Photo by: Stephen J. Carrera
Pallas: A Reflection On Her Final Chapter As A Wildcat
3/7/2019 8:01:00 AM | Women's Basketball
By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
She is 14 on this afternoon and as she occasionally does when school is out, she is shooting baskets on this outdoor court called Area 10. This is in the main business district of Nigeria's capital city of Abuja, but she is not here for commerce. She is here instead to work with a man who mentors young children in this area, a man she even now calls Coach Emmanuel.
"I would go there on-and-off. But I wasn't really committed to the training," she remembers, yet her athleticism and innate skills are still apparent. They are apparent enough that one day Coach Emmanuel pulls her aside and informs her that she may soon be visited by the lady who runs Hope 4 Girls, an organization dedicated to furthering opportunities for young African women.
"So one day I was there shooting hoops very badly," she goes on, "and a car pulls up and this woman comes out with these big, black sun shades. I'm looking, 'Who's this?' She comes over and she's watching me a little bit."
Mobolaji Akiode, who played for both Fordham and a pair of Nigerian Olympic basketball teams and is now the head of Hope 4 Girls. For some minutes, she watches the young 14-year old and then she engages her in small talk before she finally she pops the question the will alter the arc of the young girl's future. "Would you be interested in playing in the United States?"
"I could hardly believe it," 'Cat forward Pallas Kunaiyi-Akpanah now says. "Things like that don't usually happen out of nowhere. People are planning all their lives for something like that. That's what I think. But this one day, a chance meeting."
--------------------
She is now a captain, her team's only senior, a double-double machine (11.1 ppg, 11.2 rpg) and a much-admired leader who begins the final chapter of her brilliant career this week at the Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis. "A dog" is what teammate Lindsey Pulliam admiringly called her in a video played on her Senior Night.
"It just means you really grind, do the dirty work," Kunaiyi-Akpanah says, explaining the label. "You take punches and you throw punches back. You fall and you get back up."
"She's grown up right in front of me," head coach Joe McKeown in the same video.
"When I was a first year, I was a very different person," Kunaiyi-Akpanah admits. "I was very different from now. Coach Pop (assistant Kate Popovec) always jokes that when I first got to Northwestern, I didn't know how to shoot a layup the right way and she's not wrong but it's not just in basketball, it's in terms of my attitude and my leadership. Never in a million years would I have thought I was going to be a captain. I was comfortable being in the background and doing what people told me to do. Now I'm someone people look to."
"It's amazing," McKeown will say, expanding on his Senior Night observation. "From a basketball standpoint, she was just learning (when she joined the 'Cats). Now every game she plays she's capable of getting 15 or 20 rebounds, and her offensive game has caught up to where she's had all these double-double. Her confidence level is incredible. Then off the court her personality has really blossomed. She was really funny, but shy a little bit (when she arrived). Because we're a small school, I think she felt at home once she got here. A lot of people took to her just because she's unique, funny, shy. One of those kids everyone wants to do well.
"Now I think she's well-exceeded expectations. To see her work ethic every day, every day she practices like she's trying out for the team. Even when we have shoot-around, walk-through, Pallas, she's going 100 miles-per-hour. That's the only speed she knows. That's where she inspires her teammates. She's just this genuine— you just want to hug her and be around her.
"She's unique. We'll miss her."
--------------------
She was born in Port Harcourt, a coastal city in southern Nigeria, but at six, moved to Abuja, where her dad, the Hon. Daemi Kunaiyi-Akpanah, was a member of the country's House of Representatives. At 10, she was enrolled at the Capital Science Academy, a boarding school, where she ran track, played basketball and tennis and attended classes dressed in a shirt, tie, jacket and skirt. She was also timid, self-effacing and bullied about her height (already six-foot). "When I was at Capital Science, I was the tallest girl on campus pretty much the entire time I was there," she explains. "Looking like this back home is hard. Not many people look like me, a taller female. I'm an anomaly."
Still, despite her innate reticence and reluctance to socialize, she couldn't help herself after her talk with Akiode, tell everyone she would soon be going to America. "She didn't make any promises. But I got my hopes up early. I was, 'I'm going to America. Did you hear? I'm going to America!'"
A year had passed and Akiode was not able to find a school for the young and eager Kunaiyi-Akpanah just yet. Starting to lose hope, she had given up on the dream of playing basketball in the States.
"At that point I just was disappointed. I'm like, 'You know what? I don't really care.'" Then one day, at 15, she gets the phone call, 'We got you in school. You're going to America.'
"I packed up. Left Capital Science. Never looked back."
--------------------
Two hours northwest of Atlanta, Georgia lies the town of Rabun Gap where Kunaiyi-Akpanah would be attending Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School, a private college prep school tucked into the southern foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.
"Not a clue," she says when asked if 15 year old Pallas knew anything about her destination.
