Maryland's Oluchi Okananwa handles the ball, Jan. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Jayne Kamin-Oncea)
Countless stars have shuffled through the Maryland women’s basketball program under head coach Brenda Frese, and this year, the perennial contenders eye another deep run in the NCAA Tournament behind star guard Oluchi Okananwa.
The junior from Boston helped the Terrapins (23-8) earn a No. 5 seed in Regional 1, and they will take on No. 12-seeded Murray State (31-3) in the first round.
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Okananwa transferred to College Park last April after two years at Duke, and with the Terps she became a starter and quickly proved to be one of the better portal pickups in the country. She led her team in scoring (18.0 points per game on 52.4% shooting) while adding 5.5 rebounds, 2.1 assists, and 2.3 steals per game. For her efforts, she was named to the All-Big Ten first team as well as the all-defensive team.
Okananwa’s transition into Maryland’s program has been seamless.
“When you’re in the transfer portal, there are no guarantees. I think it’s sometimes tragic when you see a player not get the right fit,” Coach Frese told TestudoTimes.com last week. “It was a perfect fit for us with Oluchi.”
Okananwa wholeheartedly agreed.
“The grass is green wherever you water it,” she told TestudoTimes.com. “No one should be transferring expecting things handed to them on a silver platter. It’s going to take two. You have to meet God, you have to meet your coaches, you have to meet everyone halfway.”
When asked in a NCAA March Madness social media video in February what a privilege it has been to play for a program like Maryland, Okananwa credited her Heavenly Father.
“First and foremost, all glory to God,” she said. “Without Him, I would not be in the position that I am, and I would not have made it this far. … I’ve looked up and I’m here, by God’s grace.”
Her decision to transfer was also one of the topics of conversation when Okananwa appeared as a guest on Sports Spectrum’s “What’s Up” podcast last week. She shared that it was God who sustained her throughout the process.
“My sophomore year in college (at Duke) was one of the hardest seasons I’ve gone through, basketball-wise and in my relationship with [God],” she said. “He taught me so much about patience, and what it really looks like to have faith in Him. … You’re really gonna have to trust Him, and your actions are going to have to be in accordance to that trust and to that faith that you’re putting in Him.”
At Maryland, Okananwa has helped to foster a strong team-wide atmosphere of faith. There are chapels before games where the team prays and reads Scripture, and the team says another prayer just before running out onto the court. Even during games, Okananwa finds herself looking to her Heavenly Father for help.
“It’s honestly an open dialogue between Him and I during a game,” she said on the podcast, “most of the time just me trying to calm myself down and understanding that it’s in His hands and the outcome is going to be exactly the one that He designed.”
Okananwa is never one to shy away from talking about Christ, including a banner photo with the words “do it all for Jesus” on her X account. She also describes herself as a “child of God” in her Instagram bio.
And now, as she enters the NCAA Tournament for the first time with Maryland (after two appearances with Duke), she will once again lean on God’s sustaining grace.
Tip-off between Okananwa’s Terrapins and the Murray State Racers from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, is scheduled for Friday at 3 p.m. ET. If Maryland advances, it will play either No. 4-seeded North Carolina or No. 13-seeded Western Illinois on Sunday.
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