Akok Akok has spent one season at WVU, and despite his health scare early on, he’s gotten back on the court and found his joy in the game in his final season of eligibility.
“We play this great game, and I feel like sometimes through my college career I took things for granted,” Akok said in December. “When I went down with these injuries- it comes full circle. You’ve just got to appreciate everything that’s given to you, and that’s just the type of person I am.”
In the coming weeks, Akok will end his fifth and final NCAA season as two things he has never done so as before: healthy and a Mountaineer.
A college graduate from Georgetown University, Akok earned the luxury to choose the ladder. The NCAA’s postgraduate transfer rules, implemented in 2022, allow graduated players with a fifth year of eligibility to transfer to any institution and without the restraints of the transfer window.
For Akok, this rule gave him the full freedom of choice, despite having already transferred from UConn to Georgetown after his junior season. In four years as a student athlete, that choice was something Akok often lacked, primarily due to injuries.
As a freshman for the UConn Huskies in 2020, Akok’s first season ended abruptly, but not in the same way others’ did that year. Before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the NCAA season, an Achilles tear put an end to Akok’s.
Averaging 28 minutes per contest as an up-and-coming 6’9″ forward, Akok played just one minute against the Memphis Tigers. After a successful block, Akok came down on his left Achilles tendon, and though he would return to the bench soon after, he would not return to the court for nearly 11 months.
Akok averaged four minutes per in seven games as a sophomore but did not play in UConn’s final five games of the season, which included an NCAA Tournament loss to Maryland. Akok battled injuries as a junior but played in 23 contests, averaging 14 minutes per game.
After playing two minutes in an NCAA Tournament loss to New Mexico State, Akok opted to transfer for his senior season to Georgetown. He played 30 minutes per game in started in all 31 of his season appearances, but even then, Akok was hit with the unpredictable and was unable to play in the Hoyas’ Big East Tournament loss to Villanova.
Georgetown coach Patrick Ewing was fired immediately following the tournament loss. Shortly after, Akok chose to enter the portal and landed as one of Josh Eilert’s West Virginia Mountaineers.
Even then, Akok’s time at his chosen destination did not begin as planned. For one thing, reports had Akok as one player recruited to WVU by former Mountaineer guard Jose Perez. Akok played high school basketball with Perez at Putnam Science Academy in Connecticut.
Far more shocking in Akok’s early stages as a Mountaineer, though, was his first game.
In the Mountaineers’ annual charity exhibition game, played this year against George Mason, Akok suddenly collapsed on the court and was rushed to the Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown.
Details remain unclear as to why the event occurred, but Akok remained at the hospital through Saturday. He did not make his season debut until the team’s eighth game of the season, but, after starting with few minutes, Akok appears to have made a full recovery.
“When something like what happened to me happens, the necessary precautions that are being taken, you just gotta follow it, but my teammates, they had me the whole time, just uplifting me every day through practice,” Akok said.
“I know the process of coming back. You can’t just come back 30 minutes a game. They’ll build you up, so (I was) just trusting the coaching staff, the medical team, and my teammates, just getting back to what I was.”
Injuries aside, the unpredictable did continue for Akok. When fifth year center Jesse Edwards suffered a wrist injury, Akok was asked to step up to the plate as WVU’s primary center. Despite his current 6’10” height, Akok almost exclusively plays the power forward position, but he was up to the challenge of learning something new.
“When (Edwards) went down, I didn’t know immediately that he would be out that timeframe for that injury, but once I knew what was going on, I knew I had to step up,” Akok said.
“When I first came here, one of the first things coach said was ‘you got to guard multiple positions and play the four and the five.’ When Jesse comes out of the game, just slide me in at the five so he can get his rest, so I think I’m just living up to the expectations.”
As the season comes to a close, Akok’s one-year journey in Morgantown was eventful but is set to end with positivity. In 21 games, Akok has made seven starts and averages 3.2 points, 2.7 rebounds, and one block in 14.2 minutes per game. The relationship Akok has grown with the community also stands in a great place.
“I love putting smiles on the fans’ faces. They’re the ones that come out and watch us play, support us, give us our energy, so I love coming in every day and giving them my all,” Akok said.
Akok Akok walks as a senior Mountaineer on WVU Men’s Basketball’s senior night on Wednesday at the WVU Coliseum. Tip-off against TCU is 7 p.m.
Photo by Aaron Parker, Blue Gold Sports
