F

elisha Legette-Jack originally recruited Olivia Owens twice — once out of high school and again after Owens entered the transfer portal from Maryland.

Owens declined the offer both times.

“I don’t take no lightly, can you tell?,” said Legette-Jack, who was Buffalo’s head coach at the time. “There’s some people you just know that belong with you. You don’t know if it’s (going to) ever happen, but you just kinda want it.”

But over the offseason, Legette-Jack convinced Owens to transfer to Syracuse with two years of eligibility remaining. Owens spent her first two seasons at Maryland and the last two seasons at Kentucky. She was the first non-Buffalo transfer to play for Legette-Jack. Owens, a 6-foot-4 fifth-year forward, brings her strength, size and experience as a post player to a Syracuse roster with only four returners. 

“(Owens) is an experienced player coming from the SEC, where in my opinion, they’re big oriented,” guard Teisha Hyman said “When she (is) on the court, she competes. She (doesn’t) lose no fights.”

Owens received her first-ever interest letter from Gardner-Webb University the summer after seventh grade, and a year later, she received one from Maryland. In the summer after her freshman year, former Syracuse head coach Quentin Hillsman gave Owens her first offer ever. But Owens didn’t accept it immediately. 

“I was young,” Owens said. “I didn’t know, really, what opportunities could be afforded to me when it came to basketball.”

After spending her freshman season at the Academy of the Holy Names in Albany, Owens played for Niskayuna High School under head coach Sarah Neely for her final three years. When Owens returned her sophomore year from Holy Names, programs across the country were already looking at her, Neely said. It seemed that at “every single’’ practice and game, there were high-profile coaches sitting in the gym to scout Owens, Neely said.

“It was already getting crazy,” Neely said. “She was just getting looks from everybody and from big time Division-I schools across the board.”

The Owens family eventually ran out of spots for home visits, Owens’ mother, Vanessa, said. Notre Dame’s Muffet McGraw and Rutgers’ C. Vivian Stringer visited Owens in the gym, too. 

Megan Thompson | Digital Design Director

In her junior year, she put up a conference-record 42 points. Teams forced her to get out of the post and paint, forcing her to develop an outside shot, which opposing teams “weren’t expecting,” Neely said. 

While at Niskayuna, Owens simultaneously played for her AAU program, City Rocks Albany. Her City Rocks coach, Keith Danzy, saw Owens for the first time when she was in sixth grade and her then 5-foot-11 frame. Danzy realized Owens “needed” to be a part of City Rocks.

“AAU was really where I really learned how to really be a basketball player,” Owens said.

Owens said her older brother and nephews had played in the AAU circuit and she’d watch them play. But prior to basketball, Owens was a cheerleader, and was self-conscious about always being the tallest girl.

Vanessa said she didn’t even want to play basketball. She would only play if the uniform had to be pink, from the headband to the sneakers. Once a coach met those conditions, Owens played basketball in sixth grade for a local community team in Albany in her all-pink attire.

“She started playing and loved the sport,” Vanessa said. “And it just grew from there.”

Owens wanted to switch to City Rocks, but had to wait until she was old enough. Danzy guaranteed that UConn head coach Geno Auriemma would come to her “door” one day. And on her birthday, Auriemma showed up to Niskayuna for a game to scout her.

Owens eventually switched over to City Rocks. And in seventh grade, Owens was already playing for the program’s 17U team. She started on the bench. By eighth and ninth grade, Vanessa said, Owens was running the floor.

Megan Thompson | Digital Design Director

After a “breakout season” in her junior year and receiving 26 scholarship offers — including UConn and Stanford — Owens chose Maryland. She knew she wanted to get out of New York and liked the D.C area because she had an interest in criminal justice.

In her freshman season, she averaged 4.4 minutes, 1.5 points and 1.3 rebounds per game. She grabbed four points and four rebounds in six minutes in the 2019 Big Ten Championship. But by the time she arrived at Maryland, two of the coaches she had been recruited by at UMD had left. It was difficult to adjust, Owens said. 

She played in just one game the next year and took a medical redshirt year because she was battling mononucleosis. After the NCAA granted an additional year for COVID-19 and her medical redshirt Owens had two years of eligibility at Syracuse. 

When Owens entered the transfer portal following her sophomore year, Legette-Jack tried to recruit her for the second time, conducting three-way calls with Owens and those connected with her. But Owens chose Kentucky, mostly because of the opportunity to be a post player in the SEC, Vanessa said. 

Owens saw improved numbers at Kentucky, averaging 3.7 points through 53 games for the Wildcats. But it was tough for Owens as former Wildcat head coach Matthew Mitchell, who recruited her, got a head injury and couldn’t coach.

Owens entered the transfer portal again, one day after Legette-Jack was introduced as SU’s head coach. Owens said Legette-Jack called her while the coach was on a plane somewhere and Legette-Jack invited Owens to come visit Syracuse.

“This time around, you had the block ‘S’ on your chest and a law school that’s pretty cool. If you say no now, it’s personal,” Legette-Jack joked. 

On April 15, Owens committed to Syracuse just a week after she visited the school. Owens said she knew she wanted to come back closer to home. Vanessa said that the opportunity to play for a “premier” program in an opportunity to rebuild played a factor, too. 

“It was almost like a no-brainer,” Vanessa said. “(Syracuse) checked everything off the list.”

Owens comes to Syracuse as one of the most experienced players. Freshman Kennedi Perkins always lets Owens know that she’s the oldest player on the team.

Owens said her experiences in multiple Power Five programs have been different, mostly in terms of playing style. She’ll likely fill in the forward/center spot in the post, something that the program didn’t have last year. 

“She (was) definitely worth the wait three times,” Legette-Jack said.

Published on November 6, 2022 at 11:17 pm

Contact Cole: colebambini@gmail.com | @ColeBambini