Getting into her fourth yr with Gonzaga, rather a lot was anticipated of Yvonne Ejim, not simply by coaches and teammates, however by herself.
Hailing from Calgary, Yvonne was a star athlete in highschool that averaged greater than 20 factors per recreation from her sophomore yr onward, earned the Miss Basketball Alberta award, and represented the Canadian youth groups on the underneath 17 and 19 ranges. Regardless of this success, there are not any data available on-line relating to her highschool recruiting rating in contrast to the opposite gamers reviewed up to now, which is astounding given the progress she’s proven whereas in Spokane.
After solely averaging 6.5 minutes per recreation her freshman season, Yvonne has proven close to exponential development yr after yr inside this program. For the ‘21-22 season, she averaged 20.8 minutes, 10.1 factors, and 5.6 rebounds whereas the next yr, she averaged 27.5 minutes, 16.8 factors, and eight.4 rebounds.
That’s to not say she wasn’t excellent in these two seasons as a result of she was nonetheless growing her really feel of the sport as evidenced by her low A/T ratio, 0.6 throughout each seasons, and excessive foul price that noticed her foul out of seven video games within the ‘22-23 season together with 7 video games with 4 fouls that restricted her time on the ground under her season common. Her 103 fouls that yr positioned her on the ignominious record for many fouls by a Gonzaga participant in a single season.
One may additionally say she was a bit inconsistent along with her influence on the sport as, in that very same yr, she scored lower than fifteen factors in 12 of the group’s 33 video games, together with the group’s loses towards Marquette and Stanford, regardless of her group excessive factors per recreation. So heading into the ‘23-24 marketing campaign, one needed to surprise precisely how a lot room for improvement Yvonne Ejim had left to indicate us.
Because it seems, the 6’1” Canadian ahead hadn’t even began the present but. A fast look at her season-ending averages could not leap out a lot on condition that her rebounding numbers had been basically the identical, 8.7, and scoring elevated barely, 19.7 (adequate for twenty seventh nationally), however I’d implore anybody questioning about her high quality to take a deeper dive into her boxscore numbers.
Capturing Effectivity — after averaging 51.6% and 53.4% in her sophomore and junior years, Yvonne exploded this yr as much as 60.1%, a quantity ranked thirteenth within the NCAA and broke the all-time document for Gonzaga that was set by Kayla Standish’s 56.1% mark within the ‘10-11 season. She broke the mark by 4%! To place this into context, the quantity ten mark checks in simply 3.4% under the earlier document. Yvonne didn’t simply squeak by the Bulldog’s all-time document, she destroyed it.
Ball Distribution — Ejim is an elite bucket-getter and that’s what we wish her doing for almost all of her time on the ground. Nevertheless it’s nonetheless good to know that your main post-scorer isn’t a black gap when she will get the ball. After her poor A/T numbers the years prior, Yvonne made large strides on this space as she reached 2.3 assists per recreation whereas dropping her turnovers to only 1.8, each profession bests. Scoring, distributing, and defending the ball are important checkboxes for an elite participant and Ejim is making her mark right here.
Foul Bother — dropping her fouls per recreation from 3.1 to 2.6 could not appear substantial, however I believe this evolution performed an enormous function in Ejim’s improvement and in serving to this group attain their peak. She fouled out in simply 4 video games this yr and solely had 4 fouls 5 video games. If we exclude the primary month of the season, these numbers fall to 2 and three. Having Yvonne on the ground was important for this group to achieve not simply their offensive potential, but in addition defensive. Her defensive field plus/minus of three.7 doesn’t actually paint the complete image about her contribution on that finish, however in the event you watched among the video games this yr, you then’ll keep in mind how the group’s defensive appeared a bit misplaced with out her manning the paint.
Consistency — whereas I could possibly be accused of being too onerous about her ups and downs within the ‘22-23 season, it’s onerous not to take action when in comparison with this previous season’s efficiency. In 34 video games, Yvonne scored no fewer than ten factors in each single match, lower than fourteen factors in simply 4 video games, and greater than twenty in 17 video games. She additionally set the Gonzaga all-time season document for participant effectivity ranking at 43.5, which surpassed Courtney Vandersloot’s ranking of 41.3 within the ‘10-11 marketing campaign.
Fortunately, readers of this web site weren’t the one ones to acknowledge Ejim’s influence on and off the court docket this yr as she earned so many awards, she’s going to want a brand new showcase:
WCC Participant of the Yr
WCC Defensive Participant of the Yr
All-WCC First Staff Participant Choice
6 Time WCC Participant of the Week
Becky Hammon Participant of the Yr
AP All-American Honorable Point out
Katrina McClain Energy Ahead of the Yr Finalist
Tutorial All-American
With the additional yr granted to athletes that attended college through the Covid-19 pandemic, Yvonne Ejim made the choice to return to Gonzaga for her fifth yr. Whereas that is clearly wonderful information for a program that has misplaced a lot of gamers by way of commencement and switch, I believe it’s wonderful that we get to look at this dynamo develop and play one other yr for our program.
What was your favourite Yvonne Ejim second from the ‘23-24 season? Was it her 27-12 efficiency within the upset of Stanford? Was it her 25-14 explosion towards UCI within the opening of the NCAA Match? Was it her infectious power and smile because the roared off the bench to rejoice the group’s win in Spokane that moved them onto the Candy 16? Was it one thing else completely?
