biba
11-07-2007, 04:43 PM
LONGHORN MEN'S BASKETBALL
Horn of Africa
From Cameroon to Austin, basketball freshman's journey has been a long one.
By Mark Rosner
http://www.statesman.com/sports/content/sports/stories/longhorns/11/07/1107texmen.html
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Alexis Wangmene does not figure to become flustered by a screaming basketball coach, taunting fans or his immersion into a new culture.
The Longhorn freshman from Cameroon has already endured a civil war in the Ivory Coast, a demanding student visa process and a date with the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
http://www.statesman.com/sports/content/sports/stories/longhorns/11/07/RBB-UT-Basketball-portaits-_3.html
UT player Alexis Wangmene, displaying the flag of his native Cameroon, left behind an opportunity to become chief of his Toupouri tribe, an honor that would have been passed down from his maternal grandfather.
http://www.statesman.com/sports/content/sports/stories/longhorns/11/07/a1promouthoop1_5.html
Alexis Wangmene averaged 19 points and 14 rebounds last season at Blair Academy. Rivals.com ranked him 81st among high school seniors.
So sure, Alexis Mang-Ikri Wangmene has a smile for Texas coach Rick Barnes, the student section in Lubbock and teammates who tease him about his preppy clothes.
Wangmene (pronounced Juan-MEN-ee) feels fortunate to be alive, enrolled in college and playing center or forward for the Longhorns.
"When you go through something like that, you know you can die at any moment," Wangmene, 18, said. "The thing I learned was to enjoy life."
• • •
The NBA, staking out new territory to plant the flag of its sport, conducts camps through a Basketball Without Borders outreach program.
As San Antonio Spurs general manager R.C. Buford prepared to attend one such camp in Johannesburg, South Africa, in August 2004, he also contemplated a life-changing decision: Should he try to bring one of the kids home? Buford and his wife, Beth, already had two children, Chase, now 18, and his sister, C.C., 15. Would they like a new brother?
"We talked about it as a family," Buford said. "We thought it would be great to give an opportunity to somebody who probably wouldn't have an opportunity otherwise. We hoped to find somebody who was similar in age to Chase."
Wangmene, the 6-foot, 7-inch son of a military man and a schoolteacher, was one of about 100 players at the camp. Buford had information on all of them. Some were eliminated from coming to the United States because it would be too difficult to obtain visas.
"We evaluated them as people and as players," Buford said. "Lex seemed to have a great personality."
Picked from a crowd, Wangmene said he was "shocked and amazed" to become the chosen one.
"There were so many of us," Wangmene said.
Before moving to Texas, Wangmene came as a visitor in November 2004, assigned to an all-star team from the Johannesburg camp that made stops in Dallas, Houston and San Antonio.
Wangmene spent time at Buford's home, where communication was difficult. He spoke French, the predominant language in Cameroon, and the African languages Toupouri and Fulfulde. He understood almost no English.
"He just smiled and said 'yes' a lot," Beth Buford said.
Then he tried to go home. Wangmene and two other players from the African team flew into Abidjan, the largest city in the Ivory Coast. Scheduled to transfer planes en route to Cameroon, Wangmene instead found himself in the middle of a civil war.
The airport was under lockdown. Wangmene was unable to enter the Ivory Coast because he lacked a proper visa. He was stranded for five days, sleeping on the ground in case bullets pierced the windows.
"As soon as I arrived in the airport, you could see all the military with the guns," he recalled. "You don't know what is going on."
Wangmene, 15 years old and frightened, finally contacted R.C. Buford, who called Amadou Gallo Fall, a native of Senegal who is director of scouting for the Dallas Mavericks. Gallo Fall contacted a pastor in the Ivory Coast, who helped Wangmene get a temporary visa.
Wangmene recalls a 10-mile ride from the airport during which he crouched below window level in the car, soldiers everywhere.
"Really scary," Wangmene said. "I don't think anybody shot at the car, but there was shooting going on."
• • •
Wangmene returned to the U.S. about a month later — on Christmas Eve — but he had to first prove himself worthy of the opportunity.
Brooks Meek, director of basketball operations for NBA International, said Wangmene needed to convince the U.S. Embassy in Cameroon that he would leave the country for a legitimate educational opportunity.
That was not difficult for Wangmene, who once considered becoming a doctor but now says international business might be a more realistic pursuit.
