Former OPS student competes at NCAA Final Four
This past basketball season, the Eagles gained a new boy’s head coach, Bruce Chubick Jr., after the parting of former coach Eric Berhens. Not only did new coaching staff follow Chubick, but so did his legacy and former successes from Omaha South: two Nebraska state championship titles along with countless appearances in the tournament and many of his players going to play collegiate basketball. One of the most well-known players being San Diego State’s 6’7, 225 lbs. forward, Aguek Arop.
As a Packer, Arop was 6’6 and 190 lbs., a forward who averaged 16 points per game, along with a state title his junior year.
“His skill set, you don’t see everything he’s capable of doing because they don’t ask him to it at San Diego State, but I mean he knocked down threes, he’d face the basket more, he was beating guys off the dribble in high school,” Chubick said.
“His skill set, you don’t see everything he’s capable of doing because they don’t ask him to it at San Diego State, but I mean he knocked down threes, he’d face the basket more, he was beating guys off the dribble in high school,” Chubick said.
— Bruce Chubick
Arop is a fifth-year senior, who came back this 2023 season as a graduate student. He averages 4.5 points, 2.9 rebounds, and has a field goal percentage of 57.9.
The Aztecs beat the Creighton Blue Jays by a one-point buzzer beater in the Elite Eight, which devastated the city of Omaha, but the Aztecs win made Aguek the first Nebraska high school graduate to make it to the Final Four since 1994.
Burke graduate Jason Richey was the last Nebraska high school graduate to be on a Final Four team. He was a walk-on at the University of Arizona. But the Wildcats could not make it any further after falling to the Arkansas Razorbacks.
After beating Florida Atlantic University in their Final Four game, Aguek Arop became the first Omaha Public Schools graduate to make it to the National Championship. There was only one other Nebraska high school graduate that played in the National Championship game, Don Waite of Scottsbluff. He played for Wyoming in the 1943 March Madness finals.
The University of Nebraska Basketball has been missing out on a lot of instate talent, including Central’s own Latrell Wrightsell. They also lost out on Arop.
Aguek committed to Nebraska in 2014 and decommitted in 2016 because head coach at the time, Tim Miles, wanted him to go to prep school before college and ended up finding a perfect fit at San Diego State.
While Aguek may not have stayed home, he is still representing Omaha Public Schools on the biggest stage.
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