Big Monday becomes a family affair
Freshman walk-on returns to Texas to face his brother tonight

www.kansan.com
By Mark Dent (Contact)
Monday, February 11, 2008

Chase Buford, and his adopted brother, Alexis Wangmene, who plays for the University of Texas, will meet for their first college game against each other. Despite the distance and their differences, the brothers have stayed close through phone calls, texts and a good game of XBOX soccer.

Chase Buford plops in front of the TV in the middle of his Jayhawker Towers apartment and inserts a FIFA soccer game into his XBOX.

He’s tired from practice and can’t wait to play online.

In another dorm room, 700 miles away in Austin, Texas, his online opponent is recovering from practice, too, and eager to play some soccer. He’s Alexis Wangmene, Buford’s adopted brother.

He doesn’t seem like he’s adopted though. They’re brothers. After Buford’s parents adopted Wangmene (pronounced wahn-MEN-ee) from Africa, Buford, a freshman walk-on, used basketball to ease Wangmene’s homesickness as he struggled to learn English. Later, Buford gave him a love for preppy clothes and Rascal Flatts. Wangmene, who plays for Texas, taught Buford that he could become close to anyone, no matter where they’re from.

“They are brothers,” said their mother, Beth Buford. “They look out for each other and really love each other.”

Finding Alexis
Before R.C. and Beth Buford left their San Antonio home for Johannesburg, South Africa, in summer 2004, they gathered their son, Buford, and daughter, C.C., to tell them important news. They were considering adopting one of the boys who would be playing at the NBA’s “Basketball Without Borders” camp they’d be attending in Johannesburg.

“I didn’t know he was serious,” Buford said about his dad’s idea.

R.C. and Beth weren’t quite sure either. Adopting a kid was a possibility not a guarantee. That line of thinking changed when they saw a spindly, 6-foot-7 bundle of energy bounce up and down the court without ever losing his smile.

The fun-loving string bean was Wangmene. He was one of 100 African players invited to the camp.

Beth, a former KU golfer, and R.C., a former KU assistant basketball coach and general manager of the San Antonio Spurs, talked with Wangmene, then 15, and loved the kid’s smile and how he saw all the positives in life.

Beth and R.C. knew this was someone they could adopt. R.C. thought Wangmene would work hard and make the best of an opportunity to go to school and play basketball in America.

“I just think that being around the world and seeing what great opportunities were provided for me, I wanted to provide that opportunity to someone else and share the goodwill,” R.C. said.

But would Wangmene want to accept R.C. and Beth’s offer? He had a stable life in Maroua, Cameroon, living with his grandmother in a city that was bigger than his parents’ village so he could go to school and play basketball.

“It was a nice routine,” Wangmene said. “Kind of laid-back, not in a hurry.”

In Cameroon, Wangmene probably wouldn’t have been able to have much of a basketball career, but he could’ve had other things. Wangmene was in line to become chief of his Toupouri tribe. The position would have given him a comfortable life and the opportunity to marry five wives.

Wangmene talked to his mom, Germaine, and dad, Teophile, about the decision. Germaine didn’t want him to go. Teophile told him he should leave. Wangmene decided that he wanted to leave his simple life in Maroua and move in with the Bufords for a challenge.

“I didn’t realize the sacrifice it would take,” Wangmene said.

A struggle to integrate
He finally arrived.

The Bufords had been back and forth between the airport and R.C.’s parents’ house in Wichita all day waiting for Wangmene to arrive on Christmas Eve. He got tied up with visa problems and missed his connecting flight in Atlanta. It didn’t help that Wangmene hardly knew a word of English. He could speak only his native French.

Finally, at 10 p.m., an underdressed, tall man stepped out of the Atlanta gate, and Buford and his family were ready to meet him.

“The poor thing was just exhausted,” Beth said.

Buford, then a 15-year-old high school sophomore, wasn’t sure how to react to the cold, confused kid.

“At first,” Buford said, “I was like, ‘I don’t want to have to baby-sit him all the time.’”

But it never felt like that for Buford. He and Wangmene weren’t able to go to the same high school at home in San Antonio because of transfer problems for Wangmene, but they spent time together at night and during the weekends.

The first few weeks were tough. Almost all Wangmene could do was say yes and no and communicate through hand signals. He spent a lot of time in his room doing homework and learning English.

“It really was a struggle for me,” Wangmene said. “No communication was possible. Imagine not being able to speak at all.”

Learning from each other
Buford and Wangmene started to form a bond through basketball in those early days. Although Wangmene had a five-inch size advantage, Buford did whatever he wanted on the court.