"I could barely pronounce the name of the school. What is this Rabun Gap? What is this Georgia? I had no idea."
Kunaiyi-Akpanah spent time with her father doing extensive research on her new home. "My dad does research on everything. If he doesn't know the slightest thing about something, he'll do all sorts of research on it so he knows it like the back of his hand."
Both her parents, she goes on, were undaunted by the 6,000 miles that would now separate them from their baby girl, but instead supportive and excited over the opportunity she now possessed.
"They just wanted me to have the best life possible," she says, and her mom (Dein) and younger brother accompanied her on the trip that carried her from Nigeria to that new life. But, she will admit, when they dropped her off at Rabun Gap and began the trip back to Nigeria, it was then, fear began to settle in.
"I was really scared," she says. "I had done boarding school in Nigeria, but I still got a chance to see my family. When they dropped me off, I didn't know when I would see them again. I saw them once in three years. That was very emotional."
--------------------
It was here, far from home, that Pallas Kunaiyi-Akpanah began to find her voice. No longer bullied, no longer an anomaly as the tallest person in her school, she discovered a comfort level in this Southern community that embraced her. "People were welcoming and open to knowing me," she recalls, and here she blossomed with this nurturing, blossomed into a basketball star bright enough to attract attention. "That was really funny," she then says of recruiting, which was the next step on her journey.
"I hadn't even thought about post-high school when I was at Rabun Gap. I was just there, taking it all in. I wasn't sure what was going to happen to me, honestly. But my parents had faith in Mobolaji (Akiode) and what she was doing, and had faith in the people at Rabun Gap, to believe that things were going to be OK.
"Then next thing you know I go to Florida over break to stay with my aunt, who lives in Tampa. I was there with my aunt and Mobolaji reaches out to me and tells me, 'Hey. I know this coach in the Florida area. His name is Coach Kenny Kallina and he runs an AAU program called Florida Girls Basketball. She put me in contact with him and I met him, and he put me on the team and I started traveling with them and playing with them. Next thing you know I'm getting letters from all over the country saying, 'We saw you play. We want you to come visit our school.'"
McKeown, of course, was one of those coaches, and one fine summer day Kunaiyi-Akpanah and her parents found themselves in Evanston. ("It was quite warm. I feel tricked," she jokes when asked her reaction to her first winter.) They toured the campus. They met with McKeown and the team. They visited with athletic director Jim Phillips. "He was very nice," Kunaiyi-Akpanah remembers. "My dad, he plays golf every day. So he, Dr. Phillips, Coach (Sam) Dixon, who was an assistant at the time, and I think Coach Chris Collins as well, they all went on a trip to the golf club and played golf for a couple hours and got to know each other."
Now she chuckles. "When I tell that story," she then concludes, "I feel like my dad was more interested in Northwestern than I was. He was so excited, 'You've got to go to Northwestern. It's a great school!"
--------------------
Her imagination was stirred seven years ago on an outdoor court 6,073 miles from Chicago. She was shy then and bullied about her height, but a year after that she set off on a journey that eventually transformed her into a cherished friend and a revered leader, a fearless competitor and a student set to graduate from one of this country's great universities.
There were times in that life, she will admit, when she felt the challenges were all just too much, struggling with thoughts of doubt and wanting to head back home. " There were a lot of times I thought maybe I wasn't cut out for all this" she will say, and then she will chuckle. "But I always remind myself to relax, breathe and remember I'm in the right place."
When, as she went through this life, did she realize just what kind of opportunity she had, and decide to run with it?
"I'm not quite sure," she says. "I'm 21 now and I think with each step in my journey, it gradually dawned on me that not many people get thee opportunity that I have. People would do anything to have the kind of opportunities I've had and to be blessed like this. And even though my family is farther away I always try to keep in mind that I do have family, here at Northwestern."
That recognition certainly helped catalyze her much-admired work ethic, which has not only carried her and transformed her and delivered her to the pantheon. It also provides depth to her story, makes it real, makes it human, makes it so much more than the product of some Hollywood script writer's imagination. The bare bones of that story could make it seem that, make it seem like some miracle on the hardwood. But hers was no serendipitous trip with bluebirds tweeting in the background. No, not at all. The awards and the plaudits and the compliments she has garnered, she has earned them, earned them the old-fashioned way. "It has been a long journey," she will finally say when asked about this.
"I remember as a first year, all the seniors would tell us to cherish every moment because it all goes by so fast. Now, I'm in their spot and I can tell you it does go by fast but not in a flash. It's just been a rollercoaster every single step of the way."
With an incredibly hard fought journey you have to wonder, has it all been worth it?
"Absolutely," she says.
"This has been the best time in my life."
