Octavia Blue

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]

Octavia Blue

Kennesaw State Owls
Position	Head coach
League	C-USA
Personal information
Born	(1976-04-18) April 18, 1976 (age 48) Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Listed height	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Listed weight	163 lb (74 kg)
Career information
High school	Nova (Davie, Florida)
College	Miami (Florida) (1994–1998)
WNBA draft	1998: 2nd round, 15th overall pick
Selected by the Los Angeles Sparks
Playing career	1998–2004
Position	Forward
Number	20, 31
Career history
As player:
1998	Los Angeles Sparks
2003–2004	Houston Comets
As coach:
2008–2009	St. John's (assistant)
2009–2012	Georgia Tech (assistant)
2012–2020	Miami (FL) (assistant)
2020–2021	Miami (FL) (associate HC)
2021–present	Kennesaw State
Career highlights and awards
First-team All-Big East (1998) Big East All-Freshman Team (1995)
Stats at Basketball Reference

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.^[1]

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

Legend

GP	Games played	GS	Games started	MPG	Minutes per game	RPG	Rebounds per game
APG	Assists per game	SPG	Steals per game	BPG	Blocks per game	PPG	Points per game
TO	Turnovers per game	FG%	Field-goal percentage	3P%	3-point field-goal percentage	FT%	Free-throw percentage
Bold	Career best	°	League leader

WNBA

Regular season

Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	TO	PPG
1998	Los Angeles	30	3	11.0	33.8	28.6	62.5	1.6	0.3	0.4	0.1	0.9	2.4
1999	Did not play (waived)
2000	Did not play (did not appear in WNBA)
2001	Did not play (did not appear in WNBA)
2002	Did not play (did not appear in WNBA)
2003	Houston	16	0	2.3	25.0	0.0	50.0	0.1	0.1	0.0	0.0	0.1	0.3
2004	Houston	13	3	11.9	38.1	0.0	92.3	1.6	0.4	0.1	0.0	0.5	3.4
Career	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

Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	TO	PPG
2003	Houston	1	0	4.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	1.0	0.0	0.0	2.0	0.0
Career	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

Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	TO	PPG
1994–95	Miami (FL)	24	-	-	38.6	0.0	65.3	7.2	0.6	1.3	0.8	-	14.5
1995–96	Miami (FL)	27	-	-	48.8	0.0	56.7	6.4	1.0	1.3	0.2	-	16.0
1996–97	Miami (FL)	29	-	-	42.1	0.0	64.7	5.6	2.6	1.3	0.2	-	13.4
1997–98	Miami (FL)	29	-	-	45.8	45.3	72.2	5.7	0.8	1.2	0.3	-	19.2
Career		109	-	-	44.0	42.9	65.2	6.2	1.3	1.3	0.3	-	15.8
Statistics retrieved from Sports-Reference.[4]

References

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