Centennial High girls basketball great finds her place at Ohio State
Eboni Walker began calling around to her college basketball contacts last offseason after a disappointing, injury-ravaged junior season at Syracuse, and the results were humbling. Walker, a former Centennial High legend, could tell some people thought she would never be the same player after leaving two power programs — she transferred to Syracuse from Arizona State — and putting on too much weight. A few just outright told her as much.
But one conversation was more hopeful. Ohio State assistant coach Wesley Brooks, who had recruited Walker out of high school while at Utah, encouraged her and boosted her spirits.
“Then maybe a couple minutes later, he called back and said, ‘We’ve got a spot for you,’” Walker recalled. “I’m like, ‘What? Where?’ He’s like, ‘Here at Ohio State.’ And I’m thinking, ‘Ohio State is a great school, I could go to Ohio State as my third transfer?’ I honestly wasn’t looking to go anywhere Power Five. I just wanted to play basketball, just wanted to go somewhere where it felt good and had a family atmosphere.”
Walker found both in Columbus, Ohio, as the 6-foot forward has become an energizing force off the bench and spot starter for one of the best women’s basketball teams in the nation this season. It’s a dream situation she doubted she’d ever find after last season, when some of the naysayers’ thoughts seeped into her mind no matter how hard she tried to fight them off.
Walker gets the ultimate validation at 10:30 a.m. today when No. 3 seed Ohio State opens the NCAA Tournament against No. 14 seed James Madison on its home floor.
“My freshman year, we were supposed to go to the tournament and COVID broke out,” Walker said. “So when people are like, ‘You’ve never been,’ I feel like I technically have but I guess I haven’t. To be able to go and actually host, that’s a big thing because you have to be a certain caliber of team to host the NCA A Tournament.”
The young Buckeyes team got as high as No. 2 in the nation upon starting the season 16-0, with Walker’s leadership and perspective contributing even when she wasn’t on the court as often early in the year. It took a while for Walker to get back into her ideal playing shape and adjust to a new system, but she drew upon lessons and wisdom she first learned while at Centennial and shared them with teammates.
The Bulldogs are the most decorated girls’ high school basketball team in Las Vegas history, under Hall of Fame coach Karen Weitz, with a number of notable players. But Walker’s prep career stands out even in such elite company. She won four state titles at Centennial and was named the 2019 Nevada Gatorade Player of the Year.
“A lot of people don’t know this, but as a freshman, I barely played,” Walker said. “And it wasn’t because I wasn’t a good player. I was a good athlete, but I was just lazy.
“(Coach Weitz) was the first coach to ever sit me down because I wasn’t handling business on all ends — practicing the way I need to practice. She taught me a big lesson through that. It doesn’t matter how good you are, how many points you score but you need to be able to do everything at 100% on every level of the game.”
Walker has continued to hold herself to that standard at Ohio State, but it wasn’t easy for the first few months leading into the start of the season. In the Buckeyes’ first three games, she played only 17 total minutes while going 1-for-7 from the floor with a couple of missed layups that she still laments.
“I could barely get down the floor the way I used to,” Walker said. “I couldn’t jump as high as I used to, but they didn’t look at me like, ‘I don’t know why we recruited her.’ They were like, ‘Come on, you know what you’ve got to do and you know who you are. You put yourself in this position. You can get yourself out of it.’
“They supported me the way I felt like I needed to be supported. I’m a big person on honesty. If I’m not doing well, don’t act like it’s OK. I don’t want to hear that. Tell me, ‘What are you doing? You can make a layup.’ That’s just who I am. That’s how I’ve been coached since Coach Weitz.”
Things fell more into place during Ohio State’s long run of victories and set Walker up for a key moment later in conference play. Starting forward Rebeka Mikulasikova went down with an injury in the opening minutes of a February game against Minnesota, and coach Kevin Mcguff turned to Walker to fill her minutes.
Walker thrived and set Ohio State career highs with 12 points and six assists as part of a 93-63 victory. After the game, Mcguff presented her with the “dub chain,” given to a valuable player after each victory.
“We really needed her to step up in Rebeka’s absence and just thought her energy was really good,” Mcguff told landgrantholyland.com after the game. “Her post defense, they have a really good post player, and she made her work for everything she got.”
Starting in place of Mikulasikova in the next game, Walker had 12 points and an Ohio State career-high 11 rebounds against Indiana. The Buckeyes lost 83-59, but the defeat set up what she cites as her favorite moment with her new team.
Two weeks ago in the Big Ten conference tournament, Ohio State rallied from a 23-point third-quarter deficit to upset the same Indiana team that had blown it out twice in the regular season.
The resilience the Buckeyes showed mirrored the story of Walker’s college career.
“People told me I wouldn’t make it and I wouldn’t be able to get anything good,” Walker said. “But I’ve transferred three times and wound up on the No. 2 team in the nation There’s nothing else they can say about that.”