Jori Nwachukwu says she’s starting to “feel old” in her final season as a North Carolina Central University basketball player.
And the 6-foot redshirt senior post is all of 22.
“I’m like the grandma,” Nwachukwu said with her easy smile. “That’s what they call me, and it doesn’t help that I have a knee brace the size of the (sports information) office.”
Except for Coach Joli Robinson, Nwachukwu is the only link on the team to a very important part of NCCU sports history. As a freshman, she was a starter on the loaded 2007 team that annihilated Elizabeth City State to win the CIAA title.
That came on the Lady Eagles’ final try at the crown before NCCU’s move to Division I. For some perspective on how big a deal that was, the only other women’s CIAA Tournament title came in a Cinderella run from the bottom in 1984. NCCU’s last men’s title in the storied tournament was in 1950.
“I kind of have a real story to tell,” Nwachukwu said. “It’s too bad it has taken five years. It’s been a great experience. I was part of a CIAA championship and I’ll have been able to play Division I basketball for three years.”
Nwachukwu, who sat out last season recovering from a torn ACL, has already hit one plateau of which most players can only dream.
She has 1,001 career points, having hit the four-figure milestone when she hit the first of two free throws with 24 seconds left in a 43-38 win over fellow Division I transition member Presbyterian on Saturday at McLendon-McDougald Gym. Like NCCU, the Blue Hose are in their final season before being eligible for NCAA championship play.
“Jori means a lot to us,” said Robinson, who is in her 15th season at the helm with a record of 209-191. “I’m glad she’s back with us. She’s going to bring a lot of intensity and a lot of leadership for us. She’s been in the situation and she knows what it’s like, but it’s a little different for her right now because she has to lead everyone. She was never in this situation when she was a younger player.”
Nwachukwu is of course one of the team’s tri-captains, along with senior guard Shanise Blanks and junior guard Blaire Houston.
“This year is a learning experience,” Nwachukwu said. “We have three (assistant) coaches that I haven’t played under yet and a lot of freshmen, so it’s almost like a whole new team. I’m learning new things and also remembering the old things we used to do. But I think we’re getting everybody on the same page with the same goal.”
Talk about new experiences. The Lady Eagles are in the middle of a big one right now. They’re at the eight-team Rainbow Wahine Showdown in Honolulu, where they’ll take on host Hawaii at midnight just as Friday becomes Saturday in Durham.
The favorite in the event is No. 14 North Carolina, but the Lady Eagles and Tar Heels are on opposite sides of the bracket and wouldn’t meet unless they square off for the championship — or third or fifth or seventh place —sometime Sunday night North Carolina time. (The Lady Eagles will see the Tar Heels anyway on Jan. 3 in what has become an annual battle since NCCU moved to Division I.)
Of course being the home team’s first-round opponent is like being the homecoming visitor in football. A team is in that role because the hosts expect it to lose.
“This is my first time going to Hawaii,” Nwachukwu said with a smile. “A lot of people say I got hurt so I could go to Hawaii. I’m excited just to be playing. I think it would be a success if we win one game (in Hawaii). I would be extremely happy to say we beat anybody in that tournament (other participants include Gonzaga, Mississippi, Illinois, Long Beach State and UNC’s first-round opponent Washington State). It would send a huge message to everybody we play. Everybody just has to believe.”
The Lady Eagles have already had one of those games against a big-time team that turned out to be a nightmare, falling to Wake Forest 111-47 in the season opener before quickly recovering with the home-court win over Presbyterian. But with the move to a full MEAC schedule a year before the Lady Eagles can play for the title, the schedule is a bit friendlier than it has been the last couple of seasons.
After this weekend, except for the visit to Chapel Hill and sort of an historic visit to McLendon-McDougald Gym from current No. 10 West Virginia on Dec. 21, the Lady Eagles won’t be prohibitive underdogs against anybody else.
In a departure from the road-warrior model of recent years, the Lady Eagles will have 14 games at home this time. And remember this stat: since NCCU left the CIAA, the women’s basketball team is 17-7 on its home court.
Seriously.
“(Robinson) has a saying before every home game,” Nwachukwu explained. “She says ‘We don’t do what?’ and we say ‘Lose at home!’ It’s our gym. You can’t let somebody come in your house and beat you. That’s kind of disrespectful. So we take pride in knowing this is our court and our gym. You’re a guest, but you’re not going to leave here with a victory.
“I have a long relationship with Coach Robinson. The most important thing she’s taught me is not to have a defeatist attitude. We’ve had our rough times, but she knows me. She knows I’m not going to crack under pressure and has helped make me tougher mentally.”
The injury from 2009, following an equally snakebitten 2007-08 season in which Nwachukwu broke her foot at Duke and missed the rest of that campaign, may have turned out to be a mixed blessing for her.
Last fall she had an internship with the basketball operations department of the Philadelphia 76ers, which helped inspire her to a new career goal. She changed majors from marketing to sports management.
“I had to do typical intern stuff, like go get coffee and food, but I was able to assist with the training camp they had in September and I really enjoyed that,” Nwachukwu said. “I was able to do a lot of stuff with event planning and coordinating and with player personnel for overseas. I did a lot of things on the computer, databases with scouting reports. That internship was kind of surreal for me. I decided to venture outside and see what I could get.”
And she’s planning to go to graduate school with hopes of getting into basketball operations for a university.
But before that she’s hoping to lead the Lady Eagles to their first winning season since that dream 2007 campaign.
“This team is very different from any of the teams I’ve played on,” Nwachukwu said. “There are a lot of freshmen and they’re all talented. I’m excited to play with them and they’re excited to be here. I’m glad that C.C. (Chasidy Williams, who sat out last season with injuries) is back, and playing with Blaire and Shanise again, I feel like we’re going to have a winning season and probably upset some teams people don’t think we can beat. And we want to prove ourselves in the MEAC. I want to make a statement.
“And I want to get through a whole season this time. I’ve had injuries every year. I don’t want to jinx myself, but if I had an injury-free season I’d probably cry.”
Robinson said Amen to that.
“That (injury-free season for Nwachukwu) is our dream,” the coach said. “She continued to work out and has done a lot of leg work. She’s keeping her hamstrings stronger. But also I think the thing with her this year is that she isn’t having to play as many minutes as she has in the past.”
