Josiah and Jair Knight made similar decisions when choosing which institution to attend for college, ending up at different UAA institutions and facing off on the basketball court when their careers overlapped.
“I was basing my decision on both academics and athletics. I visited Rochester in early October of my senior year of high school and loved the campus and the team. I jelled with them well,” Josiah recollected. “I was drawn by the ability to play schools all over the country. The things Rochester brought to the plate were attractive to me. It made the most sense to go there and I am glad I did for the people I met on the court and in the classroom, and for the opportunities I had beyond those spaces to develop into a better person.”
“Josiah’s experience had a huge impact on me because I knew how I wanted to approach my search,” Jair stated. “I worked hard on my game because I wanted to play in college. My parents and Josiah stressed that I should go to a strong academic university. Emory was a perfect choice based on its location (my uncle lives down there) and a history of robust basketball that I wanted to be a part of.”
Because Rochester and Emory open each UAA season playing against each other, Josiah’s senior year and Jair’s freshman year meant the two would square off in Atlanta to open the UAA schedule. “It was fun to play against Jair. It was something my entire family anticipated and joked about around the house. It was different preparing for a game when the person you are scouting is the person you’ve grown up with your entire life,” Josiah communicated.
“I knew the first game against him was going to be very competitive and I was thinking, ‘We can’t lose that first matchup.’ It was an interesting coincidence that we played each other in the first game of the UAA schedule. The whole family was there and my mom and dad had shirts that were half Emory and half Rochester,” recalled Jair.
Despite Jair’s 27 points and 12 rebounds in the UAA opener the following season, Rochester took home a two-point victory when Josiah was a graduate student. “Losing to them at Rochester was tough but playing against each other was always a perfect opportunity to show out. I see that as a huge opportunity when we play them now, even though he isn’t there anymore.”
“In those games, we appreciated what a big moment it was for the entire family. It was crazy to think of the level of schools we were going to and being able to balance academics and athletics. That is a credit to our parents,” Josiah pointed out.
Josiah is working at Goldman Sachs in New York City in equity research. “I essentially give buy and sell recommendations for stocks to clients based on how the market and economy are doing. I had no idea what investment banking and finance were when I got to school,” he laughed. “That is just one of the reasons I am so grateful that Rochester exposed me to so many things. I give credit to (former teammate) Kailan Lee for guiding me through the complexities of those subjects and internships. He is doing something similar at Bank of America and introduced me to this career path.”
Jair will be a senior in the fall and after he finishes a summer internship, he plans to focus on basketball for the rest of the summer. “I want to continue to play after college and I have talked to ‘Z’ (Emory head coach Jason Zimmerman) about that,” he commented. “I want to go full-fledged into basketball for as long as I can and then I may start a master’s program and figure out my career from there.”