Nebrasketball Player Proflie: Akol Arop

It can be tough getting local kids to come to play basketball at Nebraska when there are two other Division I schools around. Well, UNO is a Division I program but they’re really not the threat to recruiting like Creighton is. No offense to the Mavericks. Derrin Hansen is a good coach and has the team playing well but they’re not quite there to battle for top in state talent.

What is even nicer is when you take one from the preparatory school which is historically connected to the Jesuit school of higher learning.

Well, he wasn’t actually recruited by Creighton but that shouldn’t matter. Honestly, they are pretty well loaded in his spot and you can only get so many recruits a cycle. So, the Huskers benefited from a year that the in state Bluejay’s didn’t need a small forward of his stature. Akol was the #1 recruit in his state for the cycle.

If the last name sounds familiar it is because Nebraska had his brother Aguek Arop who was persuaded to go to a prep school before enrolling at Nebraska. He ended up at a school in Atlanta to clean up his game and is currently at San Diego State.

Even with that little blip, Akol wanted to stay close to home and become a Husker. He signed with Tim Miles back in November of ‘18 and decided to stay with Fred Hoiberg and his staff.

He did not make the trip to Italy in August. He unfortunately did not get all of his paperwork in to travel with the squad but did practice with them before they departed. So, what little we saw of him during the “Fan Night” in September is all we have for his experience with the team.

At Creighton Prep he earned all state honors three times in his four years. He accumulated 1268 points, 733 rebounds, and 162 blocked shots during his tenure. This all while shooting a very nice 66% from the floor and averaging 19.4 points per game for the Junior Jays.

Akol is 6’5” and roughly 190lbs. He will play the small forward that should get some good experience his freshman year on campus going against the talent that is there. With the amount of upperclassmen transferring in, I would not expect a lot out of him this first year in red. He has a nice shot but will need the the time in practice to improve his game.