Ibok immigrated to the United States from Lagos, Nigeria to play high school basketball near Orlando before coming to MSU in 2004.

Since then, he’s earned an undergraduate degree in telecommunication, information studies and media and is pursuing his master’s in advertising. For these reasons, many who have met Ibok ponder what kind of impact he could someday have on his home country.

Although he first shies from the question, Ibok taps into an undeniable truth and desire before answering: “I don’t think that’s a bad idea.”

A comfort

About a year before he was born, Ibok’s mother gave birth to a girl who died during labor.

When Ibok’s birth was successful, his mother named him Idongesit — meaning “comfort.”

Four years later, Ibok’s father died of complications from a serious case of hypertension. His mother took responsibility for him and his four siblings.

“Her alone being able to raise five kids with the way the economic situation is in Nigeria is unbelievable,” Ibok said. “You have to be really strong to be able to do that, and she’s been a huge part of my life and still is. I look up to her for strength and inspiration.”

Growing up in Nigeria, Ibok said he couldn’t play outside as much as children would in the United States because of the dangers in Lagos. Instead, he grew attached to comic books, video games and cartoons.

But blessed with exceptional height by the time he was in his mid-to-late teens (6-foot-10 when he was 18 years old), Ibok was granted an opportunity to come to America.

A chance

Kevin Sutton gave Ibok a chance.

The high school basketball coach in the Orlando area heard from a mutual friend about a prospect who could make a smooth transition to life in the United States. Feeling fortunate to be given the opportunity, Ibok made the long journey to the United States to play basketball and earn an education. But after spending time with Ibok at Montverde Academy, Sutton saw a future for his player beyond the hardwood.

“He’s a very soft-spoken and humble young man and very appreciative of the opportunity,” said Sutton, who has coached at the school for six years. “He knew that he was going to be someone in the future and be somebody who’s going to do something that’s going to impact the world, and I still believe that.”

A member of Sutton’s first class at Montverde, Ibok’s senior speech at the team’s end-of-the-year banquet sticks out in the coach’s mind. Ibok’s words — in a moment where players usually reflect on their season or career or tell inside jokes — were different.

“Idong chose to stand up there at that time and let everyone — faculty, administrators, coaches and teachers — know how appreciative he was of his experience at Montverde Academy, and he did it without notes,” Sutton said. “That really struck everyone. … But he always laughs when I do tell him I would not be surprised when someday he’d be an ambassador for the Nigerian embassy.”

Tom Izzo saw the same raw talent in Ibok that Sutton saw years previous. And with Sutton as a trusted confidante, the MSU men’s basketball head coach took a hard look at the 6-foot-11, 260-pound prospect.

“I said, ‘I’m not even sure if he can play, but I’d sure like to have him,’” Izzo recalls. “That sounds crazy, but that is the truth. That’s how it started. Just his story — where he came from, what he went through to get here — I fell in love with the guy immediately.”

Coming in, Ibok was part of a loaded recruiting class of state and national household names, like Drew Neitzel, Goran Suton and Marquise Gray. Ibok, who chose from among MSU, Charlotte, Virginia Tech, DePaul and Florida State, rounded out the class as a third big man.

Neitzel became a leader, Suton became a consistent scorer and Gray has become an up-and-down big man with no shortage of excitement and flair off the bench. As for Ibok, he says the play required of him on the floor doesn’t reflect his personality.

“On the court, you have to be intense and really focus on the job at hand, but I’m more of a laid-back person off the court,” Ibok said. “It takes my game to a whole different level when a lot of emotion goes into it.”

Izzo recognizes that Ibok hasn’t been a prolific scorer or even a consistent presence in the lineup (0.7 points per game in 7.3 minutes per game this season). He said Ibok has struggled through injuries (a dislocated elbow in the 2007 NCAA Tournament), poor free-throw shooting and catching the ball.

“It’s been an interesting go,” Izzo said. “Some people probably say it wasn’t as good and productive. You have to be around here to see that it has been good and productive, just maybe not as good on the court as we’d all like to see.”