Meek said Wangmene seems typical of student-athletes who come from Africa.
"One thing I can say is, those kids, given the opportunity to pursue a degree and basketball, give 110 percent," Meek said. "They know they have an opportunity that a lot of people back home don't have."
Home for Wangmene is Maroua, a city of about 400,000 in northern Cameroon, which is in west central Africa.
Leaving home was not easy for him. His father, Teophile Mang-Ikri, a former athlete who has traveled, understood. But his mother, Germaine Mang-Ikri, was not enamored with the idea.
"It was like, 'Oh, my baby is leaving, I don't want him to go,' " Wangmene said of his mother's reaction.
Wangmene left behind an opportunity to become chief of the Toupouri tribe in Cameroon, an honor that would have been passed down from his maternal grandfather. Now it's a source of humor.
Wangmene said life could have been "free and easy" as chief, a position that comes with an allotment of five wives.
R.C. Buford's sister, Anne, who is making a documentary on basketball and education at SEEDS Academy in Senegal, has teased Wangmene about the entitlement to five wives.
"I said, 'You're Catholic, you can't do that,' " Anne Buford recalled. "He said, 'But I am the chief.' "
Before leaving Cameroon, Wangmene had to complete certain rituals. He was charged with finding a replacement as chief. He had to kill an animal selected by his father for a big feast, a tradition for young men who are leaving home for an extended period. Teophile chose a sheep. Alexis used a knife.
• • •
Then it was off to a new life in America, where Wangmene was greeted by the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Atlanta. Detained, he said, for two or three hours on Christmas Eve, Wangmene missed his connection to Wichita, Kan., where the Bufords had gathered at R.C.'s parents' home.
"I remember calling the Atlanta airport, begging someone to make sure this kid, who did not speak English, got on a flight," Anne Buford said.
When Wangmene finally arrived in Wichita, he was underdressed, wearing a light jacket in the bitter cold. "I'm sure he was thinking, 'I should probably get back on that plane and go home,' " R.C. Buford said.
Wangmene had concerns other than the weather. "What am I going to say to those people?" he remembered thinking. "I didn't know what I was doing. I decided, whatever happens happens."
Or doesn't happen. Wangmene had hoped to join Chase Buford on the basketball team at Alamo Heights High School in San Antonio, a plan that became snagged in University Interscholastic League residency rules and visa regulations.
The UIL required that Wangmene live with the Bufords and attend Alamo Heights for a year before he could participate in a varsity sport. So Wangmene enrolled at Central Catholic, a private school in San Antonio not subject to UIL rules. He joined the basketball team. He learned English in six months on the fly, with the help of a tutor who came to the Buford house on Saturdays. He bonded with Chase and C.C.
Beth and R.C. became his legal guardians.
"He was such a happy kid," Beth Buford said. "If a 6-8 kid can be adorable, he's adorable. He gave the kids a brother. He gave C.C. a brother who is nice to her."
Chase Buford said the relationship was a little awkward at first, a circumstance expected with kids from such different cultures.
"But we're both laid back. We looked at it like the brother we never had," said Chase, a freshman walk-on player at Kansas.
Wangmene plunged into American popular culture, often with amusing results. Chase Buford can't understand why Wangmene became a fan of Rascal Flatts, an American country pop band. But they share an affection for "Entourage" a fictional HBO show that chronicles the life of rising moving star Vincent Chase, his brother and their two pals.
Wangmene fancies himself as Vincent, the one who gets all the girls. He offers proof.
One Sunday night, after watching the show, Wangmene, Chase and a friend went to dinner. Wangmene predicted, "I'm gonna be Vinny tonight.' "
Chase doubted that, but sure enough, Wangmene said, the waitress wrote her phone number on a piece of paper and handed it to him.
The good life in San Antonio included Spurs games and workouts, an attachment to the team he watched on television in Cameroon. He often had to rise at 4 or 5 a.m. to watch those games. Now he was hanging out with the Spurs, picking up basketball tips from Tim Duncan. Sean Elliott, the former Spur, gave him some of his suits. Wangmene outgrew them.
The fun lasted for two years. Then Wangmene left to spend his senior year at Blair Academy in New Jersey, a boarding school with students from 23 states and 18 countries.
The basketball team has featured future NBA players Luol Deng, Charlie Villanueva and Royal Ivey, the former Longhorn.
