Aussie Odude ready to make mark with Bobcats

The Brandon University Bobcats knew it’d be tough to replace Ella Averill, whom coach Ilarion Bonhomme developed from a talented but unpolished rookie to an NCAA Division I forward in just one season.

Only time will tell, but they might have done it.

The Bobcats replaced the Australian forward with another National Basketball League 1 forward, six-foot-two Josephine Odude.

“I’m super excited,” Odude said. “Stuff like this, it feels like something that would only happen in a movie, because I’ve grown up in Perth and to be recruited across the world to play basketball in Canada, it’s kind of like a dream.”

Bonhomme saw Odude play while watching Averill play in NBL1 and realized he could have another high-impact forward.

“Incredibly athletic, especially for 6-2. The way she moves, her versatility, offensively and defensively, is really special. She has so much potential she wants to tap into and I think we can help her,” Bonhomme said.

“She’s 6-2, but she’s a wing, so we’re trying to tighten up some stuff as far as ball handling and get her more confident and comfortable shooting the three, playing out at the elbows, just trying to add to what she does well.

“She’s a great teammate, really strong rebounder, always trying to defend the other team’s best player, whether that be a point guard, shooting guard or centre; she’ll be really good for us.”

Odude has a unique background for basketball, having done ballet when she was little and trampolining and gymnastics for a few years. She also competed in track and field growing up, as a 100-metre and 200-metre sprinter.

But the 22-year-old started playing basketball at age nine and it became No. 1 for her.

“It was the community. I did do athletics when I was in high school and while you have the athletics team, it wasn’t really a team sport,” Odude said. “I definitely prefer having a team behind me.”

Her ability to get up and down the floor appealed to coaches quickly, and she signed her first NBL1 contract at 14. She said her coach back then, who is now her trainer, told the veterans not to take it easy on her despite her barely entering high school while they were grown adults.

“I was getting pretty beaten at training sessions because I was pretty skinny and little then, but that made me the player I am now. It made me strong in the mental sense and also the physical sense,” Odude said.

This year with the East Perth Eagles of NBL1 West, Odude averaged 4.2 points and 4.9 rebounds per game, helping her team to a 15-5 record and the No. 3 seed for the playoffs.

They won their quarterfinal 84-77 over the Goldfields Giants, but fell 120-86 to the top-ranked Cockburn Cougars in the semifinals.

In the meantime, she was studying nursing, but is taking physical education courses at BU this year. She’ll look to build on Brandon’s first playoff berth since 2017, as it went 7-13 to snag the seventh and final Canada West Prairie Division spot.

She joins Halle Penner of Sanford Collegiate and Montreal native Aya El Ouali in the recruit class. While Odude hasn’t been in Brandon for long, she knows what she brings to this team and what to improve upon before the season opener on Oct. 23.

“Having a forward that can sprint up and down the floor quickly is an asset, and I have a very quick first step, so I can get to the basket pretty easily,” Odude said.

“My shooting can definitely use some improvement. It’s definitely hard growing up being athletic and never needing to shoot, but the game has evolved a lot more in this day and age and everyone needs to be able to shoot.”

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com