NUsports.com Special Contributor
She is 14 on this afternoon and as she occasionally does when school is out, she is shooting baskets on this outdoor court called Area 10. This is in the main business district of Nigeria's capital city of Abuja, but she is not here for commerce. She is here instead to work with a man who mentors young children in this area, a man she even now calls Coach Emmanuel.
"I would go there on-and-off. But I wasn't really committed to the training," she remembers, yet her athleticism and innate skills are still apparent. They are apparent enough that one day Coach Emmanuel pulls her aside and informs her that she may soon be visited by the lady who runs Hope 4 Girls, an organization dedicated to furthering opportunities for young African women.
"So one day I was there shooting hoops very badly," she goes on, "and a car pulls up and this woman comes out with these big, black sun shades. I'm looking, 'Who's this?' She comes over and she's watching me a little bit."
Mobolaji Akiode, who played for both Fordham and a pair of Nigerian Olympic basketball teams and is now the head of Hope 4 Girls. For some minutes, she watches the young 14-year old and then she engages her in small talk before she finally she pops the question the will alter the arc of the young girl's future. "Would you be interested in playing in the United States?"
"I could hardly believe it," 'Cat forward Pallas Kunaiyi-Akpanah now says. "Things like that don't usually happen out of nowhere. People are planning all their lives for something like that. That's what I think. But this one day, a chance meeting."
--------------------
She is now a captain, her team's only senior, a double-double machine (11.1 ppg, 11.2 rpg) and a much-admired leader who begins the final chapter of her brilliant career this week at the Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis. "A dog" is what teammate Lindsey Pulliam admiringly called her in a video played on her Senior Night.
"It just means you really grind, do the dirty work," Kunaiyi-Akpanah says, explaining the label. "You take punches and you throw punches back. You fall and you get back up."
"She's grown up right in front of me," head coach Joe McKeown in the same video.
"When I was a first year, I was a very different person," Kunaiyi-Akpanah admits. "I was very different from now. Coach Pop (assistant Kate Popovec) always jokes that when I first got to Northwestern, I didn't know how to shoot a layup the right way and she's not wrong but it's not just in basketball, it's in terms of my attitude and my leadership. Never in a million years would I have thought I was going to be a captain. I was comfortable being in the background and doing what people told me to do. Now I'm someone people look to."
"It's amazing," McKeown will say, expanding on his Senior Night observation. "From a basketball standpoint, she was just learning (when she joined the 'Cats). Now every game she plays she's capable of getting 15 or 20 rebounds, and her offensive game has caught up to where she's had all these double-double. Her confidence level is incredible. Then off the court her personality has really blossomed. She was really funny, but shy a little bit (when she arrived). Because we're a small school, I think she felt at home once she got here. A lot of people took to her just because she's unique, funny, shy. One of those kids everyone wants to do well.
"Now I think she's well-exceeded expectations. To see her work ethic every day, every day she practices like she's trying out for the team. Even when we have shoot-around, walk-through, Pallas, she's going 100 miles-per-hour. That's the only speed she knows. That's where she inspires her teammates. She's just this genuine— you just want to hug her and be around her.
"She's unique. We'll miss her."
--------------------
She was born in Port Harcourt, a coastal city in southern Nigeria, but at six, moved to Abuja, where her dad, the Hon. Daemi Kunaiyi-Akpanah, was a member of the country's House of Representatives. At 10, she was enrolled at the Capital Science Academy, a boarding school, where she ran track, played basketball and tennis and attended classes dressed in a shirt, tie, jacket and skirt. She was also timid, self-effacing and bullied about her height (already six-foot). "When I was at Capital Science, I was the tallest girl on campus pretty much the entire time I was there," she explains. "Looking like this back home is hard. Not many people look like me, a taller female. I'm an anomaly."
Still, despite her innate reticence and reluctance to socialize, she couldn't help herself after her talk with Akiode, tell everyone she would soon be going to America. "She didn't make any promises. But I got my hopes up early. I was, 'I'm going to America. Did you hear? I'm going to America!'"
A year had passed and Akiode was not able to find a school for the young and eager Kunaiyi-Akpanah just yet. Starting to lose hope, she had given up on the dream of playing basketball in the States.
"At that point I just was disappointed. I'm like, 'You know what? I don't really care.'" Then one day, at 15, she gets the phone call, 'We got you in school. You're going to America.'
"I packed up. Left Capital Science. Never looked back."
--------------------
Two hours northwest of Atlanta, Georgia lies the town of Rabun Gap where Kunaiyi-Akpanah would be attending Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School, a private college prep school tucked into the southern foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.
"Not a clue," she says when asked if 15 year old Pallas knew anything about her destination.
"I could barely pronounce the name of the school. What is this Rabun Gap? What is this Georgia? I had no idea."
Kunaiyi-Akpanah spent time with her father doing extensive research on her new home. "My dad does research on everything. If he doesn't know the slightest thing about something, he'll do all sorts of research on it so he knows it like the back of his hand."
