Mocs’ Makai Richards Creates His Own Style On And Off The Basketball Court

It’s hard to overlook seeing a 6-foot-10 guy riding around on a scooter.

That might be a common scene back home in southern California where Makai Richards is from. However, catching a glimpse of someone with Richards’ size cruising around campus at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga is indeed a rare occurrence.

But Richards is completely comfortable standing out in the crowd. In fact, he relishes living outside the norms, bringing a splash of panache to the world around him. The soft-spoken junior represents a beautiful mosaic of athletic skills coupled with artistic creativity, somewhat of a renaissance man who defies the typical jock stereotype.

His interests cover a wide array of passions – fashion, cooking, and music to name a few – and they serve as outlets to help balance the rigorous demands of college basketball. But Richards comes by this honestly, something he acquired from his mother, Kellen, and his father, Godfrey.

“I just kind of like to be authentic, be myself, and just try to stand out in being unique,” Richards said. “I enjoy expressing my creative abilities to the world, and I like to show that in fashion. My mom has been a big, big inspiration on that as well as my dad. He’s a big shoe collector with over 200 pairs of shoes, lots of Jordans and designers that I really like.”

Widely considered by his UTC teammates as the sharpest dresser on the squad, Richards finds comfort in rolling out in his latest set of trendy threads. It’s a platform where he hopes to find a future once his basketball days are behind him.

“I feel like the fashion world is definitely a big place for me,” Richards said. “After basketball, I see myself landing there. Just the whole community is really cool, so I definitely would want to be a part of that. I feel like the possibilities are endless.”

After transferring to UTC following a redshirt freshman year at Eastern Washington and two seasons at Pacific, Richards understood that moving to Chattanooga might require a slight tempering of his wardrobe choices in order to fit into the southern culture.

“It was somewhat of a transition, so I toned down my style a little bit because I didn’t want to dress overly crazy and have people being like, ‘Oh, he's definitely from Cali,’” Richards said. “Tennessee style is different. They got the cowboy look and all that stuff. I adjusted to wear what I feel like is comfortable, and people started to like my outfits.”

Richards’ creativity also extends into cuisine, providing another meaningful outlet for him to unleash his originality.

“I also like to cook a little bit,” Richards said. “I feel like cooking has some of the aspects of being creative as well. I enjoy just kind of like expressing my style onto the food and being able to enjoy that.”

Richards landed at UTC thanks to the tireless efforts of assistant coach Ander Galfsky in scouring the transfer portal to locate the right complementary pieces to head coach Dan Earl’s roster.

“I had gotten a call from Coach Galfsky and I had been looking for a good home as the best fit for playing next year,” Richards said. “He talked to me about the school and how the community here was really great. I just really wanted to be a part of that, especially just seeing how much the fans really support us. I felt like this would be a great environment.”

It has been a season of highs and lows for Richards, a native of Oak Park situated at the foot of the Santa Monica Mountains. But he has stepped forward in a meaningful way along with fellow post players Collin Mulholland and Latif Diouf in filling the void created by an injury to all-conference forward Frank Champion entering the Southern Conference tournament, where scoring ten points in the quarterfinals in his first start against Mercer.

Richards is part of a regular rotation of big men that has enabled UTC to make its deepest postseason run since moving up to Division I in 1977. His two steals in last week’s win at Bradley provided a pair of defensive stops that helped Chattanooga (27-9) advance to the National Invitation Tournament semifinals at 9:30 Tuesday night in Indianapolis, Ind. against Loyola Chicago (25-11) that can be seen on ESPN2.

Over the past five games, Richards has logged an average of 15 minutes per contest and has been a steadying force inside with four points and three rebounds per game. For the season, Richards averages 3.7 points and 1.8 rebounds each outing.

The start of Richards’ career at UTC could not have gotten off to a better start. The Mocs opened the season at Southern Cal, only 40 miles from his hometown. Three days later on the second leg of Chattanooga’s California swing, he scored a career-high 19 points against powerhouse St. Mary’s.

“For sure that was exciting, especially being back home,” Richards said. “I got to have my family come out to the games, so that was a great experience.”

But with Champion entering the lineup after missing the first eight games following off-season foot surgery, Richards struggled finding that same level of consistency. He displayed another glimmer of brilliance in late November against NCAA Tournament entrant Bryant when he had 17 points and five rebounds, but the towering lefty battled to find his role. Over the span of 17 SoCon games, Richards was able to compile only 28 points while playing five minutes on average per outing.

“It's been a little bit challenging,” Richards said. “I look up to Kobe (Bryant), so it's always about the next play and a ‘Mamba mentality’. You’ve got to be ready for the opportunity because you never know what's going to happen out there in the game. I've always been trying to work on my game outside of practice, just working on my shots and finding ways to get better. It's been helping me in improving my game every time I get out there, just trying to make an impact as soon as I can.”

Understanding his new role as part of the regular rotation with Mulholland and Diouf has also helped boost Richards’ confidence knowing the importance of his contributions.

“It was kind of unexpected,” Richards said. “But we know that our role is just to go out there and play as hard as we can for the amount of time we get and we make the most of it. I feel like as long as we keep building and bringing good energy out there, we're going to be great.”

Richards would also like an opportunity to make his impact while in Chattanooga beyond the hardwood. He already has plans to implement some of his creative juices toward designing next season’s Mocs uniforms.

“I feel like I definitely want to add some jazzy designs to the shirt,” Richards said. “You’ll have to just wait and see, because I feel like I've got some good ideas.”

Paul Payne can be emailed at paulpayne6249@gmail.com