Cross-Training Afforded Okonkwo Passage to DI Basketball

Basketball had never been on James Okonkwo's mind.

The Maidenhead, England native grew up holding a tennis racket and traveling the country with his family, all of whom played. They were, for all intents and purposes, a one-sport family.

Sharon and Cyril Okonkwo steered their three sons, Oliver, James, and Alexander, into tennis when they entered elementary school. Six-foot-three Oliver, who now plays for the University of Iowa, lead the charge.

"I want to say I started around six or seven," James said. "My older brother played tennis and then my parents picked it up. Me and my younger brother just started playing because my older brother was playing."

Tennis became a family affair, and the Okonkwos traveled the country following Oliver. The oldest Okonkwo brother found his strength within the game, making appearances at the Grade 4 International Tennis Federation, which he won, and the 2016 and 2017 British National Championships. It became rather obvious which sport the first Okonkwo boy would utilize.

The baby of the family, Alexander, also found his passion on the court. In 2016, he was selected to represent Great Britain in an Under-11 international match against France. That competition set his career on its path; he's still across the pond on the International Tennis Federation's junior tour.

James, the middle child, watched his brothers' careers blossom, but had a different court on his mind when he entered high school.

He was nine years into his English tennis career by the time he got to Furze Platt Senior School, an hour's drive west of London. James referred to his serve as "devastating", and yet, it wasn't the sport that the high schooler decided to pursue.

When Oliver packed up his bags and moved to Iowa City, James suddenly had his world widened.

An American education could afford a chance to diversify his sport experience.

High school-aged Okonkwo faced one issue: He had grown to 6-foot-8, effectively sizing out of tennis. He needed a sport where his size would be a positive catalyst for success, not a detractor.

That's how he discovered basketball. Opportunities to play basketball aren't as widely sought after in the UK, so it never came to Okonkwo's mind that a change in sport could open the door to an American college education.

"As I got to my first year of high school in the UK, I just switched to basketball, and that's when I started growing rapidly," Okonkwo said. "The tennis is where I got my hand-eye coordination and my footwork from, and most of my agility. I think it was important that I did that before I started playing basketball, because I had the fundamentals before I came in."

He played on the Reading Rockets, a UK basketball club, translating his tennis agility onto a different court. During the 2018-19 season, Okonkwo was awarded the Most Improved Player in his U-16 age group; the following season, the Rockets also named him the U-16 Most Valuable Player. He caught onto basketball quickly, rising through the ranks as a power forward, and he never looked back.

“I stopped playing tennis because I wanted to use my size and athleticism on the court,” Okonkwo said.

The 2020-21 season, 16-year-old Okonkwo prepared to move across the ocean. His aim: Beckley Prep IJN in Beckley, W.Va.

“He played tennis, and he got recruited to come over and play at a prep school,” WVU head coach Bob Huggins said. “The prep school coach [Justin] Dempsey is a very dear friend of mine. 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 spent one season at Beckley Prep before forgoing the remainder of high school and receiving a grant-in aid to play for Huggins at West Virginia. He was 16 at the time and had chosen the Mountaineers over offers from Rutgers and Montana State.

On a video call with coach Huggins, coach Dempsey, Cyril, Sharon, and James, Bob Huggins extended an offer. It was impossible to refuse.

Okonkwo enrolled at WVU in August 2021 and immediately began integration. Suddenly, the two oldest Okonkwo boys had sought out greener opportunities and ended up amid American pastures.

James played in 17 games last season, a 17-year-old defending men. He worked every day to change his body composition, and it made a noticeable impact.

In 2022, he's up to 240 pounds, a dramatic difference from his lanky, 210-pound tennis body.

When asked what his life would have looked like if he had stayed the course as a tennis player, Okonkwo laughed.

"I don't think I'd be me," he said. "I'd be a lot skinnier. I don't think my longevity would be that good, because there aren't many 6'9" tennis players around."

The sole Okonkwo to abandon tennis, James is coming into his own on the basketball court. He has already played in more than double the games this season, and he's an emerging bench player for Huggins' depth.

"James' situation is this: he plays against two pretty good guys every day," Huggins said of Okonkwo's practice reps. "He gets a little bit down on himself, which he shouldn't, but he has to understand that he's playing against two pretty good players every day."

WVU gives 18-year-old Okonkwo the unique opportunity to fine-tune basketball fundamentals under a Hall of Fame coach and elite Big 12 talent.

How he chooses to handle the next two seasons is up to him.

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