Long journey on and off court prepared Mabil Mawut for Arizona Wildcat career

After growing up in three African nations, not including the warn-torn country where he claims citizenship, Mabil Mawut was heading for a second year in the United States last fall when he took a personality test at his Bronx high school.

The result: ENTJ, short for extraverted, intuitive, thinking and judging.

“It came back ‘commander,’” said Pete Weyhe, coach of the Bronx’ Our Saviour Lutheran, referring to a common name for the personality type. “The personality of a leader.”

But that wasn’t why Arizona’s newest men’s basketball recruit became the captain of Weyhe’s national-level basketball program at Our Saviour Lutheran about a month later. Nor was it really about Mawut’s 6-11 frame or emerging skills that attracted UA’s interest this spring.

It was because, instead of picking one himself, Weyhe told his players to vote for a captain in a secret ballot.

“I wanted to give them some autonomy,” he said.

Mawut, formally known as Mabilmawut Kon Mabil, tried to vote for somebody else. But it didn’t matter: Of OSL’s 10 other players, nine voted for him.

“That tells you everything you need to know,” Wehye said.

Maybe it tells you why Arizona offered a chance for Mawut to develop and play for the Wildcats when few other high-major colleges were showing serious interest.

Maybe it tells you about how Mawut grew personally after being born in Kenya, spending most of his youth in Uganda, then enrolling at the NBA Academy Africa in Senegal — all while occasionally seeing his father in South Sudan, where Mawut is a citizen.

Maybe it also tells you about how Mawut grew as an athlete, from a dedicated soccer player and swimmer who had no use for basketball until about age 13. An athlete who initially did all his shot swatting and defense from the ground up.

“I used to be the five,” Mawut said, referring to a key center defensive position in soccer. “I just played defense.”

All the time, he said.

But two things changed his course. Mawut kept following his older brothers to watch them play pickup basketball, just a spectator, for a while, without a clue how his journey would take him from Uganda to Senegal to the Bronx and, this summer, to Tucson.

“They told me ‘You have to give it a try,’” he said.

At the same time, Mawut began hitting a dramatic growth spurt. He was 6-6 at age 14, shooting past his oldest brother, heading toward 6-9 at age 16.

Basketball wasn’t just a casual option anymore.

“When I grew past him, he was like ‘Man, you gotta take this seriously. You can really make something out of it,’” Mawut said of his brother. “I was kind of suspect about it but I fell in love with it along the way.”

After learning some basics in pickup games, Mawut joined the Solid Skills Academy in Uganda, where he ran into former Duke center Khaman Maluach.

It wasn’t long before both of them were identified for their potential. Maluach, now a projected NBA lottery pick next month, picked up a scholarship at the NBA Academy Africa in Senegal, and Mawut followed him when he received an offer two months later.

It was the first time Mawut played seriously organized basketball, allowing him a greater platform to attract high-school and college scholarships.

“Once I joined the academy, I had this whole mindset of ‘I just want to play college basketball,’” Mawut said. “It’s been a dream of mine to actually play in the NCAA because back home we watch March Madness and stuff like that.”

While growing on the court quickly, Mawut was doing the same personally. Mawut was still just 14 when he moved to Senegal, already separated from the bulk of his family in Uganda and also away from his father in South Sudan, where a civil war broke out between 2013 and 2020 and violence still occurs.

“He was always in South Sudan, working with the military,” Mawut said of his father. “He was always working. Always working.”

Technology helped. Mawut said he kept in touch with his father and, after he moved to Senegal, with the rest of his family in Uganda.

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“Every time I got a chance I would get on the phone with them,” Mawut said. “That’s something I don’t take for granted. I’m always trying to let them know what’s going on with me, and then also see what’s going on back home there.”

Mawut holds citizenship in South Sudan but, other than the occasional visit, said he never lived there. He and many of his siblings were born in Kenya, before the family moved to Uganda, while Mawut picked up three languages along the way: A tribal language, English and one of Uganda’s major languages, Luganda.

“In the whole big picture, it shaped me in a lot of ways,” Mawut said. “Learning from the different countries I’ve been in to, different people, different society. It made me better character-wise, I would say.”

By the time Mawut arrived at Our Saviour Lutheran for his junior season in 2023-24, having attracted an offer there while at the NBA Academy, Weyhe found it obvious how Mawut’s journey had shaped him.

He was mature off the court and, while raw on the court, mature enough to realize what he needed to do there.

“He has a unique skillset,” Weyhe said. “He’s 6-11, but he can really shoot, and he also has a level of toughness with his small, muscular frame.

“With that frame, he’s able to go in there, rebound, defend at a high level, and really play hard. I think the main thing about Mabil is his effort, and I think that he got that from, basically, his journey to get to America.”

Mawut spent two years playing for Our Saviour Lutheran, which is known as “Jelly Fam” for marketing reasons, while playing on the high-level Overtime Elite (OTE) circuit. He also played on the Nike EYBL circuit for the New York Lightning, the same club team that UA center Tobe Awaka played for.

Playing on those levels requires not only skills but also the ability to handle the spotlight and travel involved.

“He’s so mature, he’s able to deal with some tough things,” Weyhe said. “Him coming over from South Sudan and then being thrust in the OTE, where they put cameras in your face? It was tough.”

On the court, Weyhe said Mawut had to adjust to the speed of the game, using his toughness to compete for rebounds while increasingly stretching defenses with longer-range shooting.

“When he came in, he was like ‘Oh man, these guys are moving so fast. I’ve gotta keep up with them,’ “ Weyhe said. “But it wasn’t such a big challenge, because NBA Africa played at a high level.

“He would predominantly be inside most of the time, defending, and trying to catch and go up and be a drop-off guy. Just a drop-off guy. Then he’s in the gym working out, he’s taking jump shots, mid-range, and to the 3.

“I’m watching the form, I’m watching the result and then we’re like ‘Listen, you need to start shooting some 3s.’”

At OSL, Mawut said he gained the confidence to shoot 3s, but he also found there were ways to impact the game without shooting at all.

“You can go get a rebound, you can go get a blocked shot, you can communicate to your teammates where the screens are coming from,” he said. “It’s having the energy, good energy.

“And winning — there’s nothing that’s more fun than winning. Winning is something really enjoyable.”

After playing for the Lightning last summer, Mawut said a few college coaches reached out to him, but those relationships didn’t go anywhere. But things moved quickly with Arizona toward the end of his senior season.

“They came out, they were really interested, and we built a relationship,” Mawut said. “It was great.”

Mawut said he will arrive in Arizona soon after his graduation at Our Saviour Lutheran next month, and it is now clear that his older brother was right: He is making something of basketball.

It might not translate to playing time right away for the Wildcats, who already have a polished frontcourt that includes Awaka, Moteijus Krivas and five-star freshman Koa Peat, in addition to promising Sudanese big man Sidi Gueye.

But, in a modern college basketball scene that is more about the now than the future, Mawut could become an exception.

“He’s definitely gonna need a year,” Weyhe said. “Him coming in and getting a year to get acclimated is the best thing. Because he’s very smart, he will soak everything up, then he could go right from there. He’s gonna learn how to play at that level the same way he did when he got to us.”