When Rita Igbokwe started off playing basketball, her mom was against it and never wanted her daughter (Rita Igbokwe) to play the game. On the other hand, her dad thought basketball would keep her healthy and in good shape, so he was okay with it. Her four siblings didn’t think much of it. At first, Igbokwe did not even want to play basketball. She only started playing in the eighth grade because a classmate’s dad and the middle school coach convinced her to play after seeing how tall she was.
“When I first started playing basketball I hated it to be honest,” said Igbokwe. “I hated it, I would count down the minutes until the game was over. That’s how much I didn’t like it.”
Now, five years after picking up a basketball for the first time, Igbokwe has found a home at Pitt as the women’s basketball starting center. In her first season of Division 1 basketball, the freshman started the final seven games of the season while averaging 19.5 minutes, 4.7 points, 6.8 rebounds and a team-high 60 blocks, the most by a Pitt freshman in program history.
Igbokwe started catching up with the game (basketball) after that first season. She was not ready for it to be done, so she joined a local AAU team. Yet it wasn’t until her sophomore year of high school, she realized she could get a scholarship to play basketball, that’s when her mom also supported the idea of her daughter playing college basketball.
“My mom had to pick me up from AAU practices a couple times in the past and she would talk to me on the way home like, ‘You have to do this and that,” said Igbokwe. “And I was like, ‘Did you play basketball?
I don’t remember you playing basketball.” It was not until Igbokwe joined a new AAU team, the Dream Hoopers, that her scholarship offers started pouring in. At first, her parents were against Igbokwe moving out of the state. But she was tired of seeing Georgia and wanted to go explore a new place.
When she visited Pitt she knew it was the place for her after seeing the family atmosphere of the program first hand. “I know a whole bunch of my teammates talk about the family atmosphere a lot, but it’s really true once I got there. The family environment at Pitt is solid, it’s so valid,” said Igbokwe.
“It’s honestly like next level, it’s like a family away from home. I miss my family a lot but having Coach White and the rest of the staff there, they really help us. They understand that being away from home, especially the freshmen, is tough but they are there supporting us and it means a lot. Plus, the city is really pretty, especially at night.” Even though she loves Pitt, being 11 hours away from her family wasn’t easy for Igbokwe.
It wasn’t her first time moving, but it was her first time being on her own. When Igbokwe was five years old, she and her family moved from Nigeria to Georgia. They decided to move to Georgia for better educational opportunities and because they had family in the area, but they still left family and the life they knew behind. “I have a ton of memories in Nigeria,” said Igbokwe.
“I remember we lived in this big house and across the street was this shop my mom owned, it was like a donut shop. And across the street from that was a candy stand that I would always go and try to talk the owner into giving me some candy for free behind my mom’s back.” When she first moved to America, Igbokwe was expecting it to be like an action movie.
The one idea of America she had was based on a Jackie Chan movie she watched. It took her awhile to get adjusted, but eventually, she settled in. It was the same when she got to Pitt. It took her awhile to get adjusted to the new pace of Division I basketball, the information that was being thrown at her and just being away from her family for a long period of time.
It was not until the Boston College game in early January that Rita Igbokwe realized playing basketball was really what she wanted to do. She came off the bench and posted 12 points, five rebounds and two blocks in a tight loss. “I was like, ‘I’m done being moody I have to start playing like I know how to play,’” said Igbokwe. “I realized this is really what I wanted to do, I had to learn to come in the gym after hours, I had to learn to focus when Coach is talking and I had to learn to pick up the new terminology.”
The thing Igbokwe is most proud of from her freshman season is improving on her ability to understand the terminology and think on the fly, along with improving her hands. Coming into the season, the terminology the coaching staff used was very difficult for her to process, but by the end of the season, she started to put everything together. Not being on campus hasn’t been easy when it comes to improving. In order to stay motivated, Igbokwe watches game film from her rookie season. “It’s hard going to work out by yourself, not having your teammates with you,” said Igbokwe.
“I just have to constantly watch basketball games and ask myself, ‘Do you want this to happen again?’ So I think that is what motivates me to keep working.”
Igbokwe expects bigger and better things from Pitt Basketball next year and into the future. By the time she graduates, she believes Pitt will be a top-five team in the nation, its name in the likes of Baylor and UConn. She is also looking forward to her family watching her live in her first basketball game since she started playing, five years ago.
Next season, the Panthers will be traveling to Georgia Tech, where Igbokwe expects to see her family in the stands. Her dad watches post-game highlights, but she is ready for him to see the real thing in person. The 6-4 center is ready for her parents to see what their sacrifices have given her and everything she has accomplished so far. And she is ready for her siblings to stop treating her like, “she’s regular” when she comes home. But more than anything, she is ready for them, and for the rest of the world, to see what she is helping the Pitt Women’s Basketball program build.
“I know that Pittsburgh is the City of Champions and we are working really hard to bring this program back to its former glory,” said Rita Igbokwe. “I hope the people of Pittsburgh continue to support us and have faith in us as we continue to grow this program into a household name.”
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