November 2nd, 2024. The UBC Thunderbirds are taking on the Trinity Western Spartans in their 2024-25 home opener. The T-Birds jump out to a double-digit lead in the first quarter, en route to an eventual 99-78 victory.
In the final minute of the first,
Kashie Ugoji checks into the game, marking his first career Canada West appearance. The 6'5 guard hits a catch-and-shoot triple in front of his own bench early in the second, before being subbed back out after four minutes of game time. It's his only action of the night.
On the surface, those four minutes seem pretty straightforward. But for Ugoji, they were a culmination of a years-long journey of pain, recovery and perseverance, the fruits of which are finally now beginning to be seen out on the court.
Ugoji didn't grow up a basketball fan. As a kid in Calgary, his first love was soccer. It wasn't until after he started high school that he switched to being basketball-first, a decision fueled by his peers (as well as a timely growth spurt).
"I think all my friends just started playing," says Ugoji. "And since all your friends are playing, obviously you don't want to be the one dude that isn't. So, I just started shifting my interest, and I realized I really like basketball."
Not too long after that, he began to catch some eyes from university coaches during the 2019-20 season, his Grade 11 year. He benefitted from playing on a very strong team at Western Canada High School, where his teammates included fellow future Thunderbird
Tobi Akinkunmi, who was a grade above him.
One of those who took notice of the young player was UBC head coach Kevin Hanson, who saw Ugoji play in-person while on a scouting trip to Calgary. It wasn't long before he was on Hanson's recruiting list.
"He was everything in a package that we were looking for at the time," says Hanson. "A taller wing guy that could play multiple positions, a guy that could defend multiple positions. But the more you talk to him you just realize what a good human being, what a great person this guy is, and someone that we automatically wanted in our program."
That early attention paid off, as Ugoji's senior season was lost due to the pandemic. It wasn't an easy time to be a high school athlete trying to find a landing spot at the U SPORTS level – coaches couldn't get any recent game film, and players couldn't make the same type of visits they might have otherwise.
"It was a little different, for sure," Ugoji remarks. "But I knew that Tobi had a great experience at UBC so far in his first year, and he was telling me good things. So, I was like okay, Vancouver's close, UBC's a great school, this seems like the right decision."
The 2021-22 UBC Thunderbirds
The 2021-22 season was Ugoji's first on campus. Cracking the rotation as a first-year player on a team as strong as the T-Birds isn't easy – especially for someone who missed his senior season of high school – so he and the coaching staff both agreed it would be best for him to redshirt.
Everything went as planned the first term. Ugoji worked hard in practice, began his studies as an Economics major, and rooted on his teammates from the sidelines. But in a practice that January, he suddenly went down with an injury to his right leg. A trip to the hospital gave the hammer blow: he'd torn his Achilles tendon.
All of a sudden, what had been to that point a great first year on campus gave way to pain and uncertainty. On top of trying to process the diagnosis of his first-ever serious injury, Ugoji worried whether he'd even have the option to return to the court at UBC.
"One of the first things I thought about was, 'am I gonna get cut from the team? Is this it?' I'm thinking, I'm 18, I just got here. I didn't even really play. I wouldn't fully blame [Hanson] if he just cut me after I tear my Achilles. But he reassured me, saying that no, you're gonna be fine…and hearing that right away put so much relief on my shoulders."
While important, that comfort of knowing he still had a place on the team didn't make the rest of the immediate aftermath easy. Ugoji was hundreds of kilometres away from his family, and after his surgery couldn't even walk, much less get himself on a plane to fly home – and that's even putting aside the fact that school was in session.
Thankfully, he was given a lifeline in the form of then-teammate Oliver Munt, whose family took him in for around a month. There, he was fed and taken care of, and better able to start his recovery. That, combined with the support of his own family as well as the rest of the Thunderbirds' staff and team, helped fuel him through the long road back to being fit to play.
"At that point in time when your whole world is crashing down, it's so important you have a group of people who care about you," states Ugoji.
Ugoji after his Achilles surgery (2022)
While he initially aimed to be back in practice by September, ahead of the 2022-23 season, that proved to be too optimistic of a goal. It wasn't until January of 2023, a year after his injury, that Ugoji was back in practice. At that point though, it was too late in the season to have enough time to ramp up into game action. Another redshirt stung, but he could at least take solace in the fact that he would have plenty of time to get ready for the following year.
That is, until, disaster struck just a couple months later. Once again, Ugoji crumpled to the floor during a practice. This time, he knew instantly what had happened – he'd torn his other Achilles.
"I still remember it exactly," says Hanson. "Down at the far end of the gym, just running away from the hoop, and he just went down…he started slapping the ground and he knew exactly what he'd done. And then he sat there, tears coming down his face."
"The flashback of everything that had happened the prior year came back to me, it was like my worst nightmare came true," recalls Ugoji. "You always have thoughts in the back of your mind like, 'imagine this happened again haha', and now it's actually happening. It almost felt like this cruel joke."
Back to the hospital. Waiting to receive a diagnosis to confirm what he already knew. The daunting prospect of another surgery, another year or more of pain and tedious rehab. Another season lost, months before it even began.
For the first time, the thought of whether he should walk away from basketball seriously entered his mind. Sitting in the hospital waiting room, a distraught Ugoji allowed himself to verbalize those feelings.
"I'm just thinking to myself like, 'I think this might be it. This might be a sign to just hang it up.' Like, what are the odds of this happening to someone twice at the age of 20? Unheard of…But that was the only time I think I ever said that. After that day I realized, nah, I've done too much. I've already gone through this once. It would be an insult to myself to stop now, because otherwise the past year would have just been for nothing."
