HUNTINGTON — If you can’t beat her, coax her to transfer and join you.
That plan has worked well for Marshall University women’s basketball in landing Blessing King. The 5-foot-10 junior forward left Morehead State for Marshall and has added a strong rebounder and defender with scoring ability to the defending Sun Belt Conference champions.
King scored two points, grabbed two rebounds, blocked two shots and made two assists and one steal last season as the Eagles beat the Thundering Herd 67-64 at Ellis T. Johnson Arena in Morehead, Kentucky.
King said playing for a team she helped beat last season took some adjusting.
“It was [weird] at first,” King said with a laugh. “At Morehead, in the scout of Marshall, our coach said, ‘they’re all a bunch of Blessings.’ At the time, I wasn’t even thinking about transferring, but once I went in the portal, I remembered that, and it made me consider Marshall.”
King is averaging 2.9 points, 5.5 rebounds and 1.1 blocked shots per game. She scored 10 points, grabbed 15 rebounds, made three steals and blocked one shot in the Herd’s 98-41 victory over Salem on Dec. 1.
King starred at Worthington (Ohio) Christian High School, where she averaged 14 points and 11 rebounds to earn first-team all-state honors, before starting her college career at Florida Southwestern State.
With the Buccaneers, she averaged 10.7 points and 13.4 rebounds a game. At Morehead State, King started 25 of 30 games and averaged 5.8 points and 10.6 rebounds an outing.
The urge to move struck again after the season, and King received offers from Eastern Kentucky, Florida Tech and others, including Marshall.
“There were a couple of more, but Marshall just stood out,” King said. “Coach Juli [Fulks] has helped me in hitting my basketball goals and my outside-of-basketball goals, the team culture. Even though she’s new and we have a lot of new players, the culture stayed the same, which I like.”
King, who was born in the United States to parents from Nigeria, said she’s thrilled with her decision to join the Herd.
“I love it here,” King said. “Everything I talked about on my visit, about what I wanted to experience, I’ve been able to experience it on the court and off the court. I’m really happy I chose Marshall.”
King said academics were at least as important as basketball in determining where she’d transfer.
“I want to be a sideline reporter,” King said. “I want to go into media. Coach Juli made sure they showed me ways they can help with my future going forward outside of basketball. Basketball’s going to come to an end at some point. They’ve helped me expand and get the experience that I need.”
King served as a host for Hoops in Huntington, an event downtown to showcase the men’s and women’s basketball teams and did sideline reporting on the Herd’s national runner-up soccer team.
King said she’s improved since coming to Huntington and is working diligently to become even better.
“I have,” King said. “I actually have been doing individual workouts with some of my assistant coaches to get over the hump and become the player I know I can be. They’ve been helping me so much and trusting in me. It’s paying off, so I’m really happy.”
King said she wants to improve her scoring and refine her already strong rebounding.
“That’s another thing we’ve been working on, along with our footwork,” King said. “Our guards passing to us, getting where we can go get it. We spend a lot of time on that in practice. It’s great to see it all coming together.”
Fulks said she’s seen improvement in King and other bigs.
“Everything about being a good interior player is footwork,” Fulks said. “That’s something we’ve really focused on and will stay focused on it.”
Fulks said one of the most difficult skills on the court is for a player to score with her back to the basket. She said King has that ability.
“We’ve been working on that,” Fulks said. “It’s one of the reasons people go away from it. It takes time to develop. It’s something we’re committed to, and we have the players to do it.”