But the growth Izzo has seen and the impact Ibok has had on his coach has been significant.

“It’ll be one of the greatest things I’ve done,” Izzo said of recruiting Ibok. “Because I’ve been around a guy that probably has taught me more than I’ve taught him.”

An education

It was barely enough words to span the length of his arm.

Ibok, who draws attention whether or not he desires it, needed not even a paragraph to command the attention of the advertising graduate school admissions department with his essay.

But that’s Ibok’s nature.

His statements are free of ambiguity and full of eloquence:

“… to positively impact the advertising practices in my home country of Nigeria and introduce more creative and productive ways of marketing to West Africa … .”

It was refreshing for Pamela Brock, a graduate secretary for the MSU Department of Advertising, Public Relations and Retailing, who said the department can see more than 200 applications that can tell life stories.

“We don’t have a long time to read about somebody’s life when it started in kindergarten,” she said. “This says everything that we needed. It says exactly what he wants to do, the reason he did it and everything. He could have said, ‘When I was a young boy, I always wanted to study in the U.S. and I love basketball and yadda yadda yadda,’ and that’s usually what people do because people think the more they write, the better their chances are of being admitted. For someone to put all of this in one paragraph, we just thought that was wonderful.”

Ducking through doorways of the Communication Arts and Sciences Building with his iPod earbuds filling his ears (he listens to mostly hip-hop and rap, but has appreciation for gospel and “other songs of other genres and countries”), Ibok keeps to himself, but draws looks in the hallways because of his towering height.

“Despite the unnecessary attention you get most of the time and the inability to find stuff that fits that you want all the time, I love my height and I’m thankful to God for blessing me with such size,” Ibok said.

Ibok would rather inconvenience himself by walking home than asking a favor of another in a ride. He wears double-zero — a number typically reserved for the flashy and showboat type — nearly by default. For him, basketball at MSU can serve as a means to an end — an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone and accomplish two dreams in one sitting.

“He’s super conscientious and a nice person to be around, just a pleasant person,” said Keith Adler, an associate professor in the Department of Advertising, Public Relations and Retailing who had Ibok in class. “All the people in the department like him and the students like working with him on teams and he fits in very well.”

With an interest in TV and animation, Ibok studied video production as an undergraduate and is following it up with the master’s degree in advertising. But first, Ibok still clings tight to the aspiration to play professional basketball when he leaves MSU.

“After that, who knows?” said the three-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree. “I might be somewhere running ad campaigns or doing commercials for the Super Bowl sometime.”

A future

There are few things that Ibok wants.

He wants to leave MSU remembered as a player who did the right things and blocking shots. He also wants his mother to see him play basketball once in the States, walking the length of the Breslin Center floor on Senior Day. But not for him — for her.

“That would be everything,” he said. “I don’t know how to explain that in words. That would be beyond wonderful for her to come see a game or even get a chance to come visit and something I hope happens.”

He has a cousin in California and an aunt in Ypsilanti, but Izzo said Ibok hasn’t been home to see his family in six years. He communicates with his mother and family through a six-hour time differential with text messaging and, recently, Facebook.com.

“When I get up in the morning, it’s pretty much busy in the day, and by the time I’m out of practice, they’re asleep,” he said.

“On the weekends, we text back and forth to keep everybody up to date on what’s going on.”

One other thing Ibok wants is to see the hardships he experienced as child growing up in Nigeria come to pass.

“The situation over there with the government is not the best right now,” he says. “They need young minds and fresh minds to revolutionize the way the mind-set is in that country. It’s the same old people who have been there for years, and it’s a country with so much potential and it’s just being — I’m not going to say wasted — but the level of corruption over there is overwhelming and nothing is getting done about it.”

Mention the impact his education could have on his home country of Nigeria and a calm, focused look comes over Ibok’s face.

“I’m not saying me alone,” he said.

“But I’m just saying it’s a situation where I believe that a lot of young people should be made aware of the kind of change they can make in a country like that and to start pushing to get that done.”