SMU’s Semi Ojeleye has endured a tumultuous 23-month layoff since he last played a game. (AP) One of college basketball’s most star-crossed players can’t help but chuckle at his hard-luck career path.
He left Duke in search of more playing time four months before the Blue Devils won the 2015 national title. He arrived at SMU just in time for the NCAA to uncover academic impropriety and declare the Mustangs postseason-ineligible. He then voluntarily delayed his return to game action another 11 months, only to have the hall-of-fame coach who recruited him to SMU abruptly quit in July.
Hardly anything has gone right for Semi Ojeleye since his college basketball career began, but you’d never know it from his relentlessly positive attitude. The skilled 6-foot-8 forward remains confident he can turn his tale of woe into one of redemption as soon as his agonizing 23-month wait to play again finally ends next month.
“You could say I’ve been unlucky because of everything that has happened, but I believe God has a plan for me,” Ojeleye said. “Lately I’ve learned not to ask why, but to just learn from it and take what I can from it. I still believe that everything will work out for the best.”
A reversal of fortune is a realistic possibility for Ojeleye given the combination of talent, work ethic and opportunity he possesses. With SMU graduating three-time all-league point guard Nic Moore and standout forwards Markus Kennedy and Jordan Tolbert, Ojeleye has the chance to emerge as one of the centerpieces of a revamped team still expected to contend in the American Athletic Conference.
What’s especially encouraging about Ojeleye for SMU is the combo forward’s offensive versatility. Whereas Ojeleye was once only a threat to score via lobs above the rim or catch-and-shoot jumpers, he now is more comfortable punishing aggressive close-outs by making plays off the dribble or using his muscular physique to overpower smaller defenders in the post.
“He’s a tremendous athlete, very skilled and very talented,” SMU coach Tim Jankovich told reporters in Dallas earlier this week. “He’ll be a big surprise because maybe he’s kind of forgotten to the public. He has been sitting out a long time.”
It’s difficult to fathom that Ojeleye has only logged 123 minutes of college game action given his decorated high school career. Ojeleye set the high school career scoring record in the state of Kansas, led Ottawa High School to four state title game appearances and averaged 38.1 points per game as a senior, all while maintaining a 4.0 GPA no less.
When Ojeleye selected Duke over Indiana, Oregon and Stanford in Sept. 2012, the consensus top 40 prospect hoped to make an immediate impact at either forward spot. He instead languished on the bench for the Blue Devils, earning less than five minutes per game behind future first-round draft picks Jabari Parker and Rodney Hood as a freshman and then struggling to crack the rotation behind Justise Winslow and Amile Jefferson once again early in his sophomore year.
“You want to play for coaches who are going to instill confidence in you, and I think he started to lose some of his confidence,” said Ojeleye’s former AAU coach Rodney Perry, now an assistant at Oral Roberts.
“He kept asking the coaches, ‘What else do I need to do to be able to play?’ One of the things they told him was that he needed to rebound more and he ended up being the second-leading rebounder in practice for the week behind Jahlil Okafor. But come the game, they didn’t play him. That’s confusing for a young player.”
Ojeleye was content to wait his turn as a freshman at Duke, but it became clear he wasn’t part of the Blue Devils’ plans the following year either when he did not get off the bench in non-conference victories against Stanford or Wisconsin. He decided to transfer at the end of the first semester even though Duke was undefeated at the time and he enjoyed his teammates and the school.
“It was very tough, probably one of the toughest things I’ve ever had to do in my life,” Ojeleye said. “I worked really hard trying to get an opportunity like Duke. You get that opportunity and you want to do well and make the most of it, and essentially I failed in that aspect. I had to try to find a new place to be successful.”
If leaving Duke was tough in December, it only got harder in March and April. Ojeleye watched from afar with a twinge of regret as his former teammates stormed through their first five NCAA tournament matchups before rallying to edge Wisconsin in a memorable title game.
“That’s what you dream about in high school,” Ojeleye said. “You watch One Shining Moment, and you want to win a national championship. But the way things were going there, I would have helped but it would have been from the background. I think any competitor wants to be a major part in winning a championship.”
Assuaging Ojeleye’s disappointment was his excitement over his fresh start at SMU. He chose the Mustangs over a bevy of other suitors because of coach Larry Brown’s winning track record and knack for player development.
“That was a major, major, major factor,” Perry said. “He wanted to make sure he went to play for a coach that was going to put the confidence back in him that he had lost but still was going to make him the type of player he wanted to become also.”
Ojeleye wasn’t fazed when the NCAA sent SMU a notice of allegations just a few weeks after he enrolled, nor was his faith in the program shaken even after the Mustangs received the dreaded postseason ban 13 months ago. He insists he never second-guessed his decision to come to SMU, though he did opt to sit out all of last season rather than make a midyear return to a team with no NCAA tournament hopes but plenty of frontcourt talent.
What rocked Ojeleye far more was Brown’s July resignation. While the 76-year-old is the sport’s most renowned coaching nomad, Ojeleye didn’t see any signs Brown was plotting one of his signature sudden escapes.

“It was surreal,” Ojeleye said. “I was thinking, ‘This cannot be happening,’ but it was real. You kind of just had to pick up the pieces. The shock was that it was so sudden. It was out of nowhere. I didn’t see it coming.”
At that time, it would have been easy for Ojeleye to get frustrated. He left Duke, and it won a national title without him. He came to SMU, and it lost its coach after landing in NCAA purgatory.
Thankfully, Ojeleye is not the type of person who stays depressed for long. Within days, he had embraced the transition to Jankovich and was back in the gym preparing for his long-awaited SMU debut.
When Ojeleye steps onto the floor on Nov. 11 against Gardner-Webb, he expects a surge of emotions to wash over him. His 23-month wait for a second chance to prove himself will at last be over.
“Before you want to play and you love the game, but you really take it for granted,” Ojeleye said. “Now the opportunity to be out there is special. I will really cherish every day I get to play.”
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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