Wangmene averaged 19 points and 14 rebounds last season. Rivals.com ranked him the 81st-best player in the country among high school seniors.
His coach, Joe Montegna, said that the 240-pound Wangmene — with his 7-4 wingspan, an inch less than former Longhorns LaMarcus Aldridge and Kevin Durant — plays as though he were at least 6-10.
"He had the second-best year of any kid in my nine years here," Montegna said. "Only Luol had a better year."
Montegna, also the associate dean of college counseling, was impressed by Wangmene's academic record and the way he assimilated at Blair. "He gets along with everybody," Montegna said. "He didn't just hang around with the jocks, or with people of a certain racial makeup or ethnic makeup. He's a once-in-a-lifetime personality."
• • •
Shortly after enrolling at Blair, Wangmene committed to play for the Longhorns this season, choosing Texas over Florida and Virginia.
The point man in his recruitment for Texas was Russell Springmann, the assistant who helped sign Kevin Durant and D.J. Augustin.
"It's not just Russell; it's Rick and everything about the university," R.C. Buford said. "But Russell emboldens a trust and creates a comfortable environment."
In Austin, Wangmene found a friend in Dexter Pittman, UT's engaging sophomore center.
"He's my boy," Pittman said. "I won't even go to dinner without him."
Pittman, who has lost 70 pounds since June 2006, likes to think of himself as Sexy Dexy. But he concedes that Wangmene has become a bigger attraction for coeds.
"I thought I was sweet, and that women around campus knew me," Pittman said. "But they all knew Lex for some reason, and I was getting kind of jealous."
Though Pittman has advised him that he looks too preppy for a basketball player, Wangmene said it was Springmann who first pointed that out.
"He said that I looked like a tennis player," Wangmene said.
Fortunately for the Longhorns, he jumps like a basketball player, aggressively blocking shots and taking rebounds.
"He plays so hard that he'll have to learn to keep from fouling," Barnes said. "He's one of those guys, right now, who thinks he gets fouled a lot but thinks he never commits a foul. He'll learn, and he'll help us a lot because of that intensity."
Wangmene said he has no other option.
"In Africa, we don't like to fail, " he said. "Everybody is going to laugh at you when you fail. So I have that mentality: I have to work hard."
[email protected]; 445-3958
Horn of Africa
From Cameroon to Austin, basketball freshman's journey has been a long one.
By Mark Rosner
http://www.statesman.com/sports/content/sports/stories/longhorns/11/07/1107texmen.html
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Alexis Wangmene does not figure to become flustered by a screaming basketball coach, taunting fans or his immersion into a new culture.
The Longhorn freshman from Cameroon has already endured a civil war in the Ivory Coast, a demanding student visa process and a date with the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
http://www.statesman.com/sports/content/sports/stories/longhorns/11/07/RBB-UT-Basketball-portaits-_3.html
UT player Alexis Wangmene, displaying the flag of his native Cameroon, left behind an opportunity to become chief of his Toupouri tribe, an honor that would have been passed down from his maternal grandfather.
http://www.statesman.com/sports/content/sports/stories/longhorns/11/07/a1promouthoop1_5.html
Alexis Wangmene averaged 19 points and 14 rebounds last season at Blair Academy. Rivals.com ranked him 81st among high school seniors.
So sure, Alexis Mang-Ikri Wangmene has a smile for Texas coach Rick Barnes, the student section in Lubbock and teammates who tease him about his preppy clothes.
Wangmene (pronounced Juan-MEN-ee) feels fortunate to be alive, enrolled in college and playing center or forward for the Longhorns.
"When you go through something like that, you know you can die at any moment," Wangmene, 18, said. "The thing I learned was to enjoy life."
• • •
The NBA, staking out new territory to plant the flag of its sport, conducts camps through a Basketball Without Borders outreach program.
As San Antonio Spurs general manager R.C. Buford prepared to attend one such camp in Johannesburg, South Africa, in August 2004, he also contemplated a life-changing decision: Should he try to bring one of the kids home? Buford and his wife, Beth, already had two children, Chase, now 18, and his sister, C.C., 15. Would they like a new brother?
"We talked about it as a family," Buford said. "We thought it would be great to give an opportunity to somebody who probably wouldn't have an opportunity otherwise. We hoped to find somebody who was similar in age to Chase."
