It’s Christmas morning, and Akintola Akinniyi is in third grade. The Denton, Texas native is awoken to a basketball hoop in the driveway from his parents — a gift his sister asked for the previous year.
“From that first made shot, I just kind of fell in love with it,” Akinniyi said. “I just started playing the game, and it got to a point, like every day, for four hours, I was just out there on that driveway, just getting shots up and it kind of just started my journey.”
At Guyer High School in Denton, the now sophomore forward received three Division I offers — Army West Point, University of Tennessee at Martin and Nichols State. Ultimately, he chose Army West Point with the help of his parents.
“My family was very gung ho about (going Division I), and very sold on the idea of me going to West Point,” Akinniyi said. “Everybody wants to make their parents proud. So even though I knew within me, it might not have happened to be my first choice, kind of just made that decision to follow their instruction and follow their will.”
Life at West Point brought a grueling schedule. During the school year, Akinniyi started his day with formation at 6 a.m. — 5 a.m. during boot camp — followed by classes, training, survival swimming and practice, keeping him busy until 10 p.m. To gain an extra hour of sleep, Akinniyi won a battalion powerlifting competition where he had to lift at least 1,000 pounds between bench press, squat and deadlift. He lifted 1305 in total.
Even with that extra 60 minutes of rest, it wasn’t long before Akinniyi debated whether he wanted to continue his routine or look elsewhere.
“After a month or so, the Army wasn’t really for me, I’m definitely not against Army West Point in any manner, but I feel that if that’s something you’re going to do, (it’s) something that you have to be fully committed to and I was only really committed to the basketball aspect,” Akinniyi said.
After deciding to leave Army, Akinniyi initially set his eyes on Abilene Christian University. However, with the coaching staff being unresponsive about meeting with Akinniyi, he kept searching. It wasn’t until his roommate at Army talked to his little brother who was going through recruitment that he mentioned Quinnipiac.
“He starts talking about Quinnipiac and their play style in every scene, talking about how athletic they are and all this stuff,” Akinniyi said. “I reached out, and the timing was perfect that (Quinnipiac) ended up playing Army.”
Akinniyi now had to be discharged from the Army, which is a process that takes two to three months to complete. At that point, he didn’t have any offers and was betting on himself to find a new school. With Quinnipiac in town to take on the Black Knights, it was an ideal time to talk to the coaching staff, which then prompted an official visit during Thanksgiving break.
“Once I met the staff, once I went through the campus, and also knowing that my brother goes to Yale, so that family being so close, it just really ended up being the perfect fit,” Akinniyi said.
Standing at 6-foot-7 with a 7-foot-2 wingspan, he had the build to compete at the top level. Quinnipiac saw Akinniyi’s potential and he joined the team for the second half of the 2023-24 season, slotting in as a backup forward amid injuries.
“We were kind of thin at the big spot, losing a couple of bigs early on, and so you realize the need for (Akinniyi) to kind of help and improve the quality of life within our forwards last year,” assistant coach Bradley Jacks said.
Joining a new team midseason is never easy, and transitioning from a military environment added another layer of adjustment. Even the small differences Akinniyi took for granted.
“I remember my first week here, whenever I was texting old friends and people from back home, I was telling them ’Yo, I got to dress myself today, like I got to pick out my own outfit,’” Akinniyi said. “I’ve been able to express myself through what I wear.”
One way Akinniyi found his place at Quinnipiac was by bringing the Christian faith that his parents instilled in him to his peers. Akinniyi was part of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes during his senior year of high school and a member of the Gospel choir at Army.
At the end of his first semester in Hamden, the president of the Quinnipiac Christian Fellowship program was transferring. Akinniyi jumped at the opportunity and became the leader of the services held on the York Hill Campus.
“He started the student-athlete Christian Fellowship program here on campus. He has a couple of our guys that attend meetings weekly,” Jacks said. “It’s awesome to see a guy that just isn’t basketball focused, able to do things he’s very branched out to different networks.”
Akinniyi may not play as much as his other forward counterparts, but his faith and upbringing make him a “likable and a very humble guy,” according to Jacks.
It’s a fitting description for Akinniyi, who lives by the verse of Roman 12:20 — “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.”
“It’s about loving everybody, even the people who don’t show you love, loving your enemies, those who persecute you,” Akinniyi said. “I feel that by reacting positively, that it’s only gonna send good karma your way.”
