photo by: Nick Pearce/Dalhousie Athletics

Dalhousie's Nginyu Ngala shoots during a game against Acadia on Sunday, Nov. 5, 2023, in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Nginyu Ngala had two choices: either begin his professional career overseas or head south to the United States.

With three years at Dalhousie and one at Laurentian under his belt — in the Canadian U Sports competition, which gives players five years to play — Ngala was pretty sure he would have a fifth year of college basketball eligibility at his disposal if he went stateside.

He had interest from a handful of wide-ranging mid-majors: Florida A&M, Robert Morris, UNLV, a couple schools in the America East Conference closer to his native Montreal, Quebec.

Then Kansas entered the picture.

“I was just juggling between both,” Ngala said, “but I couldn’t pass up on the offer (of) being a Kansas Jayhawk and playing for Bill Self.”

The final piece of KU’s set of 13 scholarship players for the 2025-26 season, Ngala first heard from Self the first week of July, visited Lawrence later on and signed by the end of the month.

The Canadian guard had always dreamed of playing in the U.S. and had the chance to make the leap out of prep school, but didn’t like the opportunities at his disposal then. Instead, he bided his time and embarked on a successful career in U Sports.

“I think my journey is kind of an unconventional path,” Ngala said. “Started off in Canada, played four years there, you know, you don’t usually see guys my size, my situation, go from Canada to the States. It’s been a bumpy road, but I couldn’t have been in a better situation, how it played out now with one year of eligibility left.”

The 5-foot-10 guard is a fully formed player at 26 years old — “He’s the OG of the team, we call him granddad,” fifth-year guard Melvin Council Jr. said — who made a forward-thinking choice with an eye toward his future career prospects inside and outside of basketball.

“I knew that obviously, this is a big, big program, known as a winning school, but I’m also looking for the opportunities after this in the future,” Ngala said. “I just thought being here would help me in my professional career as a basketball player, and after I’m done playing. It was like two birds, one stone.”

Back in the present, chances are that Ngala won’t see the floor a great amount this year. Self has put it pretty straightforwardly: “His value is in practice.”

A role primarily in practice can be pretty important when one is practicing against a potential future No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft. Ngala called Darryn Peterson “a generational talent.”

“We in large part wanted him — now I’m not saying he’s not going to play — but we in large part wanted him because we thought he could be a little guy that could play underneath Darryn in halfcourt offense and stuff like that,” Self said, “because there’ll be plenty of possessions where he’s being guarded by a bigger guard, but now we wanted to have many possessions where he’s guarded by a guy that could play underneath him.

“His value in many ways is making sure that the other guy is ready to go.”

That’s a role well suited for Ngala, who said he sees his job as to “come in, be a leader, bring my experiences from the previous teams I’ve played with, do my job, hit open shots like I’ve been doing — I shot 40% last year (from 3) — push the ball, lead the guys, older voice.”

It took some time for him to accomplish one of those bullet points in particular: growing into the role of a leader on a relatively established team already several months into its offseason training.

“My first two weeks it was kind of like a feel thing, of how am I going to lead into this role that Bill wants me to do, but in my third week he told me, ‘Just be you, do what you been doing, lead the guys with your voice,'” Ngala said. “And I’ve been leading for the last three years now in my role — just lead with humility, lead with experience and lead with a voice. It’s coming along now as we’re coming into the season. I feel like I’ve been more of a voice and outspoken.”

Ngala recorded scoring averages in double figures each of his four years at Canadian universities, and averaged 14.9 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 3.1 assists per game last season at Laurentian. The experience most applicable to his new gig at KU, though, might be his summer spent with the Montreal Alliance of the Canadian Elite Basketball League, a professional team on which he was able to preserve his eligibility by playing as a student.

“For me it was like learning, playing with high-level program guys and guys who played at high-level D-I,” Ngala said. “It actually helped me here with knowing the pick-and-roll game, playing under a G League coach that I had played for over there in Canada. I think it really helped me in terms of mentally and being prepared for bigger guys, bigger guards and just more length on the court.”

The length has been an adjustment for Ngala, as has the greater speed of the American game. On the flip side, time will tell whether opposing teams get exposed to Ngala’s own skills over the course of the season, but he’s certainly made his teammates work this offseason. Council said Ngala is “playing the game the right way, making us think a little bit quicker and faster.”

“I’m not going to lie, Gee has been a perfect group piece for us,” forward Tre White said. “I feel like he pushes in practice, he’ll make us pay for everything when he’s on the scout team … He’ll run off six 3s in a row, he’ll split screens, throw lobs, he definitely keeps us honest when we’re guarding him, going against him and stuff like that.”

Added forward Bryson Tiller: “Gee’s been phenomenal. He’s great on third team, and he just brings a competitive nature every day that we need on our team.”

When it was looking to fill its final roster spot, KU wanted someone with a few baseline skills: a ball handler who could shoot and play with pace. It found Ngala late — even after its other relatively late additions, in Kohl Rosario and Paul Mbiya — through correspondence with agents, and thankfully for Ngala, got him cleared with a waiver through, as he put it, “a lot of back-and-forth with the NCAA.”

“I love his personality,” Self said. “I think it’s terrific. And he wants to be here, and he had opportunities to go to other places, maybe probably have a bigger role. But he knows the time to score, he knows the situation and he can be a nice piece for what we need and he can also be an insurance policy, so to speak, and that’s what he came here for, to be a part of Kansas. I’m really happy that he’s here.”