“I always killed Alexis in one-on-one,” he said. “He was too uncoordinated back then.”

Soon the language barrier faded. Wangmene learned how to speak English mainly on his own, but Buford helped out, too. He corrected Wangmene’s mistakes and found the best way to help sometimes was by making fun of him.

Wangmene often watched movies to pick up some English. One time, Buford found Wangmene viewing “Win a Date With Tad Hamilton,” a no-no for guys.

“That was about the most embarrassing moment of his life,” Buford said.

All of Buford’s jokes were out of fun. He and Wangmene were becoming close friends. They spent the summer before their senior years of high school working out at the gym every day and going home to watch World Cup soccer. When the TV matches ended, they’d play each other in FIFA on the Xbox.

On summer nights at friends’ houses, it was tough to differentiate Buford from Wangmene. Sure, one was tall and African and the other was American and much shorter, but they did dress alike. Polo, American Eagle, Abercrombie — they wore the same clothes. Wangmene had picked up Buford’s taste in fashion, perhaps too much of it.

“He might dress preppier than anyone I know,” Buford said.

The clothes were just the start. Buford introduced him to country music, and Wangmene fell in love with it. He listens to it all the time, especially Rascal Flatts.

“There’s another embarrassing thing for him,” Buford said.

The fashion and music did wonders for Wangmene’s love life. Girls started noticing him, but Buford couldn’t take credit for that part. He said Wangmene has known how to attract gorgeous women from day one.

“He’s like a big teddy bear,” Buford said. “Quiet. I think he plays it off as an act, and they normally fall for him.”

Summer 2006 was the last time Buford and Wangmene really got to spend time together. Wangmene was moving to New Jersey to play basketball at Blair Academy for his senior year of high school. The inexperienced, non-English-speaking stick figure who used to get drubbed by Buford in one-on-one had come a long way. He was moving across the country to hone his rapidly improving game for one of the best high school teams in the nation.

There, Wangmene jumped from an almost unknown to the No. 81 prospect in the class of 2007. Blair Academy coach Joe Mantegna said the move to New Jersey allowed Wangmene to play against real competition and become a better player. It also gave Mantegna the opportunity to coach the kid who never stopped smiling.

“He’s an unbelievable person,” Mantegna said, “a way better person than he is a player.”

Buford missed his brother, but he knew the move was for the better. Buford had helped integrate Wangmene into the American culture, and Wangmene had shown him that a whole different life existed outside San Antonio. He didn’t learn too much about Cameroon tribes or other cultural aspects. He learned from getting to know his carefree African brother from a humble background that good people can come from anywhere.

“He definitely opened my eyes to a world I didn’t even know,” Buford said.

Meeting tonight
Wangmene tried saying a few words of trash talk to his brother, but Buford wouldn’t have it.

His Alamo Heights team had just lost to Central Catholic, Wangmene’s team, after blowing a big lead in the final two minutes, and Buford wasn’t too happy. He outscored his brother, but the loss stung.

“I was so mad,” Buford said. “He knew not to talk to me for a while.”

That was the only time Buford and Wangmene played each other in high school. Tonight will be the first time their teams meet in college. The stakes will be slightly higher this time with a Big 12 title race on the line.

Wangmene and Buford talked about playing at Texas together, but in the end, Buford wanted to get away from home. As fun as it would have been to play on the same team, both are happy with their situations.

Wangmene is averaging 2.4 points and 2.4 rebounds per game in about 11 minutes off the bench for the Longhorns. Buford, a walk-on, isn’t getting the minutes, but Kansas coach Bill Self said he was still improving.

“He’s a great teammate,” Self said, “and he understands the game. He’s not going to impact the game as far as putting him in at crucial times, but he’s become a very good practice player and is making the guys better.”

The two brothers stay in touch as often as they can through phone calls, text messages or FIFA games. When Wangmene got ejected for throwing an elbow against Texas A&M two weeks ago, Buford was quick to tease him with a text.

Tonight, Wangmene could get significant playing time with his team going against Kansas’ tough front line. Buford likely won’t even dress for the game.

People watching on TV or from the stands will probably see Buford behind the bench in street clothes and Wangmene sprinting down the court and have no idea that the two even know each other. They won’t know about the FIFA games, the summers at the gym or the criss-crossing of two cultures.

They won’t know that these two kids from two different worlds grew together to become real brothers.

“It’s been an experience I couldn’t even imagine,” Buford said. “It’s something I’m so grateful could happen to me. I have a brother.

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