AK Okereke is Vanderbilt Basketball's Best Story. He's Also a Reminder That Nobody Should Give Up.
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NASHVILLE—AK Okereke had just finished the 20-minute walk back to his dorm building from Cornell’s Newman Arena when he realized that he’d just made a freshman mistake. Okereke had left his ID in his room, something that he’d yet to do through the first few months of school. It appeared as if the freshman economics major had made the mistake at the worst possible time, too.
As a result of his mistake, Okereke–who has started 12 of Vanderbilt’s 13 games in his final season of eligibility– had to sit in his thoughts as he waited for someone to come open the door for him.
The segment of shooting drills in Cornell’s open walk-on tryouts–which was the last portion of the tryout–wasn’t kind to Okereke. The player that took the floor that day didn’t appear to look the part of a potential SEC player that will easily hold up physically or a guy that would command a significant NIL deal out of the transfer portal. In some ways that aligned with the perception of Okereke at that point.
Then-Cornell assistant Jon Jaques remembers liking Okereke’s handle and passing ability as a high schooler, but that he often thought that Okereke “couldn’t really shoot and didn’t really try to score.” In the end, the Cornell staff was involved in Okereke’s limited recruiting process but opted not to support Okereke through admissions.
“We essentially decided he wasn’t good enough,” Jaques told Vandy on SI. “We told him that and moved on.”
Jaques told Okereke that if basketball was really important to him, he should go somewhere else because there was “no guarantee” that things would work out for him at Cornell. The Okereke’s are academics by nature, though. Okereke’s older sister went to UCLA. His older brother went to Harvard. His two younger brothers will likely go to prolific academic schools, as well.
The now-Vanderbilt forward loaded up on his math classes in high school and took Calc 2 as a senior in high school in order to bypass some math courses in college. Despite Jaques’ lack of guarantees, Okereke chose Cornell over UCLA as a high schooler–albeit with largely academic reasons in mind.
Okereke never gave up on the idea that he’d be a college basketball player, though. He admits that part of his thinking in selecting Cornell was that there was a “much higher” chance that he could find his way onto its roster as a walk-on than if he had gone to UCLA. At the last second, Okereke opted to defer his admission into Cornell in order to attend prep school to give himself one last chance at an offer. Although the year in prep school didn’t result in an offer, it was “really important” in Okereke’s development. It still appeared as if all this was going to entail was an education for Okereke, though.
But when Okereke arrived at Cornell, he noticed that Jaques’ tone had shifted. A Cornell player had “quit” the team prior to Okereke’s freshman year and opened up the possibility that the California native would find his way onto the roster if he got a break. Okereke still appeared to believe that he’d blown his chance with a few subpar shooting drills at the end of his tryout, though.
“I was kind of thinking ‘that was the last thing they’re gonna remember,’” Okereke told Vandy on SI. “Like, a recency bias type of thing.”
Turns out Okereke would go on to do far more memorable things on the floor at Newman Arena than what he did in those shooting segments, though. He’d go on to score 13.9 points per game and average 4.1 assists per game in his junior season. He’d go on to start 30 games. He’d also go on to become one of just a few of its power-five transfers over the last few seasons.
Okereke was coming to terms with the potential reality that those things may not have been for him as he sat outside his dorm building and received a call from Jaques.
“Come back to practice, we’re about to practice,” Jaques–who was told by former Cornell head coach Brian Earl to “call AK and tell him to come back for practice”--told him.
The second Jaques hung up the phone, Okereke ran–maybe literally–towards Newman Arena. Okereke still wasn’t on the team officially but he was finally with the team daily. The Cornell freshman finally had a chance to demonstrate that the abilities that allowed him to become a third-team all-state player in California could translate to college basketball.
Then, the call came a few weeks later. Okereke had finally found his way onto the roster.
“That moment was pretty cool,” Okereke said, “Just to have bettered myself and have had it work out.”
Okereke always had the tools to become a college basketball player. He was the best player on his freshman team as a 6-foot teenager. He was a 6-foot-4 junior that was making a nightly impact on varsity. He was a 22.3 point scorer as a senior. That wasn’t necessarily what was important to him, though.
Even when Okereke considered taking a Division-II program up on an offer for him to play basketball there, he admits that “realistically” his mom wouldn’t have allowed him to do that. Okereke has channelled his competitive nature into academics for the entirety of his life and believes that “generally speaking” it’s one of the best indicators of future success in life. The now-Vanderbilt wing considers himself to be a “math guy” and appeared to be content with that label long term.
“Previous to my junior year, I really didn’t have the goal of playing college basketball,” Okereke said. “It was more of ignorance. I didn’t understand what really went into it. I think if you were to ask me ‘how would you play college basketball?’ I would think ‘just play well in your high school season and coaches will somehow find you and reach out to you.’ I think I was just completely unaware of the camps, how the recruiting process worked and I didn’t realize how important that was.”
As a result, Okereke’s contact with college coaches almost always ended in each coach ending up with another player and halting their contact with Okereke. The then high-school senior believed that a look at his game was good enough to give him a chance. He didn’t know any better in regard to all the other pieces of the recruiting process.
