Oso Ighodaro never expected any of this.
The 6-foot-9 forward showed up to Marquette’s campus as a 205-pound boy in 2020, but left as a 235-pound, 6-foot-11 man in the spring of 2024. From playing 38 total minutes his first year with the program, to playing 32.5 minutes a night his senior season, Ighodaro’s career has been a living testimony to what happens when you put your head down and work.
“I didn’t really have any expectations when I got here,” he said. “I didn’t know who I was yet, I didn’t know what kind of player I was going to be, just got here and had some incredible people in my life to help me along the way.”
Despite the Big East championships, the thousands of points, All-Big East selections and countless notable moments Ighodaro had during his time with the Golden Eagles, it’s the process that he will remember the most.
“Everything, honestly,” Ighodaro said about what he learned at Marquette. “From learning how not to play and how to be when you’re not playing, how to work, how to interact with your teammates, how to be coachable.
“[I] feel like I learned everything as a player here. I went through all four phases of being a player, not playing, starter, role player, so, super grateful for my experiences here.”
Marquette announced in December that Ighodaro would be the school’s 78th Annual McCahill Award winner, the highest honor an MU student-athlete can receive.
The Phoenix Suns rookie, who had some free time on his hands with the NBA being on its all-star break, was honored on the court Tuesday night during Marquette’s 80-56 win over Seton Hall.
“He didn’t come in here and necessarily get anointed anything,” Marquette head coach Shaka Smart said. “He was playing behind Theo John, he was playing behind Dawson Garcia, he was playing behind Justin Lewis. He played 38 minutes total his entire freshman year, and he certainly had his version of hell week with us in April of 2021 when he was deciding whether this was the place for him with the new coaching staff, and we’re obviously so grateful that he decided that it was, but he’s a special player.
“Throughout the year, I think about him and Tyler [Kolek] all the time. You know, we don’t have them, and we have to move on. You try to be the best you can be with who you have, but you don’t necessarily replace guys like that because they’re just, they’re unique guys.”
Ighodaro reflects on his first five months in the NBA
The Chandler, Arizona native went from playing around 34 games a year to the grind of an 82-game season in the NBA.
“The number of games is something that, as a fan or someone that’s not in the NBA, you kind of think, ‘Yeah, 82, that’s a lot of games,'” Ighodaro said. “You kind of glaze over that, but when you’re in the moment and on the team, it’s a lot more games than you think.
“Just being mentally tough enough to go through a whole season is something that I respect every guy in the NBA for so, being a part of that and knowing what my job entails is definitely something different that I wasn’t expecting.”
Ighodaro has appeared in 41 of Phoenix’s 54 games so far this season, averaging 3.5 points and 3.2 rebounds per game.
Oso talks about playing Tyler Kolek for the first time
On Nov. 20, the Suns welcomed the New York Knicks to the PHX Arena. It was the first time that Ighodaro would face his former teammate Tyler Kolek.
“It was definitely funny,” Ighodaro said. “Even in warmups, he was trying to look at me and I was trying not to look at him, I was trying to be locked in. Then, we ended up being on the floor at the same time and he was talking to me of course, you know how Tyler is. I was trying to avoid interacting with him so I could be locked in because we were losing. He was trying to make me laugh.”
There is no doubt the duo of Kolek and Ighodaro will be remembered fondly by Marquette fans. The pair teamed up to help the Golden Eagles to a 75-30 record across their three years together, including earning a pair of two seeds in the NCAA Tournament and capturing Big East regular season and tournament championships in 2022-23.
“It’s special, sharing the court with him at that level after all the battles we went through at Marquette,” Ighodaro said. “That’s a bond that will never be broken, so it’s super special, I’m proud of him.
“I’m probably gonna see him soon I’m assuming. Hopefully, we can do a jersey swap, that’d be cool.”
This story was written by Matthew Baltz. He can be reached at matthew.baltz@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @MatthewBaltzMU.
