Aiyeotan Ready To Take Next Step
Jeff White’s Twitter | Women’s Basketball Roster | 2018-19 Schedule | Fact Book | Subscribe to UVA Insider Articles
By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
CHARLOTTESVILLE– She spoke fluent English when she arrived at the University of Virginia in the summer of 2016, so there was no language barrier for her to clear. As a basketball player, though, 6-9 Felicia Aiyeotan was a project, a towering figure who had significantly less experience than her teammates.
Aiyeotan now ranks among the ACC’s most formidable post players. After averaging only 12.5 minutes per game as a freshman, she made 27 starts last season, averaged 7.4 points and 6.9 rebounds, led the ACC in blocked shots, and helped the Cavaliers advance to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2010.
A native of Nigeria, Aiyeotan came to the United States before her freshman year of high school. If she had doubts about her ability to thrive as a Division I player, they’ve long since vanished.
“I think my confidence level has gotten high,” Aiyeotan said Monday during a preseason press conference at John Paul Jones Arena.
“I remember my first year, and just looking back at it this summer, I couldn’t believe the progress that I’ve made, just [in terms of having] confidence on the court and knowing the things that I could do.”
Aiyeotan attended Neumann Goretti High in Philadelphia for three years before transferring to Blair Academy in New Jersey. She enrolled at UVA as a part of a recruiting class that, two years later, forms the backbone of the program.
As sophomores last season, 5-9 Dominique Toussaint, 6-0 Jocelyn Willoughby, Aiyeotan and 6-3 Lisa Jablonowski averaged 29.8, 29.1, 22.4 and 17.6 minutes per game, respectively.
In 2016-17, when those players were freshmen, Virginia narrowly missed the NCAA tournament.
“That’s when we kind of banded together and said, ‘This is the time,’ ” Willoughby said. “We expected to make the tournament [in 2016-17], and we didn’t.
“I think going through that experience together, just coming back into the locker room after watching the selection show and having the conversation, ‘What just happened to our season?’ I think that was a huge moment for us as a class to say, ‘OK, we can make some changes from here on out, and it’s about growing together.’ “
The NCAA allows each Division I women’s team to have 15 scholarship players. The Cavaliers have only 11 this season, and that includes forward Dani Lawson, a transfer from Purdue who may have sit out the season.
“We don’t have a lot of depth,” said Tina Thompson, who’s in her first year as head coach.
Virginia has talent, though, and experience. Its veterans include Aiyeotan, Toussaint, Willoughby, Jablonowski, senior Moné Jones and sophomore guard Brianna Tinsley. Also, redshirt freshman Amandine Toi, a gifted guard from France, is healthy again after missing last season with a knee injury.
“We’re feeling good about where we are,” Thompson said.
Thompson had an illustrious playing career that this year earned her enshrinement in the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. She starred for the University of Southern California and the U.S. Olympic team and as a professional in Europe and the WNBA.
At 6-2, she was undersized for a post player, but Thompson was a force around the basket. She indicated Monday that she doesn’t believe Aiyeotan is close to reaching her potential.
“I think she can continue to improve,” Thompson said. “She has a wealth of knowledge of the game. To me, a lot of it is confidence. That’s what it is in most players.”
Aiyeotan stayed in Charlottesville for most of the summer and “was determined to get better every day,” Morgan Foster said.
Foster oversees strength and conditioning for Thompson’s program and saw sizable gains from Aiyeotan in both areas.
Thompson said she’s encouraged Aiyeotan to expand her game and be “comfortable with her abilities. She is getting up to the high post a lot more, as well as taking advantage of the fact that she can take and make jump shots … as well as working on her ballhandling. She’s going to be in positions where she can put the ball on the floor.”
Like her teammates, Aiyeotan often struggled to finish around the basket last season. She shot a team-high 51.6 percent from the floor, but considering her height and the fact that she rarely attempted jump shots, she knows she could have been much more accurate.
Aiyeotan said she wants to “improve the percentage when it comes to making layups, and just continue to improve as a player.”
As a shot-blocker, she has few peers around the nation, and knowing Aiyeotan, who made the ACC’s all-defensive team, is protecting the basket “is comforting,” Toussaint said.
Willoughby agreed. “It’s great to have Fe, because you know you have that help-side [defense]. But we can’t always rely on Fe. I think individually we have to be able to guard [opponents] one-on-one, keep them from getting to the middle, because that just messes up all rotations. We love having Fe there to block shots and everything, but we also have to do our parts.”
In 2017-18, when the Cavaliers advanced to the NCAA tournament’s second round, they relied heavily on their defense. They ranked sixth among ACC teams in scoring defense (61.2 points per game) but only 12thin scoring offense (62.1).
Seven ACC teams averaged at least 71 points per game last season.
“We’re still going to be a defensive team,” Thompson said. “It’s something that we talk about daily, but we need to score more. So encouraging our team to be offensive-minded is something that I’ve done from day one. We have to score points.”
An inability to score consistently “was one of our deficiencies last year,” Willoughby said. “So it’s about enhancing our shortcomings, ultimately.
“We’re going to be looking to play a faster-paced game, get more points on the board, especially in transition, and have a more free-flowing offense, and that’s a huge difference from last year to this year.”
Virginia opens the season Nov. 9 against Mississippi State at JPJ. The Bulldogs were NCAA runners-up in 2016-17 and again last season.
“If we want to be the best, then we have to beat the best,” Thompson said, “and there’s no getting around that.”
In the 2017-18 season opener, these teams met in Starkville, Miss., where the Bulldogs prevailed 68-53.
“That was a fun, exciting game,” Willoughby said, “and now they get to come to our house, and that makes it even better.”
Mississippi State’s stars include 6-7 center Teaira McCowan, a returning All-American. Against Virginia last season, McCowan totaled seven points, 10 rebounds and two blocked shots in 30 minutes. Aiyeotan played 29 minutes that night and finished with four points, seven rebounds and four blocks.
The centers’ rematch will be one of the storylines to follow in the opener, and the gap may have closed between Aiyeotan and McCowan. But Thompson stresses that Aiyeotan remains a work in progress.
“Is she improving? Absolutely,” Thompson said. “Is it going to happen overnight? No, and I wouldn’t put that kind of pressure on her.”