Mathiang Muo

Mathiang Mauot Muo (born 4 March 1987) is an Australian-South Sudanese professional basketball player for the Joondalup Wolves of the NBL1 West.

Muo was born in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, a city in the heart of the Sudanese civil war in the 1990s.

To help himself and his family survive, Muo worked as a domestic cleaner, earning three dollars a day at the age of 10, leaving home for two-month stints before returning to spend a week with his family.

In 1998, at the age of 11, Muo, along with six siblings and his mother, Elizabeth, escaped to Egypt as refugees.

The family enrolled in a refugee lottery while in Egypt and waited two years to find a new destination.

Eventually, Muo's family were given the chance to come to Australia on humanitarian visas, moving to Sydney, where he and his family were able to settle down.

Upon arrival in Sydney, Muo began formal education at the age of 13.

He spent the first two years in extensive English training and enrolled in high school.

While living in Sydney as a teenager, Muo starting playing basketball for the first time in a local park.

As he began to love the sport and realising his natural talent, Muo decided to take the game seriously, partly as a way to keep himself out of trouble.

Muo's talents were recognised by a local basketball training centre called Next Level Basketball.

Muo was introduced to coach Edward Smith and his game began to take off.

A few years later, Next Level began taking one trip a year to showcase tournaments in the United States as a way to promote and expose the better players to college programs.

It was a trip to Las Vegas when Muo was 18 that changed his life forever after his performances drew plenty of attention.

In 2005, Muo attempted to finish high school in Florida at Florida Prep but the school went bankrupt before he could graduate.

He subsequently moved to The Winchendon School in Boston but left when he realised the coach, who had links to the University of Massachusetts, was telling other colleges not to recruit him.

He then moved to The Patterson School in Lenoir, North Carolina, where he finally graduated high school.

Though he received a diploma, Muo did not qualify through the NCAA Clearinghouse and instead attended Quinnipiac University as an international student for one year.

He played four seasons of college basketball in the United States between 2009 and 2013 before joining the Perth Wildcats of the National Basketball League (NBL).

He improved his grades enough to qualify and accepted a basketball scholarship worth $60,000 with Northeastern University in 2009, and joined the university's Division 1 college basketball team.

As a freshman playing for the Huskies in 2009–10, Muo played 29 games (one start) and averaged 1.8 points and 1.2 rebounds in 8.5 minutes per game.

In 2010, Northeastern University decided Muo did not meet its academic standards and rescinded his scholarship.

He subsequently moved to the College of Central Florida, where he played 29 games as a sophomore in 2010–11.

In those 29 games, he averaged 13.2 points and 4.0 rebounds per game.

In 2011, Muo once again moved colleges, this time landing at Charleston Southern University and joined the Buccaneers men's basketball team.

Playing for CSU, Muo's talent began to shine.

As a junior in 2011–12, he played 31 games and started all of them, recording averages of 9.8 points, 4.0 rebounds and 1.0 assists in 27.0 minutes per game.

As a senior in 2012–13, he became one of the best shooters in school history and the second-best shooter in the league, as he shot 41.2% from the three-point line.

In 28 games (26 starts), he averaged 11.2 points and 5.1 rebounds in 29.8 minutes per game.

On 7 June 2013, Muo signed a three-year deal with the Perth Wildcats of the National Basketball League.

However, on 13 August 2013, he suffered a tear to his left Achilles tendon during the second official training session of the team's pre-season schedule.

He was subsequently ruled out for the entire 2013–14 season.

He worked tirelessly throughout his rehabilitation program, a strict program that lasted nine months.

He attended every training session throughout the 2013–14 season and remained a big part of the Wildcats playing group, and watched on as his team won the NBL championship in April 2014.

He was a member of the Wildcats' 2014 championship-winning team but managed just 15 games over two seasons due to injury.

Since parting ways with the Wildcats, Muo has had a successful state league career, playing in the SBL, SEABL, NBL1 and Queensland State League (QSL).

He won an SBL championship with the East Perth Eagles in 2014 and a SEABL championship with the Hobart Chargers in 2018.

On 16 May 2014, Muo joined the East Perth Eagles of the State Basketball League for the rest of the 2014 season.

He made his debut for the Eagles the following day in a 97–68 win over the South West Slammers.

In 18 minutes of court time, he recorded eight points and four rebounds despite shooting just 3-of-12 from the floor and 2-of-9 from downtown.