Meet Butler's 'Dennis Rodman' lite: An Isaiah Thomas assist, a disease and growth spurts

Indianapolis Star

28-04-2025

Michael Ajayi was convinced he did everything he needed to do to make the varsity basketball team at Kentwood High School in Kent, Washington.
Heading into his junior year, Ajayi had no stars and no recruiting buzz. He worked his way up from a 5-foot-7 freshman on the C team to a 5-10 guard with one year of junior varsity experience. If he ever wanted to reach his dream of playing Division I basketball, earning a spot on varsity as a junior was the first step.
Then he got cut.
"I felt like that was embarrassing for me, not making the varsity squad junior year," Ajayi, who committed as a transfer to Butler basketball, said. "I cried a lot and a couple of days later my dad convinced me to keep playing. ... It was a turning point for me. I stuck with it, but it was hard.
"I spent a lot of hours working on my game. I knew I was good enough to play at that level, but I feel like the coaching staff didn't believe in me and see what I saw. But my family always believed in me."
Ajayi spent his junior season on the JV team. He wasn't a regular starter at that level either. Division I started to feel unreachable, but with encouragement from his father, Ayo, Ajayi kept working.
The COVID-19 pandemic closed gyms throughout the state, so Ayo built a court in the family's backyard for Ajayi to practice. He didn't play AAU early in his high school career, but he spent hours at local gyms — 24 Hour Fitness and LA Fitness — playing in pick-up games and perfecting his craft.
After his junior year, Ajayi benefitted from something no amount of practice can give you: a growth spurt.
Michael Ajayi's 7-inch growth spurt causes Osgood-Schlatter
The COVID-19 pandemic put the state of Washington into lockdown. Kentwood's season ended in February 2020. The state shut down in March. Kentwood coach Blake Solomon and his staff went more than a year between seeing Ajayi play in person, but they got their first hint that he had changed as a player when a coach from an Ivy League school inquired about the rising senior with zero minutes of varsity playing time.
"The last time I had seen him, he was playing on our JV," Solomon said. "For a D-I coach to call me I was kind of surprised. Then I started reaching out to Mike and other coaches. By the time I saw him I knew he'd gone through the (growth) spurt.
"It was crazy when he walked through the doors for the first time, he looked completely different."
During the pandemic, AAU players from Washington traveled to other states with looser restrictions to play games. After his junior year at Kentwood, Ajayi grew seven inches to 6-5 and, suddenly, college coaches started to take notice.
The added height finally earned him a spot on the varsity basketball team, but it came with a painful condition called Osgood-Schlatter disease. Osgood-Schlatter is when rapid growth causes inflammation from the tibia to the kneecap. Ajayi had the body of a varsity athlete, but his condition sapped him of his athleticism.
COVID limited Kentwood's season to just 10 games. Ajayi rarely practiced before games, needing increased treatment with ice packs and knee wraps.
"You take him to doctors because he's feeling pain, and the doctors say there's nothing you can do other than not play basketball," Ayo said. "He has to not play basketball, but he has to play basketball because he did not get any looks at high school. ... It was a difficult time dealing with it."
Ajayi's body finally caught up to his work ethic. His effort and energy were never in doubt, but his time spent working on his game helped him develop the skill necessary to star on varsity.
"When he got into the game he always worked really, really hard," Solomon said. " He always had the skill of playing hard, but it looks different when you're 6-5.
"One thing that was also evident when he got back from the break was that he could shoot the ball a lot better. His shot looked really good. ... It just made him that much better."
Michael Ajayi became the Dennis Rodman of junior college
Ajayi had a solid but unspectacular senior season at Kentwood. He still moved a little awkwardly at that time, but he was long-armed and the form on his jump shot was pure. Battling through knee pain, he played well enough to catch the eye of Pierce College, a junior college in Puyallup, Washington, about 30 miles south of Seattle.
Pierce coach Brian Kovacevich learned of Ajayi through Solomon and scouted several of Kentwood's games. Once Ajayi got to Pierce it didn't take the staff long to realize they landed a diamond in the rough.
"You could see flashes of it where he'd go up and grab a rebound off the rim and flush it," Kovacevich said. "And he was still growing into his body."
