Latest news with #Emma-Nnopu
USA Today
31-03-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
This TCU women's basketball player is the team's 'backbone.' No, it's not Hailey Van Lith
This TCU women's basketball player is the team's 'backbone.' No, it's not Hailey Van Lith Show Caption Hide Caption Mark Campbell embraces 'Miss March' nickname for Hailey Van Lith Hailey Van Lith has taken three different teams to the elite eight after leading TCU over Notre Dame in the Sweet 16. Agnes Emma-Nnopu is a senior guard for TCU women's basketball, helping lead the team to its first Elite Eight appearance. Born in Nigeria, Emma-Nnopu grew up in Australia and played basketball at the Australian Institute of Sport. After graduating from Stanford with a biology degree, she transferred to TCU as a graduate student. Known for her hustle and defensive prowess, Emma-Nnopu is a key contributor to the Horned Frogs' success. BIRMINGHAM, Ala.— She was born in Nigeria. Grew up in Australia. Graduated from Stanford and found her way to TCU. Now, she's in Birmingham for women's March Madness. Just like the timeless lyrics of Johnny Cash, senior guard Agnes Emma-Nnopu has been everywhere. She's seemingly been everywhere on the court as she's helped power TCU to its first Elite Eight appearance. 'We call her our backbone on the team,' graduate forward Deasia Merrill said. 'She's just our hustle player. It probably doesn't come up in the stat line, but she's always hustling, always getting our rebounds, getting our dirty plays.' Emma-Nnopu sure showed up on the stat line in TCU's Sweet 16 win over Notre Dame. She scrapped her way to seven points, seven rebounds, three blocks and two steals in a come-from-behind victory. Who is Agnes Emma-Nnopu, TCU senior guard? Emma-Nnopu moved to the beachside Australian town of Ocean Grove at 3. As her basketball talent bloomed, she moved a nearly eight-hour drive from home to play at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra at the age of 16. She faced off against Australia's best at an institution that produced the likes of first-overall WNBA draft pick Lauren Jackson. Emma-Nnopu got her defensive motor from the culture at Basketball Australia and from watching Australia's top players. 'The Australian way of play is definitely about work ethic,' Emma-Nnopu said. 'A lot of the girls I watched growing up were just competitors. I think for me it resonated in terms of maybe we're not scoring as much, maybe they're not the team's leading scorer, but they can impact the game in a lot of different ways.' After some time with the Victoria state team while based out of the AIS, Emma-Nnopu had a new assignment. The powers that be for Basketball Australia called her up to the national team, much to her surprise. 'Honestly, I was really shocked,' said Emma-Nnopu, who was in high school at the time. Agnes Emma-Nnopu's stats, college career From there, she committed to Stanford, arriving during COVID and completing her entire first semester online. She graduated in three years with a bachelor's degree in biology, taking eight classes her final quarter so that she could transfer to TCU as a graduate student. She won a national title as a Stanford freshman, playing for legendary coach Tara VanDerveer, and returned to the Final Four a year later. Now she's anchoring the Horned Frogs' defense as TCU tries to make it to its first Final Four. As a 5-11 guard, she was fifth in offensive rebounds last year and sixth in the conference in blocks, with 36. She continued that strong form into this season and the NCAA Tournament, posting a career-high 23 points, four rebounds and a block in the second round against Louisville. Her teammates are far from surprised about her most recent outings. 'She doesn't get a lot of media attention for everything that she does, but we wouldn't be here without her,' graduate guard Maddie Scherr said. 'The way that she rebounds and plays defense and tips the basketball, just everything that she does is so important. 'Off the court, she is such a humble leader and warrior.' Emma-Nnopu embodies the Australian spirit of lightheartedness. She is often quick to a joke and her friendships involve a lot of ribbing, according to her teammates. 'We call her the grandma of the team, because that's how she acts,' Merrill said. Jokes range from her accent to her Stanford background, and she often turns them right around onto her teammates. 'I do get on her nerves a little bit,' Merrill said of her relationship with Emma-Nnopou. 'I just joke around with her, like with her accent. She's just really funny.' Emma-Nnopu's goal is to 'be one of those people who can say they've traveled to almost every country in the world.' For now, she'll focus on getting back to the Final Four. Everywhere else can wait. Cooper Burke is a student in the University of Georgia's Sports Media Certificate program.
