Akin-Otiko holds the Pink Out game in high regard (Streur/WBR)
In the grand scheme of things, sports are just games. They don’t usually matter other than to serve as a distraction to the things that truly matter, including the emotional struggles we go through in life. But sometimes, sports can crossover and show us hope. They can be used to draw attention to a cause, and sometimes a simple game can take on a greater purpose.
On Sunday, the Creighton women’s basketball team will take their home court against the Providence Friars in the annual “Pink Out” game to raise awareness for breast cancer. The Bluejays will dawn pink uniforms and their fans will sport pink shirts in support of the cause. At the end of the day, to some of them, it’ll be a chance to help out. For others like Creighton senior forward Alexis Akin-Otiko it will mean a little more.
Alexis was 11 years old when her mother Kimberly passed away from breast cancer on February 3, 2005 at the age of 30. The oldest of three siblings at the time, Alexis had to grow up a bit faster than a typical sixth grader.
“I didn’t really get to have that much of being a kid when I was growing up. I had two siblings at the time that were young, so I was just worried about taking care of them more than anything else,” she said. “It made me mature a little bit faster than I probably would have at that age.”
Now just over ten years to the day that her mother passed away, she’ll play in her fourth and final “Pink Out” game as a Creighton Bluejay. Like the first three times she suited up for it, she knows there will be a different feeling and different thoughts in her head before and after the game. It’s a game she understands means a little more because of her past, though she’ll try to keep her emotions in check as she always does when the time comes.
“I try not to get too high or too low when it comes to these kinds of things, but it is meaningful. I really appreciate it. I think it’s awesome that we have games like this to support those types of causes,” she said. “It makes me remember things and it definitely makes me want to play harder a little bit. I guess it is a little different, but I just try to stay even keel with it.”
If her performances in “Pink Out” games are any indication, she has been doing a great job of staying “even keel.” Through her first 100 career games entering her senior season, she posted career averages of 4.3 points, 2.9 rebounds, 0.6 assists, 0.5 blocks, and 0.7 steals per game while also shooting 39.4% from the field.
In the three “Pink Out” games prior to Sunday, she has averaged 6.3 points, 6.o rebounds, 1.0 assists, 0.7 blocks, and 1.7 steals per game while shooting 52.9% from the field. An improvement in every statistical category across the board. She not only stays composed in those games, she excels. The most memorable of these performances came during her sophomore season against then conference-leading Wichita State. In that game, a 56-46 win for the Bluejays, Akin-Otiko led the team across the board with 13 points, eight rebounds, three assists, two steals, and two blocked shots in 25 minutes off the bench.
It was a performance that former Creighton forward Sarah Nelson remembered immediately when asked about Akin-Otiko.
“I think the time at Creighton that really stands out to me is the Wichita State game her sophomore year. She is the one who really won that super important game for us by being tough in the post,” Nelson said.
The win put the Bluejays back in contention for their first regular season title since 2002-2003, a league title they would eventually share with that same Shocker team. It later helped Creighton earn a rare at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament where they defeated nationally-ranked Syracuse in the first round thanks partly again, according to Nelson, to Akin-Otiko’s defense on opposing center Kayla Alexander. “Her defense on Syracuse’s all star post in the NCAA tournament was key,” Nelson said. “I remember at halftime [assistant coach Carrie Moore] told me ‘you need to guard more like Lex! Be more physical!'”
Nelson, who graduated in 2014, knows better than anyone about what type of player Wichita State and Syracuse had to deal with on those days. After all, Nelson spent the majority of her career both in high school and in practice at Creighton going up against Akin-Otiko.
“I played against her all the time in high school and I never looked forward to it cause I knew I was in for a rough night,” Nelson said. “She is such a strong player and capable of affecting the game in so many ways. Even though last year she may not have put up huge scoring numbers, she always impacted the game in a positive way defensively. She is not afraid to battle with someone who is significantly bigger than her.”
Nelson finished her career as one of just four players to finish in the top ten all-time in points, rebounds, and assists in Creighton women’s basketball history. She also finished her career as the school’s all-time leading shot blocker. An all-time great career by any objective standard, but one that Nelson says might not have come to fruition were it not for the daily competition Akin-Otiko would provide in practice for the last three years of Nelson’s career.
“There is no question in my mind that practicing with Alexis made me better,” Nelson said. “She is such a hard worker and she is strong. It is hard to guard someone who is just an all around good player like Alexis. She can step out and make jump shots, she can take you in the post and she is definitely not easy to score on at all. When someone makes you work on every aspect of your game in practice, you know that they are making you better.”
