Liberty University’s Kyle Ohman converts first-year rejection into success story

Kyle Ohman often wonders how his story would have turned out had he actually made the Liberty basketball team on his first attempt.

Ohman, a homeschooled athlete from Mechanicsburg, Pa., played basketball for tiny Emmanuel Baptist Christian School on a loophole that allowed children who attended the school’s church to play varsity sports.

Ohman, who was one of 11 students in his graduating class, scored 27 points a game for the school as a senior, but college recruiters weren’t exactly rushing to south central Pennsylvania to watch Ohman play. Emmanuel Baptist played independent, private school basketball. It rarely competed against public schools in the state.

He chose to attend Liberty because he wanted a Christian education, and if he made the basketball team, that would be a bonus.

Once he failed to make the team as a freshman, he played intramural hoops on campus. By springtime, he was playing pickup games against several Flames players, who encouraged him to talk to then-coach Randy Dunton.

Ohman lifted weights with team members, played pick-up ball during the summer, and by the time he came back for his sophomore year, he was considered part of the team.

“Now that I look back on it, I’m really glad it worked out that way,” Ohman said. “I think they won three Division I games that year, and it would have been really frustrating. I probably would have ended up transferring,” an option he considered after his first year playing for the Flames, a season that ended with Dunton’s firing.

Ohman’s certainly glad he didn’t. The former walk-on is the Flames’ third leading scorer at 11.3 points per game, and had he left, he would have never shared a line in the John Paul Jones Arena record book with North Carolina’s Tyler Hansbrough.

The two share the record for points scored in a half by an opponent at Virginia’s home arena, and Ohman’s 17 first-half points there in November helped Liberty rebound from an ugly loss a week before at UNC Asheville.

“He turned our season,” Liberty coach Ritchie McKay said. “He breathed life back into a team that was breathless, and his confidence dripped over on to each player’s game, and because of that, we were able to turn it faster than we probably should have.”

‘He’s a walk-on!’

Among the cheers from Liberty’s student section last year, this one was a favorite. Any time Ohman hit a shot, fans would chant, “He’s a walk-on!” to taunt the opposition.

The words were constant motivation for Ohman, a 6-foot-4 wing who played 45 minutes in 10 games as a freshman.

“It was pretty frustrating the first year I played,” Ohman said. “I felt like I was playing pretty well in practice. But coach Dunton had his senior guys, like Dwight (Brewington) and Larry (Blair) and Damien (Hubbard). It was understandable for him to play those guys.

“But I just felt like I practicing good enough, and playing good enough, but not getting the opportunity.”

That changed when Liberty hired McKay. The new coach had little film to judge Ohman on. Instead, he watched him in workouts and noticed a gritty defensive player with an outstanding outside shot.

McKay also noticed a fierce competitiveness in Ohman.

“If you were playing Monopoly with him, and he lost, he’d be mad, and he’d try to cheat to win,” McKay said. “And I’m the same way, so I recognized that. Often, coaches will want guys that played like they played.”

Once given the opportunity, Ohman quickly established himself as a legitimate player last season. He scored 15 points against Coker in Liberty’s fourth game and hit double figures four times off the bench in Liberty’s first 12 games.

“Coach (McKay) believed in him, and that just gave Kyle the extra edge he needed to take his game to another level,” Liberty guard Anthony Smith said, adding Ohman’s confidence “grew exponentially.”

Ohman, who spent his freshman year guarding Blair and Brewington in practice, played with great hustle. He dove for loose balls, battled for rebounds that seemed to be out of his reach and added a burst of energy each time he entered the game.

That energy got him in trouble at times, though. Ohman found himself out of position defensively on a number of occasions, leading to easy baskets for the opposition.

That’s changed this season. Ohman learned from those mistakes and began to play with more discipline on the defensive end.

“He’s got such a good voice behind our defense, he just kind of anchors us,” McKay said.

Moving on

The walk-on chants are moot now. Ohman’s play last season earned him a scholarship, and he came back to school this season a changed player.

His best trait is still his shooting (his 38 3-pointers are second on the team to Seth Curry’s 52), but he helps Liberty in other areas. Ohman’s an underrated passer who is second on the team with 40 assists and he’s dogged on the defensive glass (5.3 rebounds per game).

Ohman made a concerted effort to improve his ability to penetrate, whether it’s for his own shot or for a kickout to an open shooter. He didn’t want to be known as a one-dimensional player whose only skill was to spot up from 3.

In short, he’s not the walk-on who struggled just to get minutes as a freshman.

Said McKay: “He’s become complete.”