STARKVILLE — Chinwe Okorie has gone from sitting and watching to being able to do everything the rest of her teammates on the Mississippi State women’s basketball can do.
For the next month, that means Okorie will be doing a lot of running, bumping and banging bodies with center Martha Alwal, and pushups. The 6-foot-5 sophomore center would prefer not to have to do a lot of pushups — the punishment for missed layups in practice — but her ability to develop a softer touch, particularly around the basket, will play a big part in how many she will have to do between today and before MSU’s exhibition opener against Arkansas-Fort Smith at 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 9.
“My shots are improving,” Okorie said. “Before now, and even still now, I am working on my offense. I am working on finishing on the backboard with the soft touch. My coaches are always like, ‘The soft touch, Chinwe. The soft touch.’
“I am getting a bit more patient to turn around, look at the backboard, and see the box where I want to place it. That is improving because I feel it even within myself. I am no longer in a hurry to just put the ball up there.”
Okorie can take time to develop confidence in her offensive skills because MSU returns its top five scorers from a team that went 22-14 last season and advanced to the quarterfinals of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament. The addition of a nationally ranked recruiting class, which features Victoria Vivians, the state’s all-time leading scorer, adds to the options coach Vic Schaefer will have to work with entering his third season in Starkville.
Schaefer would have had Okorie out on the floor last season, but NCAA eligibility issues that stretched into the season forced her to sit out the season. She arrived at MSU after a standout season at Stoneleigh-Burnham School in Greenfield, Massachusetts, in 2012-13. Okorie, who is from Nigeria, averaged 15 points and 15 rebounds per game and was the No. 4 player in the region by HoopDreamsMag.com.
“She has all of the physical tools. No doubt about it,” Schaefer said. “She has really yet to play — other than Europe — in a competitive basketball game. Her high school team was very average at best. She has come a long way.”
Schaefer was pleased with Okorie’s contributions on the team’s four-game tour of Belgium and France last month. Okorie might have had one of the best individual performances on the trip when she grabbed 17 rebounds, but Schaefer said Okorie “padded” her totals in that game with offensive rebounds of her own misses. But Schaefer knows Okorie will need time to adjust from the prep school basketball of the Northeast to the rigors of the Southeastern Conference. That’s why he said last season was so valuable for Okorie, who practiced with the team and helped make Alwal, a 6-4 center, even better. He hopes both post players will push each other — and the rest of their teammates — to take their games to another level this season.
“She continued to get better in Europe in each game,” Schafer said. “Her physical presence, her length, her ability to alter shots, and her ability to rebound. If she is close or if she gets her hand on it, you’re not going to get it from her.
“The challenge for her is she needs it low, low right now to score. That is fine. Her game is going to be defense, stick backs, and rebounding. I don’t need her to be a 15-and-10 person. I need her to get 10 rebounds and get 10 points.”
Associate head coach Johnnie Harris will work with Okorie and the other post players to hone their skills. She said Okorie was “very strong but raw” when she arrived in Starkville. Harris said Okorie has worked extremely hard in practice to get better. She said she is the kind of player that will take the initiative and work on skill development by herself because she wants to be the best she can be.
“It is still a work in progress,” Harris said. “We really haven’t limited her. She gets a lot of touches, and coach Schaefer has been trying to give her as many reps as she can. I think what Chinwe needs most is gametime. She just needs to play. The more she plays, the better she will get. She is physical in the post. If she buries her defender deep, there is a very good chance she is going to score. Her touch around the rim is progressing a lot better than what it was.”
Still, Okorie has a ways to go. In MSU’s first practice Monday afternoon in Mize Pavilion, Okorie missed at least a half-dozen layups in drills and in five-on-five drills in the first hour of practice. After she missed another layup, Schaefer encouraged Okorie to “go a little deeper on your pushups” and even held his arms out in front of his body to demonstrate.
The pushups figure to make an even more imposing post player that much tougher. While she works on her touch, Okorie showed she is an athletic player who can get up and down the court quickly. She also has a wide wing span that MSU hopes will allow her to control the backboards, especially if she keeps the ball high over her head and away from pesky guards looking for a steal.
Okorie understands her touch and her skills need to improve for her to see increased minutes. She admits last season was a “great experience” that was at times “boring.” She said she enjoyed her crash course on SEC basketball and is eager to be a contributing member of the teams when it’s time to play the games.
“I want to do my best,” Okorie said. “In the back of my mind, I want to know my best is not good enough, so I want to keep working hard and pushing and helping my teammates out. I don’t want to let my teammates down.”
Okorie said she will focus on making her biggest imprints in rebounding and defending in the paint. She lists offense as her third-best quality when asked to rate her game. In time, though, she helps the pushups and the reminders from her coaches about her shooting touch will help her offensive skill move up that list so she can be a bigger threat on both ends of the floor.
“(The pushups) are helping me because whichever way you do it you’re going to have a price to pay,” Okorie said. “I want to do it right so I don’t have to do pushups, even though pushups are part of training. I want to do it right just so I don’t have to do pushups because I did it wrong.”
“It is like a dream come true at last. I am super excited, not just because I get an opportunity to play, but I get an opportunity to play with my teammates. It is a great opportunity because we practice, we sweat a lot, we do everything together, but we want the result together at the end of the day, so I am looking forward to that result.
“I think I am going to do good because I have been working hard. I am not looking for everything to go to waste. I am looking to put everything into play, into action.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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