After Nelson graduated, Akin-Otiko took over the starting spot at power forward for head coach Jim Flanery. With her minutes as a senior now more than double what they were for her career entering the season, the 6-foot-nothing forward out of Bellevue West is getting to show that ability in games. She has four double-doubles this season and four 20-point games, including a 28-point explosion on January 25 in a win at Marquette. That was a win that started the Bluejays on their current five-game winning streak and has them thinking about an NCAA Tournament bid once again after losing five out of six to begin the month of January.
That stretch took a toll on the senior forward. After watching senior teammates Taylor Johnson and Sammy Jensen retire due to knee injuries, Akin-Otiko began to realize that her time as a collegiate athlete was also running out. With the injuries to classmates coinciding with a long losing streak, teammates and coaches began to see that competitive side that doesn’t always show itself, emotionally, on the basketball court.
“She’s quiet and she’s not unemotional, but I wouldn’t consider overly emotional,” said Flanery. “I don’t think there is any question this year that nobody on our team takes losing harder than her. As a senior you’d hope that would be the case, but it’s not always the case, and I just know that she’s been down in the locker room after losses more than anybody. I think that speaks to her competitiveness.”
That competitive desire, that hate to lose attitude showed up in the Marquette game where she scored that career-high 28 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in a 93-75 come-from-behind road win. That attitude, Nelson says, has always been there throughout Akin-Otiko’s career, and now it’s coming to the surface in the form of a veteran leader on a team with seven underclass players.
“I think that Alexis is one of the hardest working people I played with,” Nelson said. “One of the things that I always appreciated the most about Alexis was that she took the criticism that the coaches gave her very personally and made sure she really worked on them. If she didn’t shoot well, she was in the gym shooting the next day. I remember in one of our exhibition games she missed like 8 free throws (Sorry for bringing this up Lex), but almost every practice after that she was in the gym shooting extra free throws. When teammates do things like that, it always encourages other people to do the same thing, which ultimately makes everyone better.”
The sense of accountability that was instilled in Alexis by her father James, a former basketball player himself at Oral Roberts. It is him, Alexis said, that taught her how to lead by example and to take care of her own shortcomings before helping others correct theirs.
“I’ve learned from him that you can’t make excuses for yourself or blame anybody,” she said. “You should blame yourself first in order to get better as an individual. I think one thing that is really important is before you expect anybody else to do anything different you have to make sure you’re taking care of yourself, and making sure you’re blaming yourself first. You can’t tell anybody to do something different if you aren’t taking care of the things you need to. That’s kind of important.
“I’m not a very vocal leader, so I try and lead by example. In order for me to help people or get stuff done I feel like I need to take care of what I need to do first in order to make an impact.”
Akin-Otiko says that she and her dad don’t talk shop much before games, but he’s still there to help her with on the court stuff afterwards. According to her, it’s a great relationship, not just between father and daughter, but also former athlete and current athlete.
“He’s talked to me so much over the years that this past year we don’t really talk that much on game days,” she said. “He just says, ‘good luck’ and pretty much trusts that everything that I know now is what I know. There’s not too much going on before games, but after games he helps me, if we lose or if we win, with stuff I can work at. It’s a positive relationship the way he understands what I’m going through as a student athlete. It’s good to have him.”
With just three home games remaining, including Sunday’s “Pink Out”, Alexis knows her time to play in front of her father and three younger siblings, Jordan, Chloe, and Joel, is coming to an end. As a result she has been more reflective about her career.
“It just goes by so fast. Freshman year is always the longest, because you don’t know what to expect. It’s just a big transition, but it goes by so fast,” she said. “I wouldn’t regret anything. I loved going to the tournament, the girls I got to play with, and our coaching staff. I just wish I could play longer.”
On Sunday, she’ll soak in one final game in a pink Creighton uniform. She’ll take the court knowing that her teammates, coaches, and fans appreciate her efforts, and knowing that her father and siblings are proud of her. She’ll play in one final “Pink Out” game in front of everybody except her mother, the one person she wishes could have seen her put on a Creighton uniform. Instead Alexis will settle for hope, hope that her mother, if she were alive today, would feel the same way as the rest of her family.
“I hope she would be proud of me. In anything I do, I try to do to the best that I can. Even if I’m not getting a double-double and we’re just getting wins, I hope she would be proud of me.”