Local grad returning to college basketball after four-year absence

“I’m really looking forward to it,” Landrum II said. “I think this is for sure the best opportunity for me.”

Landrum II thanked the Wilmington coaching staff — head coach K.C. Hunt, associate head coach Micah Mills and assistant coach Alex Trevino — for the opportunity. At 25, Landrum II will be the oldest player on the team but also one of the most experienced.

“When you’re away from the game as long as he’s been, getting used to college basketball is an adjustment,” Hunt said. “Chris is very talented. There’s no doubt he has the ability to play at our level. How quickly that comes is up to him.”

Landrum II had been seeking a new home for his college basketball career all spring while stationed at Aviano Air Base in Italy. He got the idea when the Air Force started a voluntary separation program in response to climbing enrollment numbers, giving new Airmen like him the chance to leave the military early, though Landrum will have duties with the ROTC when he gets back to the United States.

Landrum II expects to return from Italy in August. His dad, Christopher Landrum Sr., can’t wait to see his son and watch him resume his college basketball career.

“I am so thrilled and just blessed that my son is getting a great opportunity to really show his ability and his talent,” Landrum Sr. said. “It’s just a thrilling feeling to see that he’s able to finally get the opportunity to show that. He has complete confidence. His awareness on the court is something you just can’t teach. Those are God-given abilities. He has always displayed that since I first put the ball in his hands at the age of 3.”

Landrum II’s journey hasn’t been easy. He played three seasons at Northmont but said he was cut from the team before his senior season in 2014-15 for reasons that still rankle him. He found a new home at Troy Christian but had to sit out the first half of his senior season because he was a transfer.

Once Landrum II got on the court, he found success, averaging 10.1 points in 15 games and shooting 42.4 percent (15 of 33) from 3-point range.

At that point, Landrum II had scholarship offers from two Division II schools in Ohio — Notre Dame College and Malone University — and interest from Cleveland State. He was still focused on playing Division I basketball because so many people he grew up playing with were heading in that direction.

Landrum II then visited Cleveland State and worked out for the coaches. He said he received a scholarship offer from then-coach Gary Waters, but a roster change later forced Waters to ask him to go to a junior college for two years before coming to Cleveland State. That’s how Landrum II ended up at Edison, where he put up good numbers in two seasons, averaging 9.5 points and starting 54 games.

During his time in Edison and after, Landrum II and Carlos Buford helped lead the Black Lives Matter movement in Dayton. Landrum was part of a rally in 2016 that was held in response to deadly shootings by police in Louisiana and Minnesota. Landrum said another rally in downtown Dayton in 2017 attracted thousands of people. He plans to stay involved in activism when he returns to the states.

By the time, Landrum II had completed his sophomore season at Edison, Waters had announced his retirement at Cleveland State, so his Division I opportunity vanished.

Landrum II then tried to play for Ohio Valley University in West Virginia, but some credits didn’t transfer, and he ended up leaving that school and moving into the workforce, selling insurance. He then moved to Central State University but did not play basketball in part because his wife, Le’ajaa “Belle” Landrum, was pregnant by that point.

Landrum II started working at the front desk of the Courtyard by Marriott by Beavercreek to support his family but soon realized it wasn’t a long-term solution.

“I had to figure out something to do,” he said, “and the military was the best option for me.”

That’s how Landrum II ended up starting basic training in Texas in March of 2020 just before the pandemic began and about two months before his daughter, Eliyanah Yvette Landrum, was born.

Landrum II completed technical training at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas and then was sent to Italy in August of 2020. He didn’t see his wife and daughter again until December when they traveled to Italy.

In Italy, Landrum II has worked as a police officer for the base. A normal military commitment would have kept him in the Air Force until 2026, he said. Instead, he’ll leave early and try to pick up where he left off in basketball. He has played often throughout his time in the Air Force.

Landrum II’s status as an active-duty service member caught Hunt’s eye when Landrum II contacted him for the first time this spring.

“I immediately responded being the patriot that I am and reached out to Chris,” Hunt said. “I contacted some of my former players who played with Chris in high school, trying to find out what kind of guy he was, what kind of player he was. They all said glowing things about him as a human being.”