Okereke’s brother Ike knew ever since he started watching Okereke closely throughout Okereke’s junior year in high school that he was “just as talented” as anyone and that there was always a possibility of him taking this thing to the next level. Ike admits that his brother was relatively raw as a junior in high school, but that it was “easy” for him to see Okereke’s ability. It was particularly easy as Okereke consistently knocked off Ike–who played in the United Kingdom’s most prestigious college basketball league–in 1-on-1.
Perhaps Ike didn’t always understand why his brother–who he says had “good pace, a good handle,” was “very long “ and “pretty athletic”--wasn’t a highly-desired player by college staffs and he believed that his brother would eventually find a way.
Turns out Okereke would prove his brother right with a career that would end with one of the most in Cornell history and an SEC scholarship.
“It’s pretty crazy, it’s miraculous in many senses,” Ike told Vandy on SI in regard to Okereke’s journey. “It was definitely an inspiring journey to watch, for sure.”
In a reflective moment in which others may have been overtaken by emotion, Okereke is uniquely level-headed and articulate in regard to what it’s taken to get here. Perhaps the biggest sign of Okereke’s maturity in the midst of his final college season–which he’s playing at Vanderbilt as a result of his ability to graduate from Cornell in three years–is the humility that he demonstrates as he discusses what’s contributed to his rise.
Those around Okereke believe that the reflection is on brand for the Vanderbilt forward, though. Ike says Okereke is a “very devout Catholic Christian” and that his faith “informs his approach to basketball and academics.” As Okereke thinks back on how this has all played out for him, he has a hard time avoiding the role of Divine intervention in his journey.
“There's so many times in which things that are out of my control just happen to kind of perfectly work out and perfectly fall into place,” Okereke said. “I really just kind of think of Jesus Christ, and I think he's kind of always been there, guiding me along the way. It’s hard for me to be like ‘this is all me.’ I knew this is all gonna come. But for me putting faith in Jesus Christ and kind of asking him to to help me throughout the entire process is something that I've kind of leaned on.”
Okereke says parts of his journey—namely experiencing the walk-on life, where he was often subjected to the end of the bench. Humility is a guiding part of the story for Okereke, though. The Vanderbilt forward’s parents always wanted him to understand that everything he did should be done in faith.
The Okerekes believe heavily in academics, but they believe more in praying together, going to church on Sundays–and on certain weekdays. It’s a belief system that has been present for the Vanderbilt forward since he was young. It doesn’t appear to be going away now that his college basketball journey is in its final stages, either.
Okereke has always considered him a confident person–partially because of his faith–but says that “a lot of people” around him had more confidence that an outcome like this could happen for him than he did. It appears as if he had enough belief to make it happen, though.
“I’m obviously super grateful to be in this position,” Okereke said. “I don’t want to take anything for granted.”
As Okereke caught it in the corner and knocked down a shot from 3-point range to reach seven points in a game that he would eventually score a season-high 17 points in, he didn’t have the look of a former Ivy League walk-on.
What Okereke has been through and the path he’s taken to get here isn’t all that difficult for those around Vanderbilt’s program to see when they take his 6-foot-7 frame out of the picture, though.
“There's not a lot of entitlement to a guy like AK, all he's done is work for everything he has,” Vanderbilt assistant coach Rick Ray told Vandy on SI over the summer. “That's also the way he plays. I think he could've scored more points for Cornell, but that's not who he is. He looks to score, but he also wants to do what's best for the team so the fact that you have a guy like that who looks like an NFL tight end, but also can pass the ball and dribble the ball, I'm just excited about the versatility.”
Okerke’s background also hasn’t hindered Vanderbilt from making him a focal point as it’s gotten out to a 14-0 start. The Cornell transfer has started 13 of the Commodores’ 14 games, averaging 8.4 points per game, 3.7 rebounds per game and 1.9 assists per game while shooting 50.6% from the field. Vanderbilt head coach Mark Byington also describes Okereke as the engine that makes this thing go defensively.
Byington also uses an NFL position to describe what stands out about Okereke, although he believes the Cornell transfer is more reminiscent of a defensive end than a tight end. The Vanderbilt head coach is perhaps Okereke’s biggest believer and brought the physical wing in with the intention that he’d be used in ways that he hadn’t been previously.
“He is as solid as you can get,” Byington told Vandy on SI. “He’s physical and has a little bit of an old-school game.”
Okereke is an older soul by nature–which reflects in his play–but represents a success story made possible in the transfer portal era. The Vanderbilt forward will end all this with degrees from Cornell and Vanderbilt as well as a resume that can set him up for a professional career when this is all said and done.
Perhaps he can end it by winning some meaningful games down the stretch, too.
“I think that’s a very unique story,” Vanderbilt assistant Xavier Joyner said. “I think that’s a story that’s going to be covered among the mass media this year because that kid is really talented.”
_(1)-b3e453dfe426b2dd4b83a12540ebdb37.jpeg "Joey Dwyer")
Joey Dwyer is the lead writer on Vanderbilt Commodores On SI. He found his first love in college sports at nearby Lipscomb University and decided to make a career of telling its best stories. He got his start doing a Notre Dame basketball podcast from his basement as a 14-year-old during COVID and has since aimed to make that 14-year-old proud. Dwyer has covered Vanderbilt sports for three years and previously worked for 247 Sports and Rivals. He contributes to Seth Davis' Hoops HQ, Southeastern 16 and Mainstreet Nashville.
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