RALEIGH, N.C. — The last time Rueben Chinyelu saw Khaman Maluach was roughly two years ago in Saly, Senegal. Chinyelu was leaving NBA Academy Africa, an elite basketball training center for the top high school-age prospects on the continent, to attend Washington State University. Less than two dozen students are enrolled in the Academy at a given time, so it is always emotional when one leaves for the United States. Close friends must say goodbye without any sense of when and where they may meet again.
For Chinyelu and Maluach, a long-awaited reunion is happening this weekend in Raleigh, N.C., in the opening rounds of the NCAA Tournament. Maluach, a 7-foot-2 freshman, is the starting center for the No. 1-seeded Duke Blue Devils, who will play No. 16 Mount St. Mary’s on Friday at the Lenovo Center. Chinyelu, a 6-foot-10 sophomore, is the starting center for the No. 1-seeded Florida Gators, who will take the floor right after Duke to face No. 16 Norfolk State. Two other NBA Academy Africa alumni are also in Raleigh: Mount St. Mary’s assistant coach Sidy Sall and Norfolk State sophomore guard Dramane “Ladji” Camara.
Not long ago, Chinyelu and Maluach were at the Academy together, streaming March Madness in the middle of the night (Senegal is four hours ahead of Eastern Time). When they spoke earlier this week, Chinyelu reminded Maluach that they had watched Duke play against North Carolina in the 2022 Final Four. “I was watching that game, but I didn’t know that it was Duke and UNC playing,” Maluach tells Hoops HQ. “We didn’t know the teams and stuff like that.”
Maluach, a projected top-10 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, has averaged 8.3 points, 6.8 rebounds and 1.2 blocks while shooting 69.3 percent from the field. He helped lead the Blue Devils to an ACC Tournament title despite star freshman Cooper Flagg being sidelined by an ankle injury. Chinyelu transferred from Washington State to Florida in the offseason and has averaged 6.1 points and 6.5 rebounds while shooting 60.4 percent from the field. Less than 24 hours after Maluach cut down the nets in Charlotte, Chinyelu got the chance to do the same when the Gators beat Tennessee to claim the SEC Tournament title in Nashville.
“Rueben, Khaman, everyone would talk about what it would be like to play on that stage and how cool it would be to cut down the nets and win a championship,” says Zay West, former athletic performance coach at the Academy. “They were extremely curious about it because it was a world unseen for them. And for them to kind of manifest it some years later, it’s really cool to observe.”
To reach this milestone, Chinyelu and Maluach relied heavily on each other. The daily battles between the two big men in practice and player development sessions were epic. “It was always intense,” Chinyelu tells Hoops HQ. “We were all trying to get each other better because we knew what was ahead of us and our plans. Every day in practice was just a war.”
“And due to that, it led us to this moment,” Maluach adds, “us being on this big stage with big teams and being able to play in March Madness.”
Growing up in Lagos, Nigeria, Chinyelu was six years old when his father passed. His mother emphasized hard work and discipline, particularly in academics. Chinyelu didn’t participate in sports and dreamed of one day becoming a doctor.
His path changed during the summer of 2018. Chinyelu was 14 and helping out at his uncle’s clothing store, attempting to entice customers amid a swarm of vendors, when he was noticed by Idibun Allison, a Nigerian actress in her seventies. Allison was amazed by Chinyelu’s 6-foot-8 stature and encouraged him to give basketball a try. “You could go to school because of basketball,” she told him. “You could further your education.”
Chinyelu had never thought of basketball as a possible ticket to a better education. With Allison’s assistance, he went to the National Stadium in Lagos a few days later and registered to join Raptors Basketball Academy, a prominent program led by coach Charles Ibeziakor.
In Kampala, Uganda, where Maluach was raised after his family fled civil unrest in South Sudan, access to basketball is extremely limited. “We didn’t have many facilities,” Maluach says. “We had one (court) for three or four areas. I wasn’t exposed to the game.”
In January 2020, Maluach was walking down the street when he caught the eye of local basketball coach Akech Wuoi Garang. Maluach, then 13, was rail thin, but he already stood 6-foot-8. At the time, he hadn’t been in school for nearly two years because of high tuition fees. Wuoi Garang arranged for him to attend nearby Bethel Covenant free of charge and join the school’s basketball team. While Maluach had no experience playing basketball, he jumped at the opportunity, thinking more about the academic benefits.
It didn’t take long for both Chinyelu and Maluach to realize that basketball itself could take them places. Stuck at their respective homes during the pandemic, they studied NBA highlights on YouTube and trained however they could. Chinyelu had a strict routine consisting of push-ups, sit-ups, squats, lunges, jump rope and ball handling drills. Maluach would practice his shot using a stack of car tires as a hoop.
Ibeziakor and Wuoi Garang are a part of NBA Academy Africa’s vast network of scouts on the continent, which led to the recruitment of Chinyelu and Maluach. The two arrived at the campus in Saly right around the same time in April 2021. By then, the Academy had built a strong foundation and reputation. Alumni of the program were at Division I colleges throughout the United States. Ibou Badji, a 7-foot-1 center from Senegal, would go on to play in the NBA. Nelly Junior Joseph, a 6-foot-10 center from Nigeria, was at Iona under coach Rick Pitino. Junior Joseph now plays for Pitino’s son Richard at New Mexico, a No. 10 seed in this year’s NCAA Tournament.
