WILMINGTON—When Lebron James and the Los Angeles Lakers took down the Miami Heat to win the franchise’s 17th championship, a UNCW alum became the first former Seahawk to earn an NBA championship ring.
Devontae Cacok was on the UNCW roster for the Seahawks from 2015 until 2019. During Cacok’s sophomore year, his 80% field-goal percentage was good for an NCAA single-season record. Junior year, he earned a spot on all-conference first team within the Colonial Athletic Association. In his senior campaign, Cacok started all but two games, and ended the season with an average of 15.2 points and 12.3 rebounds. He also led the nation in double-doubles that year with 22.
“He was a key part of what we were doing,” UNCW basketball coach Takayo Siddle said. “To go on and win a world championship for the LA Lakers—that guy is living his dream out right now, and he deserves every single thing that he’s getting.”
While Cacok was at UNCW, Siddle worked in the basketball program under then-head coach Kevin Keatts. Siddle moved to N.C. State before Cacok’s senior year to join Keatts, who took the head coaching job with the Wolfpack program. In March of this year, UNCW named Siddle as head coach of the basketball team, bringing him back to Wilmington.
“This is a place where I’ve always wanted to be ever since I was a player coming out of high school,” Siddle said. “To be able to be an assistant here was great, and to be able to be head coach here has been a dream come true for me.”
Siddle has been guiding his team through the complications of pandemic basketball, and with the season’s schedule still up in the air, he wants to make sure his inaugural group is ready for its first game.
“It’s been a challenge,” he admitted. “I haven’t been able to be with them as a whole group a whole lot because of some COVID issues. But the times we have been on the court, those guys have worked extremely hard at giving me everything they had.”
Cacok started three games as a freshman in 2015-2016. In the following three seasons, he was a key player, earning a start in almost every contest. As a freshman, Cacok scored a basket and played 7 minutes against Duke in the NCAA tournament. When the Seahawks were a 12-seed in the tournament the next year, Cacok put up 12 points against a 5-seed Virginia team.
“The summer going from freshman to sophomore year, he added about 15 pounds of muscle to his frame,” Siddle said. “He got in great shape, and he spent a lot of time in the gym to where he could get some confidence.”
Cacok went undrafted following his senior year campaign and signed a contract with the Lakers. He played for the team throughout the summer league, then was waived, and played for the team’s G League affiliate in the autumn of 2019. He was an All-NBA G League First Team player in his first season.
In December 2019, Cacok signed a two-way contract with the Lakers that would have him split time with the franchise and its G League affiliate, the South Bay Lakers.
On August 13, Cacok made his NBA debut in the Disney World Bubble. Against the Sacramento Kings, he scored six points and brought down five rebounds for the Lakers. The Lakers then went on to defeat the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals 4-2, making Cacok the first ever champion to come out of UNCW’s expanding basketball program.
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