Why Michigan basketball's Olivier Nkamhoua believes he's the missing piece — again

Olivier Nkamhoua smiled as soon as the question began; he knew it was only a matter of time.

Michigan basketball's newest forward, who transferred to Ann Arbor this offseason after four years at Tennessee, spoke with reporters via video conference call Saturday for the first time since his addition became official.

He was asked for his thoughts on March 19, 2022 — the most recent meeting between his former and current programs, a second-round NCAA tournament matchup in Indianapolis. Nkamhoua, then a junior, didn't play, however; after starting the first 22 games of the season, he broke his ankle in February.

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It required surgery, which ended his season; he was forced to watch from the sideline as the Wolverines overcame a six-point second-half deficit to advance to their fifth consecutive Sweet 16.

"I know my answer to how that game would have gone if I played, but I don’t know if I want to say that anymore because now I go to Michigan," Nkamhoua said while laughing. "But I guess the past is the past. If I was to speak on the past, I just remember that, if a specific person played, the game might have ended a little differently."

The 6-foot-9, 235-pound Nkamhoua still believes he's the missing piece — only this time around, it's for Juwan Howard's program.

Nkamhoua averaged 10.8 points and 5.0 rebounds in 25.3 minutes a game as a senior for Rick Barnes' club in 2022-23. After putting together the best season of his time in Knoxville, Nkamhoua declared for the NBA draft in the spring; but the feedback was clear: One more year of college would help his NBA prospects.

"The whole time I was figuring out the NBA thing," he said. "I really did wait until the last minute to make that decision."

Only then, did he seriously begin to consider his potential transfer destinations.

U-M was high on the list from the start, but he originally appeared to have ruled out Ann Arbor. Days before he announced his final decision, reports surfaced that Nkamhoua had taken the Wolverines off his list and was said to be down to Baylor and West Virginia.

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"I didn’t talk to anybody except people inside my circle about it," Nkamhoua said, unsure about how the rumor began. "And schools directly."

Later that week (with a key assist from assistant coach Phil Martelli, whose relationship with Nkamhoua dates back more than five years to when he tried to recruit the Finland native to play at St. Joseph's) Nkamhoua announced he was headed to U-M.

"Michigan was the choice for me because of what I said before, my relationship with Juwan, Phil Martelli," he said. "After early conversations with the players, I really connected with the players.

"It was just the best choice. Sometimes you can’t do things based on facts and numbers, sometimes you have to follow what you feel might be the right choice for you. Sometimes you have to trust in people more than all the other stuff."

"That other stuff" he referred to is U-M coming off of one of its worst seasons in the past 15 years. The Wolverines went 18-16 — missing the NCAA tournament for just the second time since 2011 — and lost to Vanderbilt in the second round of the NIT.

Howard's program didn't exactly have a perfect offseason, either.

It lost its three top scorers, with Kobe Bufkin and Jett Howard going in the first round of the NBA draft and Hunter Dickinson transferring to Kansas, was unable to add North Carolina guard Caleb Love (who committed to U-M but was later not academically eligible) and then lost four-star freshman signee Papa Kante (who requested a release from his NLI for academic reasons).

Nkamhoua is the only Wolverine with a double-digit scoring average in Power Five competition; he not only welcomes the responsibility, however, but he pushed back against the notion of a "culture problem" at U-M.

"Michigan does have great culture, and that culture doesn’t just go away because of a bad year," he said. "Culture is something you build through time, it’s about how you bounce back, how you keep doing things consistently every year, every month, every week; it’s not something that can be built in a day.

"One bad year doesn’t define a team and their culture. I feel like we have a chance to bring it back to what it’s known for, and just understand, everybody has bad years."

One notable reason for Michigan's down season? An inability to get reliable production at the four. The Wolverines rotated Terrance Williams II, Will Tschetter and Jace Howard at power forward, but they weren't able to find the necessary combination of shooting, rebounding and spacing.

That forced Howard to rely on a two-big lineup of Dickinson and Tarris Reed Jr., creating other issues in the lineup. Michigan needed someone who fits the position's modern profile.

"The position that I’m at naturally and built for," Nkamhoua said. "That’s a stretch forward,"

The Wolverines hope Nkamhoua and incoming Seton Hall transfer Tray Jackson can help fill that gap; their playing time won't be set any time soon.

Nkamhoua was in town for just over a month but has since left. The graduate student is headed overseas, first to Finland, then Japan, where he will compete in the World Cup with the Finns.

He relishes the opportunity to play against professionals from around the world and said it remains special to put on his nation's colors — the first time he played for the national team was with the under-16s; he said his mom cheering from the crowd that day in his jersey remains one of his favorite hoops memories.

Will it limit the time he has to jell with his teammates in Ann Arbor? Sure. But the forward isn't worried about that —for the reason U-M's coaching staff was so eager to add him in the first place.

"The coaches have done a really great job setting up practice so that everybody can really get comfortable with their role and get reps at the things they’ll need to be doing on the court for the team," he said. "I know what I can do and I bring the same thing to the table, whichever team I’m on because I have a game that just suits.

"My game just fits in anywhere.”

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan basketball's Olivier Nkamhoua on U-M: 'Trust in people'