Rehabbing an Achilles tear isn't a fun process. The first time, Ugoji went into it blind. The second time, he knew exactly what was in store. Calf raises? You'll learn just about every possible way to do one. Walking around? Wait a couple months before you can do that regularly, and not too comfortably either. Don't even think about jogging, that's ages away.
For the most part, the beginning of 2022 until the spring of 2024 was a nearly constant period of injury recovery. Ugoji remained through it all a committed teammate and student, never taking his eyes off the goal of getting back on the court.
"He's the epitome of a team guy," says Hanson. "He was always in, working on his game. He was always going to be there to rebound with somebody…I think he's helped us be a better team and believe in ourselves, because here's a guy that wants it so bad, and never takes for granted the opportunities he has, because of being denied those opportunities with his injuries."
Eventually, that resiliency began to pay off. When the Thunderbirds flew down to Mexico for an exhibition tournament in August of 2024, Ugoji was fully healthy and eager to play, and finally saw some true game action.
Ugoji playing in an exhibition game in Mexico (2024)
That was followed by a couple brief stints off the bench against U SPORTS opposition over the rest of the exhibition games. Then, he got his first taste of Canada West play against Trinity Western. He says that he wasn't nervous when he checked into the game, but he certainly was excited.
"It was awesome," he admits. "Because I'd always been thinking about and waiting for that moment. I'd been thinking about that for years, waiting to finally make my debut, wondering what that was going to feel like. And it was amazing."
It hasn't been all smooth sailing this season though, as Ugoji occupies a very unique place in the team's hierarchy. On one hand, he stands as one of the longest-tenured players on the roster. On the other, this fall was his first time playing competitive basketball for over four years, dating back to his Grade 11 season.
While he got the taste of a few minutes in the home opener, both he and the coaching staff knew he wouldn't be thrown fully into the fire right away.
"It's been tough for him to crack into the lineup," explains Hanson. "There's guys that have been ahead of him for a few years, and we weren't quite sure exactly where he was. It takes a long time when you haven't played a game in four years."
So, Ugoji kept working in practice, and waited patiently for his next opportunity.
Ugoji in action against the Calgary Dinos (2024)
November 23rd, 2024. The UBC Thunderbirds are taking on the Calgary Dinos at home, in a battle of two of the top-ranked teams in the country. Missing a couple rotation players, and trying to snap a three-game losing skid, Ugoji is tapped to join the gameday roster against his hometown school. It's his first time dressing for a game since the home opener.
Checking into the game late in the first quarter, UBC's #12 spends his first defensive possession guarding Dinos star Nate Petrone, the highest-scoring player in Canada West. Soon after, Ugoji hits a buzzer-beating three-pointer to end the opening frame. Sent in for key defensive possessions in crunch time, he ends the game with two straight individual stops to help close out a 93-89 victory in front of nearly 1,500 fans.
In all, Ugoji recorded six points, two rebounds, two steals and two blocks in 15 minutes of work. His most valuable contribution in the eyes of Hanson was his tenacious defence – providing the Thunderbirds with the ability to bring a lockdown defender off the bench.
Ugoji followed up his Calgary performance with another 17 minutes off the bench against UBC Okanagan the following weekend, in the final game before the winter break. He put up a very similar statline of six points, two boards and two steals in a blowout 93-50 win.
"I'm thrilled for him to have the success that he had going into the break," says the UBC bench boss. "There was always hope that this was going to happen, and now all of a sudden, he showed us that it can happen…He's found a niche within our team as to an invaluable attribute that he can be for us."
Ugoji says he doesn't model his game after any particular player, and wants to have a do-it-all type of impact, the potential for which has shown through in his minutes so far.
The energy on the defensive end is evident, and while he describes himself as naturally a slasher on offence, most of his shots so far have been three-pointers, where he's hit four of six in his three games. That outside shooting is a part of his game that Hanson watched him work on a lot during his injury rehab, and is another aspect of his emergence as an option off the bench.
"It was great knowing that my efforts and hard work that I put in prior to that point were being rewarded in some way," Ugoji shares, on how it felt to have a sizable role in each of the last two games before the break. "I'm obviously happy that I was able to play, but I'm more so happy that that we were able to end the term on those two wins. That's what really made me happy – feeling that I contributed directly to our team's success."
The Thunderbirds have lofty goals as a team this season, as the hosts of the 2025 INDOCHINO U SPORTS Women's & Men's Final 8 Basketball Championships, presented by Victory Creative Group. Ugoji knows that the fight for minutes will remain a competitive one, on a deep UBC team that's seen 14 different players take the court in conference play so far this season.
"My goal is for us to win nationals," he says. "Personally though, I just want to leave everything out there. I want to say that I gave everything I could have, and regardless of the result, I'm happy with that…regardless of what that looks like in terms of the role I'm given, I just want to do it to the max."
Of course, there's also an emphasis on keeping healthy now that he's made it back to this point, and Ugoji makes sure to take care of himself as best he can in all aspects. That includes meticulous stretching and mobility exercises before practices and games, cooking the majority of his own food and eating healthy, and mental preparations before games to try and not get too high or too low.
Above all, Ugoji keeps a positive attitude and is grateful to be able to be a varsity athlete – able to run and jump and play after going through such long periods where he couldn't do any of those things.
"Now that I'm in this opportunity where I can actually play, I've realized how much of a blessing it is to just be able to play basketball," he says with a smile. "Maybe I'm frustrated that I missed a shot, maybe I'm frustrated that I made a bad read, but I've realized that I can't be too upset at myself because I'm living the dream right now…I'm at one of the best institutions in the world, and I'm on one of the best basketball teams in the country. So at the end of the day, it's always a W. Life's good."
