Octavia Blue Explained

Octavia Blue
Career Position:Forward
League:C-USA
Team:Kennesaw State Owls
Position:Head coach
Height Ft:6
Height In:1
Weight Lbs:163
Birth Date:18 April 1976
Birth Place:Fort Lauderdale, Florida
High School:Nova (Davie, Florida)
College:Miami (Florida) (1994–1998)
Draft League:WNBA
Draft Year:1998
Draft Round:2
Draft Pick:15
Draft Team:Los Angeles Sparks
Career Start:1998
Career End:2004
Career Number:20, 31
Years1:1998
Team1:Los Angeles Sparks
Years2:2003–2004
Team2:Houston Comets
Cyears1:2008–2009
Cteam1:St. John's (assistant)
Cyears2:2009–2012
Cteam2:Georgia Tech (assistant)
Cyears3:2012–2020
Cteam3:Miami (FL) (assistant)
Cyears4:2020–2021
Cteam4:Miami (FL) (associate HC)
Cyears5:2021–present
Cteam5:Kennesaw State
Highlights:
  • First-team All-Big East (1998)
  • Big East All-Freshman Team (1995)
Bbr Wnba:blueoc01w
Letter:b

Octavia Blue (born April 18, 1976) is an American former women's basketball player with the Los Angeles Sparks and Houston Comets of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She played during the 1998, 2003 and 2004 seasons. She is currently the head coach for the Kennesaw State Owls women's basketball team.[1]

Coaching career

Blues first foray into coaching was as an assistant coach at St. John's in 2008. she was responsible, among other things for development of post players, and St. John's Dashena Stevens earned the award as the Big East rookie of the year in 2008–09. She remained there for one season before taking a position as an assistant at Georgia Tech. After three years at Georgia Tech Katie Meier, called and offered her a position as an assistant coach at Miami.[2] [3]

Working primarily with the post players, Blue has coached eight players to 10 total All-ACC recognition in her eight seasons at Miami, including six first-team accolades and two All-ACC Defensive Team honors. Over the last two seasons, the Miami alum worked closely with 2020 graduate Beatrice Mompremier, who earned AP and WBCA All-America recognition in back-to-back seasons. Mompremier was a finalist for the Lisa Leslie Center of the Year Award in both 2019 and 2020 and was tabbed ACC Preseason Player of the Year ahead of the 2019-20 campaign.

During Blue's nine -year stint at Miami, five players have signed WNBA contracts, including Mompremier, who was selected 20th overall in the 2020 WNBA Draft by the Los Angeles Sparks. In total, 14 Hurricanes who have benefited from Blue's tutelage have gone on to play professionally. She received a promotion to associate head coach in the fall of 2020.[2]

In April 2021, she was named the head coach of Kennesaw State.

Playing career

During her collegiate career, she played for Miami amassing 1,724 points on the court during 1994–98. Afterward, she went on to play professional basketball and was selected 15th by the Los Angeles Sparks in the 1998 WNBA Draft, becoming Miami's 1st WNBA draft pick.

Career statistics

WNBA

Regular season

|-| align="left" | 1998| align="left" | Los Angeles|30||3||11.0||33.8||28.6||62.5||1.6||0.3||0.4||0.1||0.9||2.4|-| align="left" | 1999| style="text-align:center;" colspan="13" |Did not play (waived)|-| align="left" | 2000| style="text-align:center;" colspan="13" |Did not play (did not appear in WNBA)|-| align="left" | 2001| style="text-align:center;" colspan="13" |Did not play (did not appear in WNBA)|-| align="left" | 2002| style="text-align:center;" colspan="13" |Did not play (did not appear in WNBA)|-| align="left" | 2003| align="left" | Houston|16||0||2.3||25.0||0.0||50.0||0.1||0.1||0.0 ||0.0||0.1||0.3|-| align="left" | 2004| align="left" | Houston|13||3||11.9||38.1||0.0 ||92.3||1.6||0.4||0.1 ||0.0||0.5||3.4 |-| align="left" | Career| align="left" | 3 years, 2 teams|59||6||8.9||35.0||24.0||70.7||1.2||0.3||0.2 ||0.1||0.6||2.1

Playoffs

|-| align="left" | 2003| align="left" | Houston|1||0||4.0||0.0||0.0||0.0||0.0||1.0||0.0||0.0||2.0||0.0|-| align="left" | Career| align="left" | 1 year, 1 team|1||0||4.0||0.0||0.0||0.0||0.0||1.0||0.0||0.0||2.0||0.0

College

|-| style="text-align:left;" | 1994–95 | style="text-align:left;" | Miami (FL)|24||-||-||38.6||0.0||65.3||7.2||0.6||1.3||0.8||-||14.5 |-| style="text-align:left;" | 1995–96 | style="text-align:left;" | Miami (FL)|27||-||-||48.8||0.0||56.7||6.4||1.0||1.3||0.2||-||16.0 |-| style="text-align:left;" | 1996–97 | style="text-align:left;" | Miami (FL)|29||-||-||42.1||0.0||64.7||5.6||2.6||1.3||0.2||-||13.4|-| style="text-align:left;" | 1997–98 | style="text-align:left;" | Miami (FL)|29||-||-||45.8||45.3||72.2||5.7||0.8||1.2||0.3||-||19.2 |-| style="text-align:center;" colspan=2 | Career|109||-||-||44.0||42.9||65.2||6.2||1.3||1.3||0.3||-||15.8|- class="sortbottom"|style="text-align:center;" colspan="14"|Statistics retrieved from Sports-Reference.[4]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Kennesaw State Announces Octavia Blue as Women’s Basketball Coach. 2021-04-29. Kennesaw State University Athletics. en.
  2. Web site: 2020-04-06. Octavia Blue. 2021-04-29. University of Miami Athletics. en-US.
  3. Web site: 2020-07-23. Octavia Blue: Basketball and Beyond. 2021-04-29. University of Miami Athletics. en-US.
  4. Web site: Octavia Blue College Stats. Sports-Reference. July 7, 2024.