The work ethic he developed in high school continued in junior college. The staff at Pierce would open the gym early in the morning for Ajayi to get up shots. He'd work out between classes, go to practice and come back to the gym for more work later in the night.
Ajayi averaged 20.4 points and 11.3 rebounds while shooting 38.6% from 3 as a freshman. After a 2-inch growth spurt to 6-7, Ajayi averaged 22.7 points, 12.8 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game while shooting 36% from 3 his next season.
Ajayi came into his own at the JuCo level. His athleticism sets him apart, and the way he hunts mid-range shots gives his game a throwback feel. He has guard skills, but his basketball IQ helped him develop into an elite rebounder.
"I tell scouts, 'I would easily bet my house that Mike was going to grab a rebound,'" Kovacevich said. "I could tell he was a pretty good rebounder in high school. Body type-wise he's built almost like Dennis Rodman. He's got real long arms and real long legs.
"It's not that he's a crazy explosive jumper all the time, but he's very long and powerful. He just has a knack for seeing where the ball is coming off (the rim) and securing it. ... That's why scored so much for us, he got a lot of offensive rebounds off of others missed shots. To me, he's a rare rebounding talent."
An assist from NBA All-Star Isaiah Thomas
After Ajayi's first season at Pierce, coaches took notice of his production, just not coaches at the Division I level. Ajayi nearly committed to a Division II school, but the staff at Pierce convinced him to be patient.
On a random summer day, through a connection from the Pierce staff, former University of Washington star Abdul Gaddy invited Ajayi to an open run in nearby Tacoma, Washington, hosted by fellow Washington alum, two-time NBA All-Star Isaiah Thomas.
The run featured several professional basketball players. Ajayi used the run to show he could hang with high-level talent, and he more than held his own.
"No one knew who I was, so I just came in confident and balled out," Ajayi said. "I was guarding Isaiah Thomas full court, hitting every shot, defending my a-- off. (Thomas) seen that in me, and he couldn't believe I was still in junior college."
After the run, Thomas shouted out Ajayi to his 1.8 million followers on Twitter.
"Mike Ajayi 19 (year) old plays basketball at Pierce Community College," Thomas said. "If you a DI college coach and haven't heard about him you better do YOUR job! He's a really good player."
Ajayi also showed well at The CrawsOver Pro-Am in Seattle, hosted by fellow Washington native, three-time NBA Sixth Man of the Year Jamal Crawford.
With NBA stars giving him props, word of his talent made it to former Washington coach Lorenzo Romar, then the coach at Pepperdine. With the elusive Division I offer finally in hand, Ajayi committed to Pepperdine and continued to dominate the West Coast Conference.
As a junior, Ajayi led the WCC in scoring at 17.2 points per game. He added 9.9 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game while shooting 47% from 3. He scored at least 20 points 11 times in 33 games and scored at least 30 points twice. He notched double-digit rebounds 19 times, pulling down a career-high 17 boards against Pacific. The step up in competition did not slow down Ajayi, and he excelled against powerhouse Gonzaga, averaging 10 points and 8.5 rebounds in two meetings against the Bulldogs.
After one season at Pepperdine, Ajayi transferred to Gonzaga and put his name into the 2023 NBA Draft. He withdrew and at Gonzaga, Ajayi had to adjust from playing as a high-usage player to a role player. He started 13 of 34 games at Gonzaga, averaging 6.5 points and 5.4 rebounds per game in 18.9 minutes per.
"I learned a lot," Ajayi said. "It definitely was a challenging year for me, mentally. The team didn't fit me as well as I wanted to, the system. But I learned how to play with great guys. How to read the offense, read the defense, read screens. What kind of coverages they're in and to try to exploit that.
"My IQ grew a lot from there. Knowing when to cut, when to pass, making plays."
Searching for a larger role, Ajayi entered the transfer portal and committed to Thad Matta and Butler. The Bulldogs have the type of player they sorely need. He's a high-energy, high-effort player who can guard multiple positions and excels at rebounding. He's deadly in the mid range, but he doesn't need plays run for him to score. Expect Ajayi to see time in the front court as a hybrid 4, anchoring the defense alongside Drayton Jones.
"We all have adversity throughout our lives, but it's how you respond to it," Ajayi said. "I can't wait to redeem myself and go crazy."