This Panthers senior is the nation’s leading shot-blocker. And he is at home with FIU

The nation’s leading shot blocker — FIU senior Osasumwen Osaghae — sits in a black leather lounge chair inside his coach’s spacious office, his long legs stretched out seemingly endlessly and pointed toward the 50-inch TV on the back wall.

FIU coach Jeremy Ballard has invited a guest to watch tape along with Osaghae, who is averaging an extraordinary 3.96 blocks per game even though his listed height, 6-9, is three-to-five inches shorter than the first two players chasing him on the national stat sheet.

“Stop it there, ‘Zay’,” Ballard says to assistant director of basketball operations Zavier Anderson, who is running the tape. “Play it back.”

The tape, on one particular play, reveals Osaghae switched out on a Middle Tennessee guard. Osaghae, inviting a perimeter shot, plays off about six feet. But, because of his long arms — he has a 7-foot, 3-inch wingspan — and his superior anticipation skills, Osaghae blocks a 3-point attempt, which leads to his dunk on the other end.

Ballard explains that — unlike most every other program in the nation — FIU switches on all ball screens, which means Osaghae defends everyone from super-quick guards to skyscraper-tall centers and everything in between. In addition, FIU plays man defense 99.9 percent of the time, so Osaghae’s blocks happen all over the court.

“No disrespect to anyone else, but, in my humble opinion, ‘O’ is the most impactful, versatile and best defensive player in the country,” Ballard said. “I don’t think there’s any defender who is asked to do as much as O.

“If people just follow the stats, they could assume that O is just hanging around the basket, blocking shots. But that couldn’t be any further from the truth. He is involved in the press. He is guarding some of the best scorers in the league on the perimeter, contesting jump shots as well as protecting the paint.”

And, as good as Osaghae is at basketball, the story of how he got to this place in his career may be even better.

BORN LEADER

Osaghae’s name in Nigerian means: “God leads me”.

He was born in Miami just 20 days after his parents — 5-foot-11 Osasumwen Sr. and 6-1 Martina — moved from Nigeria.

At nine pounds, five ounces and 24 inches long, Osaghae was a large baby. He was a soccer enthusiast as a youth, but Martina virtually forced him to play basketball after he had grown to 6-4 by his freshman year of high school.

She took him to a basketball camp hosted by Heat coach Erik Spoelstra. Osaghae, who split his time during those years between Robert Morgan Educational Center for his academics and near-by Miami Southridge for basketball, played JV and some varsity ball as a sophomore.

Undisciplined with his eating habits back then, Osaghae’s weight ballooned so much that he stopped stepping on a scale.

John Herron, who was Southridge’s coach at the time, said Osaghae quit basketball as a junior.

“He thought I was too hard on him,” Herron said. “He wanted to transfer to Palmetto, but his parents didn’t want him to leave Robert Morgan for his academics.

“I used to tell [Osaghae] that he cost us two state titles. I had two guards who went on to play college basketball [Raquan Mitchell and Canaan Bartley], but I didn’t have a dominant center.”

As a senior, Osaghae returned to Southridge, but he often found himself benched for not running enough in practice, Herron said.

“I tried to get him in shape,” Herron said. “I told him, ‘I can get you a scholarship and you can be a superstar because you can run and jump. But you’re too fat.”

After graduating from high school, Osaghae finally got on a scale, and he was shocked to discover he weighed 300 pounds.

“I knew I was heavy, but I was scared of the truth,” Osaghae said. “I didn’t want to read what number it was, but, when I saw it, I had to acknowledge that I was overweight. I had to get serious. It was holding me back.”

That summer, over four months, Osaghae lost between nearly 60 pounds with a no-carbs diet. He walked on at FIU and made the team under then-coach Anthony Evans.

GIFTED FAMILY

Osaghae, 21, the third of five children, has a lawyer father and a social worker mother. Osaghae has two older sisters, Aiseosa and Karen, who are on track to become lawyers.

His brother, Mark, is a 5-11 forward on the Johnson & Wales soccer team. Their youngest brother, Victor, is 6-foot-2 at age 14, and his parents want him to try basketball, too.

The family is close, and they make it to FIU as often as possible to root for Osaghae, who played just four games as a freshman.

In 27 games as a sophomore Osaghae had modest numbers — 3.3 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.2 blocks in the final year under Evans.

Before Ballard took the job to replace Evans, he watched a lot of FIU tape to see the talent he would inherit.

“[Osaghae] jumped out to me,” Ballard said. “His stats weren’t eye-popping, but that’s because he never really got the ball. I saw that he was aggressive at protecting the rim. He was good vertically, and I looked at things like blocked shots per 40 minutes.

“I was shocked to find out he was a walk-on. It only took a game or two of film study to know he was the best big man at FIU.”

Even so, Osaghae — as a walk-on who felt he deserved to be on scholarship — was running out of patience. After his first meeting with Ballard, Osaghae contemplated a transfer.

“I didn’t know the new coaches, and I was thinking the worst,” Osaghae said. “I’m kind of a realist. As much as I believe in myself, the new coaches owed me nothing. If I couldn’t get this scholarship, I had to have a backup plan.”

FIU assistant coach Joey Rodriguez, sensing Osaghae’s impatience, ran out to the parking lot. He let Osaghae know that he was wanted at FIU, and to trust the coaches.

The next day, in front of the entire team, Ballard announced that Osaghae would be getting that long-awaited scholarship.

“It made me feel great,” Osaghae said. “I almost cried. But I waited until later [to cry].”

BREAKING THROUGH

Osaghae rewarded FIU with excellent production as a junior. He ranked fourth in the nation in blocks (3.1). He finished third in Conference USA in rebounds (8.5) and first in offensive boards (3.2) while scoring 8.5 points.

This season, Osaghae is averaging a career-high 13.2 points and 8.4 rebounds.

Now fit at 235 pounds, Osaghae has become a big part of FIU’s offense. When he sets a screen and rolls to the basket, he tends to draw two defenders, resulting in numerous open shots for FIU teammates.

Osaghae, who earned a bachelor’s degree in business management in December and is now working on his master’s, would love a chance at pro ball after this season.

“A year ago, I couldn’t even imagine me being the No. 1 shot-blocker in the country,” Osaghae said. “Hopefully, after this season, I will have a good opportunity.”

And even if pro basketball doesn’t happen, Osaghae figures to have a bright future. He loves numbers and has managed to save almost all the money he has been gifted or earned since his seventh birthday.

“He hasn’t spent a penny of it,” Martina said with a laugh. “He is a business man. If he gives me money, he says I have to pay him back with interest.

“My son will definitely be rich. He knows how to use money.”

This story was originally published February 12, 2020 at 12:47 PM.