UConn’s Olivia Nelson-Ododa relishing trip home to Georgia
For the first time in nearly four years, UConn senior Olivia Nelson-Ododa will play in front of a home crowd of family and close friends when the Huskies travel to Atlanta to play Georgia Tech Thursday night.
The Winder, Georgia native will be cheered by her family, including her parents Sebastian Ododa and Heather Nelson-Ododa, along with friends, former teammates and coaches — including her high school coach Kimblery Garren.
And with UConn without Paige Bueckers, Azzi Fudd and Nika Mühl due to injuries, this game is an opportunity show how much Nelson-Ododa has matured and grown as a person since leaving Winder for Storrs.
As one of the team’s three seniors, UConn is counting on Nelson-Ododa to lead both on and off the court.
“I’m super appreciative that they were able to do this for me and I’m super excited to go home,” she said after UConn’s game against Notre Dame Sunday. “But at the end of the day, it’s a business trip so we’re going there and we have to handle this.”
FROM GEORGIA TO CONNECTICUT
The first thing Garren noticed about Nelson-Ododa was her height. As an eighth grader coming into high school, Nelson-Ododa stood about 6-feet tall.
She became the tallest player, and remains so to this day, to play for Garren at Winder Barrow High. She had natural skill, averaging 13.0 points and 9.0 rebounds per game as a freshman, yet it was her passion for getting better that put her a step above the others.
After losses, she’d sit with Garren and go over film. She was quick to move on but wanted to know how prevent mistakes from becoming habits.
It was after the team’s state championship loss in 2016, that something clicked for the then-sophomore. She became serious about the sport, diving into the opportunities it could bring while averaging 17.0 points per game that year.
“When she had that mindset, she instantly became a bigger leader at practice,” Garren said. “She was more vocal. She stepped up her motor and everything was, ‘Let’s use our time wisely.’ ”
As a 14-year-old, NelsonOdoda set goals for herself. She wanted to become a McDonald’s All-American. Learn to dunk. Play for the national team. Play collegiately. Get drafted in the WNBA.
She jumped into finding the best AAU team — the same one fellow Georgian and UConn alum Maya Moore was on — the best local trainers and even tried out for U.S. junior national team that summer.
“Just began a hyper focus on the work that it was gonna take to get to that level of playing,” Olivia’s mom Heather said.
Nelson-Ododa achieved those goals and grew into her body, even growing another four inches before her senior year.
She led Team USA to a bronze medal in the 2016 U17 FIBA World Championship in Spain, averaging 12.0 points while shooting 56% for a team that included UConn teammate Christyn Williams. Two years later she won gold with the U.S. at the U18 FIBA Americas Champion in Mexico City.
“She really became someone that can just be a backto-the-basket player and physically be able to handle that and then also step out and take a shot,” Garren said.
She became a McDonald’s All-American in 2018 and was the only girl to enter in its dunk contest, where she scored a perfect 100 on her first dunk. She became the No. 5 recruit of the 2018 class and committed to UConn the fall of her senior year, choosing the Huskies over Duke, Florida State, Georgia and South Carolina.
UCONN MATURITY
Nelson-Ododa has appeared in all 106 games spanning the three-plus seasons at UConn career. Her defensive prowess began showing her freshman year, when she was second on the team with 54 blocks and had personalbest 17 rebounds against East Carolina.
She was a starter as as sophomore and ranked fourth nationally with 100 blocks. Last season, the forward was first on the team with 7.8 rebounds per game and 53 total blocks. Six games into her senior season, she leads the Huskies with 7.3 rebounds per game and 13 total blocks in 28.7 minutes per game.
And it was during the first half of UConn’s loss to South Carolina in the Battle 4 Atlantis Championship that Nelson-Ododa appeared to have reached another level. After the Gamecocks put up an early 6-0 run, it was NelsonOdoda who sparked a 20-2 UConn run. She had two blocks and then drew an offensive foul within a minute to give the Huskies momentum.
Nelson-Ododa ended with six points, five blocks, two steals, four assists, and five rebounds, while UConn collapsed in the final period and fell to the top-ranked Gamecocks.
“I think that really illuminated for her ‘This is what I can be,’ ” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “I bet you for the first time in her career at UConn, Liv was really devastated after that South Carolina game and I think a lot of it has to do with what she put it into it.”
In the two games since, the senior has averaged 12 points and nine rebounds, including 13 rebounds against Notre Dame.
“That loss (against South Carolina) was heartbreaking for me. I took that very personal and ever since then just really trying to be intentional in practice with what I’m doing,” NelsonOdoda said.
Nelson-Ododa’s return home comes when her team needs her most. Auriemma needs her to play like she did against South Carolina in the opening quarter — but for all 40 minutes. The Huskies need her aggressiveness under the basket and her physicality on defense.
So what better place for her to rise up to the occasion than in front of her friends and family in Georgia?
“I think the biggest change that I’ve noticed in myself is just maturity,” Nelson-Ododa. “That’s part of what comes with being in this program, going through under coach and the coaching staff. The things that they have you do, the discipline and just kind of forcing you to grow up and mature. … And that’s what I hope that people back home can see in my game and also just in myself as a person.”