Adjusting to life at the Academy isn’t easy, especially for those from outside Senegal. Maluach had never been on a plane before he made the trip from Uganda as a 14-year-old. Courses are taught in English, which many of the students need to learn upon enrolling. The daily schedule is exhausting, beginning with skill development and weightlifting from 7 to 9 a.m. The afternoon is reserved for class and then the players return to the gym at night for at least a two-hour practice.
When the Academy opened in 2018, the staff struggled to get students to intermingle. Cliques formed based on where guys were from until the coaches enforced rules such as assigned seating in the cafeteria. “You have to remember, we have a lot of different guys coming from different countries, so building a brotherhood was something we had to work on,” says Roland Houston, technical director at the Academy. Houston credits a lot of the students from the first couple years, including 7-foot forward Aziz Bandaogo (now a senior at Cincinnati), with helping to establish not just a sense of brotherhood, but a “culture of success, determination and discipline.”
Chinyelu and Maluach “were able to take the culture to another level,” as Houston puts it. Both came in with a refreshing openness to the experience and a burning desire to make the most of it. “They bought in right away to what the academy could do for them individually and collectively,” explains West. “These were two guys who were well aware of the opportunity and potential that they had to become special players and represent their country and their academy.”
Chinyelu, who is three years older, was much stronger than Maluach when they first arrived. Houston initially refrained from matching them up for that reason, even though Maluach wanted the challenge.
Chinyelu slotted in as the team’s starting center, while Maluach came off the bench. In many ways, Chinyelu set the standard for the entire program. He was as intense and hard-working as any Academy prospect. “Rueben’s the type you have to turn down,” says Houston, “but I’d rather have to turn you down then turn you up.” Joe Touomou, former associate technical director at the Academy, used to instruct Chinyelu to bring multiple towels to practice to dry up the puddles of sweat he left on the court.
Chinyelu started reporting to the gym at 5:30 a.m. each morning to work out with Academy coach Alfred Aboya, a ritual they called “vitamin hour.” Eventually other players followed Chinyelu’s lead, including Maluach and 6-foot-11 forward Ulrich Chomche, who now plays for the Toronto Raptors. “He pushed himself so hard,” Touomou says of Chinyelu. “I think that had a huge impact on Khaman and Ulrich, because they kind of said, well, shoot, if this guy’s going to work like that, we have to match that.”
After some time, Maluach was ready to bang with Chinyelu down low. Given their contrasting styles, it made for a compelling matchup. Chinyelu is more of a bruising, forceful big who bullies his opponents. Maluach is taller by four inches and more skilled offensively, with an ability to step out and hit shots from the perimeter. The differences forced them to focus on their individual weaknesses. Touomou says it was “perfect timing” that Chinyelu and Maluach overlapped at the Academy so they could push each other.
The staff could see Maluach’s confidence rising the more he battled with Chinyelu. Along with Chomche, the two were able to train with former NBA player Kyle Korver in the summer of 2022. “When we got back to campus in August, both of them wanted to kind of make their mark as to who was going to be the top dog moving forward,” West recalls.
During one particularly physical practice, Chinyelu dropped a shoulder into Maluach’s chest, threw down a powerful slam, screamed, flexed and head-butted the ball. A frustrated Maluach hurled the ball right back at Chinyelu and the two got in each other’s faces, foreheads touching. There was no altercation beyond that. Instead, as play resumed, Maluach clamored for a touch so he could attack Chinyelu. “We came in for the huddle and our coaches praised the two of them for it,” West says. “Rueben’s job is to make Khaman better. Khaman’s job is to make Rueben better. And the fact that there was still respect to the point where there wasn’t a fight or anything — it was just pure competitiveness.”
They were rivals in practice, but brilliant teammates in games against other programs. Maluach was inserted into the starting lineup alongside Chinyelu and Chomche. With their size and length, they were suffocating on defense and dominated the glass. “Even though we won probably over 90 percent of our games, we were not worried about winning,” says Houston. “I was always worried about development. That’s what it’s about for us.”
When they weren’t training or traveling to tournaments, Chinyelu and Maluach would play video games, shoot pool or have mini dance parties in the Academy’s multi-purpose room. Mostly they would just discuss life, basketball and what the future might hold. “Whenever we would talk about schools, he would be like, ‘Duke would be a good place to go,’” Chinyelu says about Maluach. “I’m so happy for him.”
The two have kept in close touch ever since Chinyelu left for his freshman year at Washington State in 2023. This season, Chinyelu called Maluach after his friend vomited on the Cameroon floor during a game against N.C. State in January. “I got scared, I thought he was sick!” Chinyelu says with a chuckle. “I was like, ‘Yo, what happened, bro?’” They spoke again shortly after Selection Sunday, when they realized they would get the chance to reunite on the stage they always dreamed of being on. “It’s just crazy,” Chinyelu continues. “From watching March Madness to now playing in March Madness — that’s something really beautiful.”