Wangmene, the 6-foot, 7-inch son of a military man and a schoolteacher, was one of about 100 players at the camp. Buford had information on all of them. Some were eliminated from coming to the United States because it would be too difficult to obtain visas.
"We evaluated them as people and as players," Buford said. "Lex seemed to have a great personality."
Picked from a crowd, Wangmene said he was "shocked and amazed" to become the chosen one.
"There were so many of us," Wangmene said.
Before moving to Texas, Wangmene came as a visitor in November 2004, assigned to an all-star team from the Johannesburg camp that made stops in Dallas, Houston and San Antonio.
Wangmene spent time at Buford's home, where communication was difficult. He spoke French, the predominant language in Cameroon, and the African languages Toupouri and Fulfulde. He understood almost no English.
"He just smiled and said 'yes' a lot," Beth Buford said.
Then he tried to go home. Wangmene and two other players from the African team flew into Abidjan, the largest city in the Ivory Coast. Scheduled to transfer planes en route to Cameroon, Wangmene instead found himself in the middle of a civil war.
The airport was under lockdown. Wangmene was unable to enter the Ivory Coast because he lacked a proper visa. He was stranded for five days, sleeping on the ground in case bullets pierced the windows.
"As soon as I arrived in the airport, you could see all the military with the guns," he recalled. "You don't know what is going on."
Wangmene, 15 years old and frightened, finally contacted R.C. Buford, who called Amadou Gallo Fall, a native of Senegal who is director of scouting for the Dallas Mavericks. Gallo Fall contacted a pastor in the Ivory Coast, who helped Wangmene get a temporary visa.
Wangmene recalls a 10-mile ride from the airport during which he crouched below window level in the car, soldiers everywhere.
"Really scary," Wangmene said. "I don't think anybody shot at the car, but there was shooting going on."
• • •
Wangmene returned to the U.S. about a month later — on Christmas Eve — but he had to first prove himself worthy of the opportunity.
Brooks Meek, director of basketball operations for NBA International, said Wangmene needed to convince the U.S. Embassy in Cameroon that he would leave the country for a legitimate educational opportunity.
That was not difficult for Wangmene, who once considered becoming a doctor but now says international business might be a more realistic pursuit.
Meek said Wangmene seems typical of student-athletes who come from Africa.
"One thing I can say is, those kids, given the opportunity to pursue a degree and basketball, give 110 percent," Meek said. "They know they have an opportunity that a lot of people back home don't have."
Home for Wangmene is Maroua, a city of about 400,000 in northern Cameroon, which is in west central Africa.
Leaving home was not easy for him. His father, Teophile Mang-Ikri, a former athlete who has traveled, understood. But his mother, Germaine Mang-Ikri, was not enamored with the idea.
"It was like, 'Oh, my baby is leaving, I don't want him to go,' " Wangmene said of his mother's reaction.
Wangmene left behind an opportunity to become chief of the Toupouri tribe in Cameroon, an honor that would have been passed down from his maternal grandfather. Now it's a source of humor.
Wangmene said life could have been "free and easy" as chief, a position that comes with an allotment of five wives.
R.C. Buford's sister, Anne, who is making a documentary on basketball and education at SEEDS Academy in Senegal, has teased Wangmene about the entitlement to five wives.
"I said, 'You're Catholic, you can't do that,' " Anne Buford recalled. "He said, 'But I am the chief.' "
Before leaving Cameroon, Wangmene had to complete certain rituals. He was charged with finding a replacement as chief. He had to kill an animal selected by his father for a big feast, a tradition for young men who are leaving home for an extended period. Teophile chose a sheep. Alexis used a knife.
• • •
Then it was off to a new life in America, where Wangmene was greeted by the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Atlanta. Detained, he said, for two or three hours on Christmas Eve, Wangmene missed his connection to Wichita, Kan., where the Bufords had gathered at R.C.'s parents' home.
"I remember calling the Atlanta airport, begging someone to make sure this kid, who did not speak English, got on a flight," Anne Buford said.
When Wangmene finally arrived in Wichita, he was underdressed, wearing a light jacket in the bitter cold. "I'm sure he was thinking, 'I should probably get back on that plane and go home,' " R.C. Buford said.
Wangmene had concerns other than the weather. "What am I going to say to those people?" he remembered thinking. "I didn't know what I was doing. I decided, whatever happens happens."
