Print edition: 
OKLAHOMA CITY — A steady group of reporters continuously approached Northern Iowa junior guard Kwadzo Ahelegbe in the Panthers' locker room Friday and almost all asked the question as if it was the first time Ahelegbe had heard it.
"How do people commonly mispronounce your name?"
Ahelegbe has a ready-made response: "Cujo. But I'm not the killer dog."
For the record, it's pronounced Kuh-JOE, and the last name is Uh-HEL-ig-buh. But the stories of Ahelegbe and UNI backcourt-mate Ali Farokhmanesh (Fuh-ROAK-muh-nesh) aren't in their multisyllabic names, they're in their roots.
Ahelegbe's parents emigrated from Ghana, in west Africa. Farokhmanesh's dad, Marshallah, is a native of Iran.
The two guards lead UNI, the Missouri Valley Conference regular season and tournament champion, into today's second-round NCAA Tournament game against top-seeded Kansas.
"I've heard some of the stories, I've been (to Ghana) a couple times to visit family," Ahelegbe said. "It's a fun place to be. It's pretty westernized over there. The last time I went I was 15 and there was McDonald's and stuff like that."
Ahelegbe's dad, Kwami, left Ghana before Kwadzo was born and settled in Minnesota, where he worked for a manufacturing company and finished his education. Kwami's wife, Kafui, arrived in Minnesota a couple years later and they started a family. A big family — five sons and three daughters.
Members of Kwami's side of the family still live in the villages of Ghana. His mother's side is a military clan.
"Family is one of the strong suits of African cultures," Kwadzo Ahelegbe said. "I have two extremes."
Children from Ghana are often named after the day of the week on which they're born. Ahelegbe was born in Minnesota, but his parents brought that custom from Africa and his name translates to "born on Monday," one of five Ghanian names that share that meaning.
Ahelegbe's son is named Makhai, which means "born on Tuesday."
Marshallah Farokhmanesh was a volleyball star in Iran before leaving for the United States in the late 1970s to learn English. He met Cindy Fredrick at a volleyball camp and plans to return to Iran were altered. He married Cindy and the couple had their only child, Ali, in April 1988.
"He came here and it was extremely foreign," Ali Farokhmanesh said. "He's a health freak now, but he used to tell stories about how back then he would go to McDonald's and all he could eat was the 49-cent hamburgers every day. He's told me about all those struggles."
Ali's parents stationed in his mother's home of Iowa. He played volleyball as a child before he recognized "all the boys weren't playing it as much." Then Ali took up basketball.
The sport is growing in both countries. Three Ghana natives play NCAA Division I basketball; Iran made the Olympics in men's basketball in 2008 for the first time in 40 years and the country's first NBA player, Hamed Haddadi, is a second- year player with the Memphis Grizzlies.
Ali Farokhmanesh has never visited Iran, where his father's relatives still reside. He talks to his grandparents on the phone occasionally, but the language barrier keeps the conversations short and infrequent.
That's only a minor deterrent in Farokhmanesh's effort to connect with his roots.
"My dad will try to call there every once in a while and the call won't go through or it won't work somehow," Farokhmanesh said. "But every once in a while, the call will go through and I'll be able to talk to them. When we talk to each other, we can only say a few words in English, but it's always special."