NBC Sports
28-03-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
‘Old' Frogs have TCU women in NCAA Sweet 16 after roster was rebuilt with experienced transfers
FORT WORTH, Texas — These old Frogs have taken TCU deeper than it has ever been in March Madness. TCU's roster has been rebuilt through the transfer portal since Mark Campbell became their coach two years ago, when the Horned Frogs were coming off a 1-17 record in Big 12 play. Now with 11 transfers, eight of them who had previous NCAA Tournament experience, they are in the Sweet 16 for the first time after sweeping the Big 12 regular season and conference tournament titles, then winning their first two NCAA games as a host team. 'Because of their maturity, age, understanding the magnitude of what's in front of us, how I get to coach them, how our staff gets to communicate with them, it's almost like you're coaching a pro team in how you manage them, which is just a blast,' Campbell said. 'I think they're one of a kind, and they are the oldest team in the country.' Campbell said he is apt to crack a few jokes at halftime with his players. He usually makes fun of their age. There are no freshman Frogs. The players for TCU (33-3) have an average age of 22 1/2 years old — a full year older than Oklahoma, the nation's next-oldest power conference team, and also still playing. Half of TCU's 14 players were at least that old going into the NCAA tourney. Sedona Prince, whose college career began with Oregon during the 2019-20 season, is the oldest Frog — she turns 25 on May 12, four days after Agnes Emma-Nnopu's 24th birthday. Emma-Nnopu was on Stanford's 2021 national championship team as a freshman, then went to another Final Four with Cardinal. 'We all came here for this reason. We all wanted to build a program and get to this point, obviously see how far we could take it thing,' said Madison Conner, a 21-year-old senior guard in her second season in Fort Worth after transferring from Arizona. 'The experience we have on the roster will help us.' The second-seeded Frogs play third-seeded Notre Dame (28-5) in Birmingham, Alabama. TCU won 76-68 when the teams played in the Cayman Islands on Nov. 29. Oklahoma (27-7) plays UConn in Spokane, Washington. Oklahoma players have an average age of 21 1/2 years old, with five players being older than TCU's average of 22 1/12. One big difference between those two old rosters is that the Sooners returned 98% of their scoring from last season's Big 12 championship team, including all five starters and six other letter winners who were part of the team's move into the Southeastern Conference this season. TCU's starting lineup now has graduate transfer Hailey Van Lith, who is about to play in her fifth consecutive Sweet 16, and sophomore guard Donovyn Hunter, who scored 11 points for Oregon State when the Beavers beat Notre Dame in the Sweet 16 last March. Prince, Conner and Emma-Nnopu were returning starters. The 23-year-old Van Lith is TCU's leading scorer at 17.6 points a game, and was both the Big 12 player and newcomer of the year. She went to a Final Four and two Elite Eight games in three seasons with Louisville before going to another Elite Eight last season with LSU. At 20, Hunter is one of only two TCU players under 21. The other is 19-year-old Ella Hamlin, who was added to the roster in the middle of last season after open tryouts on campus during a stretch when the Frogs had to forfeit two Big 12 games after a series of injuries, including to Prince and Conner. Hamlin has played in only briefly in 11 games this season. 'It's cool to come into a program and see the beginnings point of it, talking to Mark and seeing the vision he had for the team and all of us transfers that came in and trusted his process and the plan that he had for us,' Hunter said. 'I think he took a huge risk on us, and we took a risk on this program, not necessarily knowing what was going to come out of it. ... But I'm not surprised at all that we're breaking all these record points in history. It's all a testament to, really, just the team.'
Associated Press
27-03-2025
- Sport
- Associated Press
‘Old' Frogs have TCU women in NCAA Sweet 16 after roster was rebuilt with experienced transfers
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — These old Frogs have taken TCU deeper than it has ever been in March Madness. TCU's roster has been rebuilt through the transfer portal since Mark Campbell became their coach two years ago, when the Horned Frogs were coming off a 1-17 record in Big 12 play. Now with 11 transfers, eight of them who had previous NCAA Tournament experience, they are in the Sweet 16 for the first time after sweeping the Big 12 regular season and conference tournament titles, then winning their first two NCAA games as a host team. 'Because of their maturity, age, understanding the magnitude of what's in front of us, how I get to coach them, how our staff gets to communicate with them, it's almost like you're coaching a pro team in how you manage them, which is just a blast,' Campbell said. 'I think they're one of a kind, and they are the oldest team in the country.' Campbell said he is apt to crack a few jokes at halftime with his players. He usually makes fun of their age. There are no freshman Frogs. The players for TCU (33-3) have an average age of 22 1/2 years old — a full year older than Oklahoma, the nation's next-oldest power conference team, and also still playing. Half of TCU's 14 players were at least that old going into the NCAA tourney. Sedona Prince, whose college career began with Oregon during the 2019-20 season, is the oldest Frog — she turns 25 on May 12, four days after Agnes Emma-Nnopu's 24th birthday. Emma-Nnopu was on Stanford's 2021 national championship team as a freshman, then went to another Final Four with Cardinal. 