Ohio State senior forward Eboni Walker (22) carries the ball up the floor, following a turnover, during No. 2 Ohio State’s (19-0) win over Northwestern (6-12) in Columbus on Jan. 19. Credit: Zachary Rilley | Photo Editor
Hanging on the gym wall at Centennial High School in Las Vegas, senior forward Eboni Walker’s name stands imprinted on a drape.
Along with her name and graduation year, Walker’s drape also reads “2019 Gatorade Player of The Year.”
For Walker, the desire to find a familial collegiate basketball program would lead her to experience a unique journey, transferring from two universities and competing in three Division I conferences — the Pac-12, the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Big Ten.
Walker said she hopes one day her name will become inscribed on the display outside the Buckeyes’ practice gym at the Schottenstein Center.
“I want to be remembered,” Walker said. “That’s just my overall thing. I want to be remembered as far as my Ohio State athletics go.”
Walker, born in Moreno Valley, California, said she started playing basketball when she was 3 years old. She was too young to be on a competitive team, so she would take part in basketball camps and play recreational sports at the YMCA, she said.
Walker said most of these camps and sport facilities were male dominated.
When Walker wasn’t playing basketball, she said she drove around with her father on the weekends, helping people fix their vehicles. Although she calls herself a handy woman, Walker said she enjoys helping people because of what her father taught her at an early age.
“We used to be like, ‘Alright, so let’s just drive around, and the people that are on the side of the road, we’ll fix a tire, we’ll get their gas or help them with their oil,’” Walker said.
Walker said after the passing of her father, her family moved to Las Vegas to be closer to his relatives. It was in Nevada where Walker’s basketball career began to blossom as she played for one of the top programs in the nation — Centennial High School.
Walker said she first started to play basketball for Becker Middle School.
While warming up for the boys’ basketball tryouts, she said the head coach told her she could not compete with the boys and urged her to attend the girls’ basketball tryouts. After much convincing, Walker said she tried out and made the girls team.
A few years later, Walker led Centennial to a 31-1 record and a fifth-straight Class 4A state championship in 2019 as the No. 43-ranked recruit by ESPN HoopGurlz. Walker was also named 2019 Nevada Gatorade Player of the Year, an award that recognizes the nation’s most elite high school athletes for their accomplishments on and off the field.
After receiving multiple college offers, Walker committed to Arizona State and majored in mechanical engineering.
Walker spent her first two years of college at Arizona State, where she played in every game and led the team with a 51.9 field goal percentage and averaged 6.5 points and 2.8 offensive rebounds per game.
Walker said she felt she could contribute more on the court, but her education was the driving factor to leave Arizona State. Studying engineering is a tough task, but balancing athletics in a STEM-related field is even more difficult, especially as a first-generation college student, she said.
“It’s just the balance of, in a way, support,” Walker said. “Are you going to be able to miss practice? Are you going to be able to show up late? Just little things like that.”
After a drawn-out transfer process, she committed to Syracuse after the 2020-21 season to play for then-head coach Quentin Hillsman, who tried to recruit Walker out of high school but was unable to reach her because he was calling the wrong number, she said.
Walker flew out to New York to begin practicing with Syracuse, but a few months before the start of the season, Hillsman resigned due to allegations of bullying and improper behavior, according to the Associated Press. Walker said she knew of the allegations before committing to Syracuse, but was shocked when she heard the news of his resignation.
The claims against Hillsman didn’t align with the man she knew, she said.
“We advocated for our next coach, which also didn’t go great,” Walker said. “Then we had another coach. So, I tell people like in a short story, we had three coaches in one season at Syracuse. That’s a lot.”
Walker played six games for Syracuse before suffering an undisclosed season-ending injury. This, combined with the ruckus going on within the basketball program, Walker said she knew once the season ended that she needed to take another risk.
That risk landed her at Ohio State.
Wesley Brooks, an assistant coach for the Ohio State’s women’s basketball team, encouraged Walker to join the team after initially trying to recruit the forward to Utah out of high school, she said.
After a phone call with head coach Kevin McGuff, Walker said she visited Ohio State and knew the moment she landed she had found her home. After nearly two years off the court, Walker said she arrived at the university out of shape.
“When I first got here, I was not doing good,” Walker said. “I was 215 pounds. I didn’t even know who I was when I looked in the mirror.”
Walker said Ohio State supported her every step of the way. Her teammates motivated her during practice, and she would spend extra hours at the RPAC scrimmaging against students. Walker said she was surrounded by great athletes and could no longer allow herself to slack.
A few months later, Walker has started the past seven games of Ohio State’s 2022-23 regular season and has played a key role in the Buckeyes’ rotation. She earned her first-career double-double against Penn State by tying her season-high 12 points and adding a season-high 11 rebounds.
Walker said she credits her teammates, coaching staff, family and the university for their support.
Walker said her ultimate goal is to play in the WNBA, but wouldn’t mind playing overseas or working in the Air Force as a mechanical engineer, inspired by the drives with her father when she was 6 years old.
“I took so much pride in my mechanical engineering because of that, because of him,” Walker said. “I help people because of what he taught me when I was younger.”
Walker said she wonders at times how great of a player she could’ve been if she’d educated herself more about basketball but is grateful for the support she’s received throughout her journey in intercollegiate athletics. For now, Walker said she is focused on helping the women’s basketball team win an NCAA National Championship this season.
A win of this magnitude could be a step toward getting Walker’s name on display inside the Schottenstein Center. However, for the California native, her legacy has already been stamped on a drape that hangs on the gym walls at Centennial High School.
“It made me want to be who I knew I could be,” Walker said. “Every day I’m getting closer and closer to that Gatorade Player of the Year athlete that I used to be.”