Both her parents, she goes on, were undaunted by the 6,000 miles that would now separate them from their baby girl, but instead supportive and excited over the opportunity she now possessed.
"They just wanted me to have the best life possible," she says, and her mom (Dein) and younger brother accompanied her on the trip that carried her from Nigeria to that new life. But, she will admit, when they dropped her off at Rabun Gap and began the trip back to Nigeria, it was then, fear began to settle in.
"I was really scared," she says. "I had done boarding school in Nigeria, but I still got a chance to see my family. When they dropped me off, I didn't know when I would see them again. I saw them once in three years. That was very emotional."
--------------------
It was here, far from home, that Pallas Kunaiyi-Akpanah began to find her voice. No longer bullied, no longer an anomaly as the tallest person in her school, she discovered a comfort level in this Southern community that embraced her. "People were welcoming and open to knowing me," she recalls, and here she blossomed with this nurturing, blossomed into a basketball star bright enough to attract attention. "That was really funny," she then says of recruiting, which was the next step on her journey.
"I hadn't even thought about post-high school when I was at Rabun Gap. I was just there, taking it all in. I wasn't sure what was going to happen to me, honestly. But my parents had faith in Mobolaji (Akiode) and what she was doing, and had faith in the people at Rabun Gap, to believe that things were going to be OK.
"Then next thing you know I go to Florida over break to stay with my aunt, who lives in Tampa. I was there with my aunt and Mobolaji reaches out to me and tells me, 'Hey. I know this coach in the Florida area. His name is Coach Kenny Kallina and he runs an AAU program called Florida Girls Basketball. She put me in contact with him and I met him, and he put me on the team and I started traveling with them and playing with them. Next thing you know I'm getting letters from all over the country saying, 'We saw you play. We want you to come visit our school.'"
McKeown, of course, was one of those coaches, and one fine summer day Kunaiyi-Akpanah and her parents found themselves in Evanston. ("It was quite warm. I feel tricked," she jokes when asked her reaction to her first winter.) They toured the campus. They met with McKeown and the team. They visited with athletic director Jim Phillips. "He was very nice," Kunaiyi-Akpanah remembers. "My dad, he plays golf every day. So he, Dr. Phillips, Coach (Sam) Dixon, who was an assistant at the time, and I think Coach Chris Collins as well, they all went on a trip to the golf club and played golf for a couple hours and got to know each other."
Now she chuckles. "When I tell that story," she then concludes, "I feel like my dad was more interested in Northwestern than I was. He was so excited, 'You've got to go to Northwestern. It's a great school!"
--------------------
Her imagination was stirred seven years ago on an outdoor court 6,073 miles from Chicago. She was shy then and bullied about her height, but a year after that she set off on a journey that eventually transformed her into a cherished friend and a revered leader, a fearless competitor and a student set to graduate from one of this country's great universities.
There were times in that life, she will admit, when she felt the challenges were all just too much, struggling with thoughts of doubt and wanting to head back home. " There were a lot of times I thought maybe I wasn't cut out for all this" she will say, and then she will chuckle. "But I always remind myself to relax, breathe and remember I'm in the right place."
When, as she went through this life, did she realize just what kind of opportunity she had, and decide to run with it?
"I'm not quite sure," she says. "I'm 21 now and I think with each step in my journey, it gradually dawned on me that not many people get thee opportunity that I have. People would do anything to have the kind of opportunities I've had and to be blessed like this. And even though my family is farther away I always try to keep in mind that I do have family, here at Northwestern."
That recognition certainly helped catalyze her much-admired work ethic, which has not only carried her and transformed her and delivered her to the pantheon. It also provides depth to her story, makes it real, makes it human, makes it so much more than the product of some Hollywood script writer's imagination. The bare bones of that story could make it seem that, make it seem like some miracle on the hardwood. But hers was no serendipitous trip with bluebirds tweeting in the background. No, not at all. The awards and the plaudits and the compliments she has garnered, she has earned them, earned them the old-fashioned way. "It has been a long journey," she will finally say when asked about this.
"I remember as a first year, all the seniors would tell us to cherish every moment because it all goes by so fast. Now, I'm in their spot and I can tell you it does go by fast but not in a flash. It's just been a rollercoaster every single step of the way."
With an incredibly hard fought journey you have to wonder, has it all been worth it?
"Absolutely," she says.
"This has been the best time in my life."
Players Mentioned
F
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's BasketballJoe McKeown Joins B1G Today (7/14/25)
Thursday, July 17
Women's Basketball - Nebraska Postgame Press Conference
Sunday, March 02
Women's Basketball - 'Cats Furious Comeback Falls Short In 85-79 Loss To No. 21 Maryland (2/20/25)
Friday, February 21
Women's Basketball | Maryland Postgame Press Conference
Friday, February 21
