In a season of uncertainty and upheaval, one of the constants for the UConn women’s basketball team is senior forward Olivia Nelson-Ododa.
“Just trying to be consistent for my team,” Nelson-Ododa said.
She scored in double figures nine times and rebounded in double figures four times, only once failing to grab at least five rebounds in a game. She’s averaging 10.0 points, 7.6 rebounds and 4.0 assists and has a team-leading 46 blocks in 27 games. Whatever the No. 7 Huskies (22-5, 16-1 Big East) needed to keep things together through their injuries, “ONO” stuffed the stat sheet with it when she was healthy.
“Everyone here is really versatile,” UConn redshirt senior Evina Westbrook said. “Liv especially, she’s like a guard-forward-post-point guard.”
A 6-foot-5 senior from Winder, Georgia, Nelson-Ododa fought through a midseason groin injury to help steady the Huskies down the stretch. She shared Big East defensive player of the year honors in 2021 and was on the all-tournament team. She was a second-team selection in the American Athletic Conference in 2019-20, and the Big East last season. As she has grown and matured through the years, she has displayed a level of play the team has come to expect this season.
“The big thing you can say about Liv is she has been consistent,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “There’s no 35-point, 25-rebound games from Liv, but there’s also a ton of 15- or 16-point, eight- or nine-rebound, four- or five-assist games. So you come to expect certain things, and that’s what she delivers. Her defense has improved. She’s improved mentally over the years. One of her issues was how inconsistent she was. This year, we’ve benefitted from how consistent she has been.”
Nelson-Ododa missed three games with a groin injury, the first of which was the loss to Villanova on Feb. 9, a game in which her absence was glaring. Prior to that, she helped hold things together while Aubrey Griffin, Paige Bueckers, Azzi Fudd, Christyn Williams and Carolina Ducharme were out at various times with their injuries.
“One of the biggest changes is in my mentality,” Nelson-Ododa said. “This was an uncharacteristic season. You didn’t know what was going to happen next game, how many games away. Just being prepared for anything, adjusting to things on the fly, played into it.”
As the Huskies got healthy, players began to settle back into comfortable roles, and they quickly distanced themselves from those midseason struggles. They finished the season with a seven-game winning streak, winning by an average of 39.2 points per game. That’s more like the UConn program Nelson-Ododo joined four years ago.
“We’ve had to get our of our comfort zone and figure out a lot of things,” Nelson-Ododa said. “Just focusing on the present.”
Nelson-Ododa, who will graduate with a degree in economics, was accompanied by her parents Sunday as she walked out for the Senior Day ceremony to accept her framed No. 20 jersey from Auriemma.
Then, she wiped away the tears and turned in a characteristic performance with 13 points, eight rebounds, three assists, two blocks and a steal as the Huskies, who had struggled to beat Providence by eight points on Jan. 30, won the rematch 88-31 less than 48 hours after beating St. John’s 93-38. The No. 1-seeded Huskies begin play in the Big East Tournament quarterfinals at Mohegan Sun Saturday at noon.
“It was very important to make the change from the way we played them the last time and carrying on the momentum from St. John’s,” Nelson-Ododa said. “Just really put things into place for tournament time. It’s all about the little details for us, the small things, correcting those and making sure we’re getting things right.”