'We all came here for this reason. We all wanted to build a program and get to this point, obviously see how far we could take it thing,' said Madison Conner, a 21-year-old senior guard in her second season in Fort Worth after transferring from Arizona. 'The experience we have on the roster will help us.' The second-seeded Frogs play third-seeded Notre Dame (28-5) on Saturday in Birmingham, Alabama. TCU won 76-68 when the teams played in the Cayman Islands on Nov. 29. Oklahoma (27-7) plays UConn on Saturday in Spokane, Washington. Oklahoma players have an average age of 21 1/2 years old, with five players being older than TCU's average of 22 1/12. One big difference between those two old rosters is that the Sooners returned 98% of their scoring from last season's Big 12 championship team, including all five starters and six other letterwinners who were part of the team's move into the Southeastern Conference this season. TCU's starting lineup now has graduate transfer Hailey Van Lith, who is about to play in her fifth consecutive Sweet 16, and sophomore guard Donovyn Hunter, who scored 11 points for Oregon State when the Beavers beat Notre Dame in the Sweet 16 last March. Prince, Conner and Emma-Nnopu were returning starters. The 23-year-old Van Lith is TCU's leading scorer at 17.6 points a game, and was both the Big 12 player and newcomer of the year. She went to a Final Four and two Elite Eight games in three seasons with Louisville before going to another Elite Eight last season with LSU. At 20, Hunter is one of only two TCU players under 21. The other is 19-year-old Ella Hamlin, who was added to the roster in the middle of last season after open tryouts on campus during a stretch when the Frogs had to forfeit two Big 12 games after a series of injuries, including to Prince and Conner. Hamlin has played in only briefly in 11 games this season. 'It's cool to come into a program and see the beginnings point of it, talking to Mark and seeing the vision he had for the team and all of us transfers that came in and trusted his process and the plan that he had for us,' Hunter said. 'I think he took a huge risk on us, and we took a risk on this program, not necessarily knowing what was going to come out of it. ... But I'm not surprised at all that we're breaking all these record points in history. It's all a testament to, really, just the team.'
CBS News
24-03-2025
- Sport
- CBS News
TCU advances to Sweet 16 with 85-70 win over Louisville
Agnes Emma-Nnopu scored 23 points with four 3-pointers, Hailey Van Lith had a double-double against her former team and second-seeded TCU advanced to its first NCAA Sweet 16 in the women's NCAA Tournament with an 85-70 win over seventh-seeded Louisville on Sunday. Van Lith had 16 points and 10 assists after going to a Final Four and two other Elite Eight games with Louisville from 2021-23. She played in her 19th tourney game, the most among active players, after going to another Elite Eight with LSU last season. Sedona Prince had 19 points and Donovyn Hunter 18, including three 3-pointers in a 17-0 run that put the Horned Frogs (33-3) ahead to stay. Jayda Curry had a career-high 41 points for the Cardinals (22-11). She already had 15 of those when she made a jumper that put them up 17-13 with 2:57 left in the first quarter. before TCU's game-turning run when Van Lith made the go-ahead basket. Before winning twice at home when hosting for the first time, the Big 12 champion Horned Frogs hadn't even made the NCAA field in 15 years — and last won a tourney game since 2006. They were 1-17 in conference games two years ago before Mark Campbell became their coach and has since brought in 11 transfers, most with NCAA experience. They are now headed to Birmingham, Alabama, and a rematch with third-seeded Notre Dame (28-5). TCU beat the Fighting Irish 76-68 in the Cayman Islands on Nov. 29, an early indication of what could be a special season for the Frogs. Curry opened the game with a steal and a breakaway layup after a bad pass by Van Lith. After her fast start, the Cardinals missed 13 shots in a row before finally score again nearly six minutes into the second quarter. Olivia Cochran finished a five-season career with Louisville by scoring 15 points. Hunter, who was on Oregon State's team that beat Notre Dame in last year's Sweet 16, made her first 3 with 1:59 left in the first quarter to start that run. She made consecutive 3s to open the second quarter. Emma-Nnopu was part of Stanford's national championship as a freshman in 2021 and went to another Final Four with the Cardinal as a sophomore. Louisville, now with five freshmen playing regular minutes, had made it to at least the Elite Eight in five consecutive seasons before losing a first-round game last year, its only time doing that in 16 tourney appearances for coach Jeff Walz. The Cardinals would have faced Van Lith and LSU in the second round last year had they not lost to 11th-seeded Middle Tennessee. TCU finished 21-0 inside Schollmaier Arena this season, and have won 24 home games in a row overall. The Frogs led 47-26 at halftime, matching their largest lead. They shot 70% (19 of 27) in the first half while not missing consecutive shots and twice making six in a row. ___ AP March Madness coverage: and and
