MORGANTOWN — It would seem James Okonkwo was built to dominate around the net.
Just not on a basketball court, which is where the WVU sophomore forward is just now beginning to grow into his role with the Mountaineers.
“I feel like every team needs that glue guy,” Okonkwo said. “The one who will go out and play defense and hustle and do all the little things. That’s what I’m trying to become.”
He throws out former NBA stars like Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan and even Dennis Rodman as some of his favorites, but that only comes through his own film study in what’s been a crash course into American basketball.
“I always pick Kevin Garnett over Tim Duncan, which makes a lot of people mad,” Okonkwo said. “Dennis Rodman, not for his scoring, but he went out and played hard. He was a glue guy that every team needs.”
It’s a journey Okonkwo, a 6-foot-8 forward who hails from Maidenhead, England, has taken, in part, on his own.
See, the family business back in the U.K. was tennis, and up until Okonkwo reached high school, he was a budding star on the tennis court like his brothers.
“My serve was devastating,” he says with a smile.
Basketball was hardly a thing — “It’s like the fifth- or sixth-most-popular sport in the U.K., which is outrageous to me,” Okonkwo said. That was until Okonkwo continued to shoot up in height and grew himself out of the game.
He first took up basketball after one of his teachers in England, an American teacher at that, brought it up to him.
That was just a little over three years ago now, and what began as general curiosity has turned into Oknokwo’s passion.
YouTube opened doors
In England, basketball is little more than a club sport and certainly not as organized as it is in the United States.
“We would basically play a game each week,” Okonkwo said. “There’s nothing like AAU or anything like that. There’s really no travel teams.”
At the time, Okonkwo had no idea where basketball would take him, but that began to change when his older brother, Oliver, earned a tennis scholarship to play at Iowa.
“That’s kind of when I saw there were opportunities,” Okonkwo said. “Because of my older brother, I saw there was a way.”
That’s also when COVID-19 hit the world and the basketball leagues in England were shut down.
“I had to kind of figure it out for myself,” Okonkwo said.
So he took it upon himself to put together clips that had been recorded by parents and Okonkwo edited his own personal highlight reel.
He posted that on YouTube, which is where Beckley Prep coach Justin Dempsey first got involved.
“That was my only opportunity to come to the states and I felt like I had to take advantage of that opportunity,” Okonkwo said.
In the states
It would be a great story to say Okonkwo came to the U.S. and exploded onto the recruiting circuit, but that’s not exactly how it happened.
Beckley Prep only played a limited amount of games, because of COVID-19, and Okonkwo was also dealing with an injured finger that kept him out of other games.
Still, Dempsey did see Okonkwo’s potential and athleticism that led to him being a good shot blocker.
“The prep school coach, Dempsey is a very dear friend of mine,” WVU head coach Bob Huggins said. “He called me and said, ‘This guy is getting better and better and he can really block shots.’ Other schools were starting to try and recruit him, and he said we needed to take him before something stupid happened.”
Okonkwo was already committed to WVU before he was set to begin his junior season at Beckley Prep.
He had already earned the equivalent of a U.S. high school diploma through the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) program he took while still in England.
The GCSE is a series of tests in different subjects that students in England, Northern Ireland and Wales take as 15- and 16-year-olds.
When the opportunity came to enroll at WVU early, Okonkwo took it.
“When it comes to basketball, there is nowhere else in America or the U.K. that could prepare me as much as they have here,” Okonkwo said. “I came in at 218 pounds as a freshman, skin and bones. They’ve done a great job with me in helping me grow into my frame.”
He played in just three games as a freshman, using his first season as more of a learning experience than anything else.
“Obviously last year was just to sit back and take in as much as I could,” Okonkwo said. “Athletically, I’m pretty confident. I just want to go out there and get as much experience as possible.”
He’s now playing about 10 minutes a game in an increased role that is seeing Okonkwo grow up under fire of sorts.
Like getting in against Purdue and going up against Boilermakers center Zach Edey.
“I went from not playing to guarding a 7-foot-4 monster,” Okonkwo said.
So, yeah, welcome to college basketball, which can sometimes feel like worlds away from Center Court at Wimbledon.
“I think I’d be a lot skinnier if I was a tennis player,” Okonkwo said. “I don’t know about longevity, because there aren’t that many 6-foot-9 tennis players around.”
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