Oso Ighodaro earns Marquette’s 79th Annual McCahill Award

McCahill Award

MILWAUKEE – Former Marquette University men’s basketball player Oso Ighodaro is the recipient of the 79th annual Robert L. and William P. McCahill Award, the highest honor bestowed upon a Marquette student-athlete.

He will be honored at Fiserv Forum during the men’s basketball game against Seton Hall on Tuesday, Feb. 18.

“Oso’s commitment to the daily pursuit of excellence makes him a natural choice for the McCahill Award,” MU Vice President and Director of Athletics Bill Scholl said. “An academically driven student-athlete, and selfless leader and teammate, Oso is the best of Marquette. His dedication to the University is unrivaled, and we hope he is an example to MU student-athletes for decades to come.”

Ighodaro, the 2023-24 BIG EAST Men’s Basketball Scholar Athlete of the Year and a College Sports Communicators Second Team Academic All-American®, was a four-time member of BIG EAST All-Academic Team who graduated in December 2023 with a bachelor’s degree in finance in just three years. The native of Chandler, Arizona, concluded his undergraduate career with a 3.54 grade-point average and earned a Master of Business Administration from the Graduate School of Management with a 3.713 GPA in May 2024. He was inducted to Chi Alpha Sigma, the National College Athlete Honor Society.

He is one of just five players in Marquette men’s basketball history to earn Academic All-America® recognition, and last spring he and teammate Stevie Mitchell were the first to earn such honors since Marc Marotta in 1982-84 (first team). Marotta was the 1984 recipient of the McCahill Award.

On the court, Ighodaro was a two-time All-BIG EAST Second Team selection and earned NABC All-District 2 Second Team and All-BIG EAST Tournament honors as a senior in 2023-24. He concluded his career as one of 53 players in program history to reach 1,000 career points with 1,078 and added 574 rebounds and 130 blocks in 109 games. His point and rebound totals were 43rd and 33rd, respectively, in MU history at the time of his final NCAA game, and his block mark is seventh all-time.

He was one of 10 players named to the late season 2023-24 watch list for the Karl Malone Award as the nation’s top power forward and earned all-tournament honors in the 2023 Maui Invitational for his play in games against UCLA, No. 1 Kansas and No. 2 Purdue. He led the way for the Golden Eagles in the 73-59 rout of the top-ranked Jayhawks with 21 points, nine rebounds, two assists and a pair of blocks.

The two-time team captain led the Golden Eagles in rebounding in each of his final two seasons and ended his career as MU’s all-time field goal percentage leader with a mark of 62.4 percent. He set a program record as a junior in 2022-23 by shooting 66.0 percent (186-of-282) from the field as Marquette captured a BIG EAST regular season title and its first BIG EAST Tournament crown. He ranked seventh in all of NCAA Division I that season in field goal percentage.

Ighodaro led teams to NCAA tournament berths in each of his final three campaigns, including a pair of No. 2 seeds in both 2022-23 and 2023-24. As a senior, he led the Golden Eagles to their first NCAA Sweet 16 appearance since 2013 with wins over Western Kentucky and Colorado in the first and second rounds. He tied a program NCAA tournament record with five blocks in the NCAA First Round win over the Hilltoppers.

In total, the Golden Eagles went 88-44 during Ighodaro’s four seasons and compiled a BIG EAST winning percentage of nearly 80 percent (79.4%; 50-13). He also led MU to its first two appearances in the BIG EAST tournament finals at Madison Square Garden.

Ighodaro was an active member of the Milwaukee community during his time at MU, working on various initiatives with a variety of entities over his four years. He routinely participated in Sharp Literacy’s Reading with the Golden Eagles and events with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Milwaukee, the Milwaukee Rescue Mission, Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin and the Pat Connaughton Foundation.

The native of suburban Phoenix is in the midst of a successful rookie season with his hometown Phoenix Suns as a valuable rotation player. He was selected in the second round (40th overall) of the 2024 NBA draft by the Portland Trailblazers before his rights were acquired by the Suns.

About the Robert L. and William P. McCahill Award:
The McCahill Award was named after Captain Robert L. McCahill, a former Marquette student-athlete who gave his life for his country at the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II in 1945. Established by his brother, Colonel William P. McCahill, also an MU student-athlete, the award was first presented in 1946 and has been awarded annually as the highest honor bestowed upon a Marquette student-athlete.

After Colonel McCahill’s death in 1999, Marquette University officially renamed the award to recognize the lifetime accomplishments of both Captain Robert and Colonel William McCahill.

The award is given annually to a student-athlete who has achieved in athletics, scholarship, and service to the university.

Past recipients of the award include Olympic silver medalist John Bennett (1954), two-time NBA All-Star Don Kojis (1961), Naismith Award-winner Butch Lee (1978), NCAA 10,000-meter run champion Keith Hanson (1986) and men’s basketball all-time scoring leader Markus Howard (2020).

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.