-23 campaign in which he put up 17.5 points on a career-high 13.8 attempts per game.

Ngala will technically be playing his fifth season of college basketball when he makes the move to KU. It’s not clear how that translates to the NCAA’s rules, although U Sports allows five years of eligibility, and he only played 73 total games across his previous four. According to his player profile from his tenure with the Montreal Alliance of the Canadian Elite Basketball League, Ngala is now 26 years old.

The addition of Ngala provides the Jayhawks another ball-handling option and bolsters the depth in their backcourt more broadly. Marquee freshman Darryn Peterson and redshirt sophomore Elmarko Jackson are expected to spend plenty of time on the ball. Self said on Monday that Jackson’s athleticism is back to where it was before he tore his patellar tendon in June 2024, but he is still trying to get his timing restored.

KU now has 13 players on its roster, exempting a trio of walk-ons who are presumably considered Designated Student-Athletes and therefore will not count toward the Jayhawks’ 14-player limit for the 2025-26 season.