Or doesn't happen. Wangmene had hoped to join Chase Buford on the basketball team at Alamo Heights High School in San Antonio, a plan that became snagged in University Interscholastic League residency rules and visa regulations.
The UIL required that Wangmene live with the Bufords and attend Alamo Heights for a year before he could participate in a varsity sport. So Wangmene enrolled at Central Catholic, a private school in San Antonio not subject to UIL rules. He joined the basketball team. He learned English in six months on the fly, with the help of a tutor who came to the Buford house on Saturdays. He bonded with Chase and C.C.
Beth and R.C. became his legal guardians.
"He was such a happy kid," Beth Buford said. "If a 6-8 kid can be adorable, he's adorable. He gave the kids a brother. He gave C.C. a brother who is nice to her."
Chase Buford said the relationship was a little awkward at first, a circumstance expected with kids from such different cultures.
"But we're both laid back. We looked at it like the brother we never had," said Chase, a freshman walk-on player at Kansas.
Wangmene plunged into American popular culture, often with amusing results. Chase Buford can't understand why Wangmene became a fan of Rascal Flatts, an American country pop band. But they share an affection for "Entourage" a fictional HBO show that chronicles the life of rising moving star Vincent Chase, his brother and their two pals.
Wangmene fancies himself as Vincent, the one who gets all the girls. He offers proof.
One Sunday night, after watching the show, Wangmene, Chase and a friend went to dinner. Wangmene predicted, "I'm gonna be Vinny tonight.' "
Chase doubted that, but sure enough, Wangmene said, the waitress wrote her phone number on a piece of paper and handed it to him.
The good life in San Antonio included Spurs games and workouts, an attachment to the team he watched on television in Cameroon. He often had to rise at 4 or 5 a.m. to watch those games. Now he was hanging out with the Spurs, picking up basketball tips from Tim Duncan. Sean Elliott, the former Spur, gave him some of his suits. Wangmene outgrew them.
The fun lasted for two years. Then Wangmene left to spend his senior year at Blair Academy in New Jersey, a boarding school with students from 23 states and 18 countries.
The basketball team has featured future NBA players Luol Deng, Charlie Villanueva and Royal Ivey, the former Longhorn.
Wangmene averaged 19 points and 14 rebounds last season. Rivals.com ranked him the 81st-best player in the country among high school seniors.
His coach, Joe Montegna, said that the 240-pound Wangmene — with his 7-4 wingspan, an inch less than former Longhorns LaMarcus Aldridge and Kevin Durant — plays as though he were at least 6-10.
"He had the second-best year of any kid in my nine years here," Montegna said. "Only Luol had a better year."
Montegna, also the associate dean of college counseling, was impressed by Wangmene's academic record and the way he assimilated at Blair. "He gets along with everybody," Montegna said. "He didn't just hang around with the jocks, or with people of a certain racial makeup or ethnic makeup. He's a once-in-a-lifetime personality."
• • •
Shortly after enrolling at Blair, Wangmene committed to play for the Longhorns this season, choosing Texas over Florida and Virginia.
The point man in his recruitment for Texas was Russell Springmann, the assistant who helped sign Kevin Durant and D.J. Augustin.
"It's not just Russell; it's Rick and everything about the university," R.C. Buford said. "But Russell emboldens a trust and creates a comfortable environment."
In Austin, Wangmene found a friend in Dexter Pittman, UT's engaging sophomore center.
"He's my boy," Pittman said. "I won't even go to dinner without him."
Pittman, who has lost 70 pounds since June 2006, likes to think of himself as Sexy Dexy. But he concedes that Wangmene has become a bigger attraction for coeds.
"I thought I was sweet, and that women around campus knew me," Pittman said. "But they all knew Lex for some reason, and I was getting kind of jealous."
Though Pittman has advised him that he looks too preppy for a basketball player, Wangmene said it was Springmann who first pointed that out.
"He said that I looked like a tennis player," Wangmene said.
Fortunately for the Longhorns, he jumps like a basketball player, aggressively blocking shots and taking rebounds.
"He plays so hard that he'll have to learn to keep from fouling," Barnes said. "He's one of those guys, right now, who thinks he gets fouled a lot but thinks he never commits a foul. He'll learn, and he'll help us a lot because of that intensity."
Wangmene said he has no other option.
"In Africa, we don't like to fail, " he said. "Everybody is going to laugh at you when you fail. So I have that mentality: I have to work hard."
[email protected]; 445-3958