There are few awkward moments in the life of Courtney Paris. Being big never has been a problem.
That’s why the 6-foot-4, 230-pound freshman center from Oklahoma appears ready to become the most dominant player in women’s college basketball. When she leads the Sooners into the Pepsi Center for an NCAA Tournament first-round game against Pepperdine on Saturday morning, she will not only be the most imposing player in the building, she’ll probably be the most relaxed.
“She’s just very comfortable in her own skin,” Sooners coach Sherri Coale said. “I think most 18-year-olds in general and 18-year-old girls in particular, they look in the mirror and see everything except what is really there. She looks in the mirror and doesn’t see anything that’s better or anything that’s worse.
“She sees clearly, which is really, really rare, not just for 18-year-olds but for people in general. We either look in there and either overinflate ourselves or devalue ourselves, and she doesn’t do that.
“She sees exactly what she is, and I think that enables her to keep an even keel, to not get too high, to not get too low and not take herself too seriously.”
A big factor in Paris’ remarkable level of maturity is that she doesn’t need a mirror. She has an identical twin, Ashley, the Sooners’ backup center.
With Ashley, four brothers and a father, William “Bubba” Paris, who was an all-pro lineman in the NFL, Courtney always has been comfortable with her self-image.
“That’s just the way I grew up,” she said. “I think it’s just the things I’ve been able to do with my dad and everything that kind of gave me a head start. It’s just all made it very easy.
“I’ve been big all my life, so I try to use it to the best of my advantage. There are other big girls who maybe don’t do that, and that’s really too bad. I know my size and I know the advantage it gives me, and I take advantage.”
Does she ever.
Three more rebounds and Paris will become the first woman in NCAA history to record 700 points, 500 rebounds and 100 blocked shots in a season.
“When she wants to take it to the basket, there’s really no way to stop her,” Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly said last week at the Big 12 Tournament. “Unfortunately, in the women’s game, they don’t go early to the (WNBA) draft. So we’re all just going to have to deal with her for the next three years, and I don’t know that there’s a whole lot you can do.”
But it’s not like Paris is a bully on the court. Those who watch her play don’t see a lot of hip checks or elbows. What they see is a lot of lesser players simply bouncing off her or getting out of her way.
“It’s not a dichotomy with her,” Coale said. “It’s not, ‘She’s big and strong, therefore, she’s slow.’ She’s very athletic. Great hands, great feet. So she uses her physicality when she needs to use it, and she uses her speed and agility when she needs to as well.
“She’s just a very confident player. I think it all starts with her comfortable nature with her physicality, and that transfers onto what she can do on the floor. You put those two gifts together, and it can be quite a force.”
There’s a third gift, too: Paris’ dedication.
“The thing about Courtney is that she absolutely detests doing things wrong – and hey, she’s a freshman, she still does a lot of things wrong,” Coale said. “She makes up for it with her skill and her strength, but the fact that she still makes a lot of mistakes and that it bothers her so much is what gives her a chance to be really extraordinary.”
Paris knows what most everybody else does about her potential.
“Am I going to be the next most dominant player in the game?” she said, repeating the question. “Well, I hope so. I think I’m doing a pretty good job of dominating now. But there’s so much I still need to learn. There’s little things that maybe by the time I’m a senior, I’ll have that all down, and who knows what I’ll be able to do?
“Right now I’m real confident, confident in my team, and I love what I do. I feel invincible. I don’t worry about anything.”
Staff writer Joseph Sanchez can be reached at 303-820-5458 or jsanchez@denverpost.com.
