UCLA Basketball: Fifth-Year Center Reflects On Spanish Adventure With Bruins

A venerated role player speaks!

Fifth-season UCLA Bruins reserve power forward/center Kenneth Nwuba recently reflected on the club's ongoing preseason exhibition jaunt across Spain, which also happens to be his inaugural trip to Europe.

"It kind of reminds me of the first time that I came to the States," Nwuba told UCLA. 

The 6'10" big man left his native Lagos, Nigeria for basketball opportunities at the U.S. as a 15-year-old. He redshirted his true freshman season, 2018-19, and due to a bonus year in 2019-20 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, will actually be enrolling in his sixth overall year on campus. 

"It's a different situation when you leave Nigeria for America, and you have to adapt to the culture, time change, everything with the people, adapting to their ways of living. It's the same type of feeling that I have now, being here in Spain."

"Sometimes when we are trying to talk to people here, they're looking at us like, 'I don't understand English,' " Nwuba added. "And then I'm going, 'Hey Jan!' or 'Hey Ev!' and I'll ask them to come help explain what they're saying. Let's just call over the translators on our team, and they can help us out to have a conversation."

Across 12.4 minutes a night, he averaged more rebounds (1.7) than points (1.3), along with a career-most 0.6 blocks, on a Sweet Sixteen UCLA club in 2022-23. Bruins head coach Mick Cronin raved about the returning power frontcourt role player. 

"Kenny is like the best backup in America," Coach Cronin says. "At this point in his career, he would be starting on a lot of teams. He's now at a point where you could play him and [Pac-12 All-Defense power forward/center Adem Bona] together, if you wanted to play with a bigger lineup. He's had a great summer. Two nights ago [in Valencia], he looked like the guy who has been practicing hard all summer. Whenever you have a player who is such a good guy and has been so loyal to your program, you are rooting for him. You want him to do well because he's put in so much time. He's been so loyal to us."