WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Idowu ‘did everything for everybody’ at Richards. Now, she’s ready to contribute even more for Toledo.
Halle Idowu “did everything for everybody” at Richards. Now, she’s ready to contribute even more for Toledo.
A year ago, I totally surprised
Halle Idowu.
After a game, I told her how interesting it was to look at Richards’ statistics sheet and see that she led the team in points, rebounds, assists, blocked shots and steals.
Idowu gave me a “What???” kind of look.
“I didn’t really know,” she said at the time. “I don’t really think about stats.”
When we talked the other day, it was fun to hear how she remembered that conversation.
“I was so excited when you told me about it because I never thought it about in that perspective,” Idowu said. “I was like, ‘Now that I know, wow. I’m really capable of doing that.’”
I wasn’t the only one who was impressed looking at the numbers. Toledo coach Tricia Cullop was pretty much wowed as well.
In fact, it was one of the first things she noticed at the beginning of the recruiting process.
“Oh, definitely, she could fill up a stat sheet,” Cullop said. “She did a little bit of everything. One of the other things I noticed was that if her team was behind, she would go in and do so many things to help them get back into games, to win games.”
That was quite enough to earn Idowu an offer. Now, she’s making a difference for Toledo as a valuable freshman reserve coming off the bench.
The 5-foot-11 guard/forward has seen playing time in all nine games for the Rockets. During the past four, she has played between 12 and 15 minutes. She scored six points in a game against Duquesne and had seven rebounds in Saturday’s game against Ohio.
“Against Duquesne, I got in and it was relieving when I scored a bucket with some contact,” Idowu said. “It was kind of like my welcome-to-college feeling.
“I wasn’t expecting to score a bucket on that big girl when she was knocking me over. It was pretty fun.”
It’s pretty awesome to see that she’s being given a chance and responding. I’m not surprised.
“It’s different in a good way,” Idowu said. “I can feel myself getting better each and every day. I’m going hard and coach is recognizing it. That has been helping me a lot.”
I guess it’s none of my business, but I’d like to think she’ll be a pretty solid candidate for the Richards Hall of Fame.
During her Bulldogs career, Idowu scored a program-best 1,853 points. She also had more than 1,000 rebounds to go along with 290 steals and 130 blocked shots. She was a two-time all-area player.
Richards coach Jeff Kortz wouldn’t say for certain that she should be anointed as the best player in the program’s history. But she certainly has to be in the conversation.
“Everybody would have a broken heart if I say that, but she’s definitely up there,” Kortz said. “She did everything for everybody. She went down and talked to the freshmen when she could.
“And everybody loved her. If she needed a ride somewhere, there would be five people in line waiting.”
Motivated? I’ll tell you what. Any incoming freshman who was ready to contribute minutes to a college team this year earned them.
“COVID has affected everybody negatively, but I think I got more positives than negatives out of it,” Idowu said. “Basketball-wise and conditioning-wise, it made me realize how much I have control over my progress.
“Throughout the whole quarantine, I’ve been pushing myself to the max. I took it from the perspective of ‘this is extra time for me to work.’ With everything stopping, gyms being closed, limited access wasn’t going to stop me. I went online, lifted with my brother, dribbled outside by myself.”
Her brother Tayo, a junior football player at Richards, has been a big booster.
“He helped tremendously,” Idowu said. “The morning runs he didn’t really like. But other than that, he was with me all the time. We did ladder drills. We ran. We played basketball in the backyard. We lifted weights in the garage.
“We didn’t have much, but we made do with what we had.”
What they had plenty of? Heart. That should take her a long way at Toledo.