TCU women’s basketball team adds USC transfer
The TCU women’s basketball team added depth to its post corps Tuesday with the signing of USC transfer Amy Okonkwo.
Okonkwo, a 6-foot-2 forward from Etiwanda High School in Fontana, Calif., is a guard-like player in the tall body of a post, which plays well into TCU’s fast-paced, ball-movement offense, TCU coach Raegan Pebley said.
“She’s someone who can defend in the post and score around the basket but also has guard-like IQ,” Pebley said. “She just makes great passes. She makes great decisions with the ball. She’s got the ability to shoot from the perimeter as well. She can just have a lot of depth to her game.”
Okonkwo played her freshman season for the Trojans, averaging 3.3 points, 2.1 rebounds and 7.1 minutes per game and shooting 52 percent from the field.
Pebley recruited the top-100 prospect out of high school when she was at Fresno State, but lost the battle to USC.
When she caught word of Okonkwo’s requested release from USC, Pebley and her staff immediately jumped on the opportunity to bring her to Fort Worth, she said.
“That relationship in the end that we had with her and her club coaches I think helped us quite a bit during the transfer,” Pebley said.
Okonkwo will help bolster a TCU frontcourt that lost 6-foot-6 center Klara Bradshaw in a transfer to SMU earlier this off-season.
Okonkwo will have three years of eligibility after the mandatory year on the sidelines under NCAA transfer rules.
This story was originally published May 19, 2015 at 6:09 PM with the headline "TCU women’s basketball team adds USC transfer."