"The American Heritage Dictionary" defines 'imposing' as 'impressive.' In Atlantic Coast Conference basketball, the word has a different definition: Maryland's Obinna Ekezie.
The 6-foot-10, 250-lb. behemoth looms large in the paint, leading the Terrapins in both rebounds and blocked shots, with 6.7 boards and 1.1 blocks per game, good for eighth and 10th in the ACC, respectively. Ekezie has proven his effectiveness on offense as well as defense, tallying 13.3 points per game as the Terps' third-leading scorer.
A junior who has started in every game for the last two years, Ekezie demonstrates an agility that belies his size, spinning or driving through the lanes or taking shots from the baseline. Ekezie's towering height combined with his extensive repertoire of moves makes him a challenge to guard.
"He's a great player,"Duke center Taymon Domzalski said. "The thing with Ekezie is you have to have help defending him. You have to use team defense to stop him. I think maybe when he puts the ball on the floor we need [Steve Wojciechowski] to double team."
Born in Nigeria, Ekezie moved to America at his father's behest in 1993 to spend his last two years of high school at Worcester Academy. It was at Worcester that he began playing basketball. Ekezie's talent showed immediately; his first season on the basketball court, he averaged 20 points and 10 rebounds per game.
Heavily recruited during his senior year, he chose to attend Maryland for academic as well as athletic reasons. Ekezie, an honor student in high school, is pursing a computer engineering business degree, and Maryland was one of only nine universities in the nation to offer the academic program he sought.
Ekezie's intelligence and work ethic manifest themselves both on and off the court. Improvement has been the hallmark of his basketball career at Maryland. Ekezie's scoring and rebounding averages have jumped from 4.5 points per game and 3.7 boards per game his freshman year to 13.3 points and 6.7 boards this season. In the past two-and-a-half seasons, he has tallied 72 blocked shots to tie 1997 graduate and Chicago Bulls draftee Keith Booth for 11th on the Terrapins' all-time blocked shots list.
The most remarkable sign of his growth as a player, though, is in an aspect of the game usually delegated to the guards: assists. After amassing 19 assists during the 1995-1996 season and 22 last year, Ekezie has already surpassed last year's benchmark with 26 on the season with over a month of play remaining.
Surpassing his own achievements has been the name of the game for Ekezie lately. The junior achieved career highs in blocked shots and points this season, recording five blocks against South Carolina in November and 23 points against Duke when the two teams met at Maryland earlier this month. He also recorded his first collegiate double-doubles this year against George Washington and Florida State. Because of his size, skill and improvement, Ekezie has become a formidable force in the middle, a defensive stopper and scoring threat that opponents have to contain in order to have any hope of defeating the Terrapins.
"I think Ekezie is one of the top centers in our league," Wojciechowski said. "He gives them an unbelievable inside presence. Taymon, Roshown [McLeod], Shane [Battier] are going to have to take turns guarding him."
Ekezie's prowess in the paint has made him one of the premier post players in the conference, if not in the nation. For Duke, neutralizing him will be no easy task.
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