Family has always been the most important thing in Idara Udo’s life.
A native of Plano, Texas, Udo is a first-generation American. Her parents, Ituru Inim and Efrung Udo, immigrated from Nigeria in their late 20s. She takes great pride in both her Nigerian heritage and in the opportunities afforded to her.
“The chance to represent my parents and represent the sacrifices they made for me is something that I’ll forever hold close to my heart,” Udo says. “All in all, I just want to make them proud and take advantage of the opportunities that they didn’t have growing up.”
Udo’s UTSA family is equally as important to her and was the main reason she chose to join the Roadrunners.
“I think if you ask everybody on our team why they came here, it would just be the feeling,” she says. “It’s a feeling of trust within the coaching staff and within Coach Aston. You know you’re going to be taken care of when you come here. You know that Coach has faith in you and, if you work hard, she’s going to reward the hard work.”
Basketball, to Udo, has always been something she has done for fun, even as she has established herself as one of the top post players in the American Athletic Conference.
Growing up in Plano, Udo’s mother was looking for activities in which Idara and her sister, Sema, could participate. For Udo, now 6-foot-1, basketball just made sense.
“My mom put my little sister in gymnastics, but gymnastics was just not for me the way I was built, so she decided to put me in basketball. She signed me up for a rec league and that’s how I started playing.”
Udo excelled both in academics and basketball as a prep player at Plano East Senior High, a program rich in girls’ basketball tradition. She helped lead her team to two district championships and was a First-Team All-District selection each of her last three years, and was an Academic All-District honoree. Udo scored more than 1,000 career points for the Panthers and was the District Defensive Player of the Year in her sophomore and senior seasons.
By a turn of fate, Udo came on Karen Aston’s radar early. Aston, who had been hired as UTSA’s head coach in April 2021, was recruiting another player at Plano East. That’s when Udo caught her eye.
“I saw Idara, a year younger than what we would usually target someone, but I just thought that she had a lot of potential at the time. I saw her and I thought she would fit our style,” Aston says. “That’s what you look for — someone who is not going to have a dramatic transition in style of play. And then you take it from there and you work on development.”
Udo possesses two of the most important qualities that Aston — who has been known as one of the nation’s top recruiters for decades — looks for in a prospective student-athlete. First, she has what Aston terms a “high motor,” an intangible inner drive that she can spot as soon as she sees it. Udo also came from a winning high school program, an experience that teaches a player the importance of collective team success, not just individual accolades.
“She’s smart and she has a high motor,” Aston says. “Sometimes, kids at her position don’t get to move in a lot of space and, when they come out of high school, they have to figure out how to rev their motor up. She already came with that. She played in a high school program that’s very used to winning. It’s a big key for me to bring in kids who are used to winning and have that cultural mindset.”
Playing college basketball wasn’t something that Udo had ever really considered until she started to get interest from Division I programs, especially UTSA. She wasn’t as caught up in the recruiting process as some young athletes often are. She’s always just been someone who loves basketball.
“I didn’t really feel like that was an attainable possibility,” Udo says. “I had no idea probably up until the summer of my junior year when I started getting offers. Up until that point, I was playing basketball for fun just to have something to do and just because I was kind of good at it.”
It didn’t take long upon her arrival at UTSA for Udo to make an impact on her team. By the third game of her collegiate career, she had cracked the starting lineup and was one of the team’s most consistent contributors. Playing in the post alongside former standout and current Director of Basketball Operations Elyssa Coleman gave Udo a crash course in being successful at the collegiate level. So, too, did filling in for star player Jordyn Jenkins while she was sidelined for most of the 2023-24 campaign due to an offseason injury. But to no one’s surprise, Udo immediately stepped up to the challenge.
“I had no idea that my freshman year was going to go the way it did or that I was going to have such an impact for my team,” she says. “I put in a lot of work in the gym. Our coaching staff had a lot of faith in me and I had faith in myself. As I trusted in my work, I gained confidence.”
One of the most memorable moments of the 2023-24 season for Udo, and for the team, came last January at the Convocation Center in a game against American Athletic Conference-leading Charlotte.
Udo missed a turn-around jump shot at the end of regulation that would have given the Roadrunners the win. In the first overtime, she hit two clutch free throws with nine seconds left to seemingly clinch the victory, but the 49ers hit a buzzer-beating shot to tie the game. With 1.8 seconds remaining in double overtime, Udo connected on a put-back to secure the 81-80 win for UTSA. She raced over to the sideline and lifted Aston in the air in celebration. Udo finished that game with an incredible 26 points, nine rebounds and three blocks.
“To this day, that is probably my favorite moment at UTSA,” Udo says. “It was just crazy, especially as a freshman. I had a really good game and then I had two other opportunities to win the game before that, so it was just a special moment to be able to seal the win. I picked Coach up and all my teammates jumped on me. We deserved to win that game and I feel like I helped us do that.”
Udo’s impressive rookie season drew national attention, and in the current landscape of college athletics, she could have sought opportunities to play for other programs. Udo reaffirms, however, that her roots are cemented in San Antonio with the Roadrunners.
“Even though I may have had the opportunity, it never really crossed my mind,” she says. “I love it here. I love our coaching staff. I think we have a really elite coaching staff and a really elite team. I love San Antonio. Coach and the coaching staff have done nothing but put their trust in me, so I’m just here to make them proud.”
WATCH: Idara Udo knocks down the game-winner to defeat Charlotte in January 2024.
If her first year-and-a-half at UTSA is any indication, Udo has many years ahead of her on the basketball court. But when the ball stops bouncing, she aspires to work in a field focused on helping others.
Udo is majoring in medical humanities within the UTSA College of Liberal and Fine Arts. The unique degree program combines education in the humanities and social sciences with scientific training so that Roadrunners can advance their professional skills in the health and medical professions. Many alumni go on to pursue careers in medicine, public health, physical therapy and occupational therapy among others. Though she long considered a career in nursing, Udo says she’s now seeing a future for herself in sports medicine.
“Since I’ve been part of college athletics, I’ve been really interested in sports medicine and it’s been crossing my mind a lot,” she says. “I definitely still want to be in the medical field, but if possible, I want to do something like sports medicine or sports physical therapy, maybe helping rehab injured athletes.”
As long as she can remember, Udo has been focused on the medical field. She’s drawn inspiration from her mother’s lengthy career as a nurse.
“I’ve never really been interested in anything else,” Udo says. “I always watched the medical shows. My mom’s been a nurse for over 20 years, so that’s another big factor that influences me. It’s just something that I feel like I’ve been called to do. I feel like I was meant to be in the medical field. I really love basketball, so if I can combine working in the medical field along with sports, that would be really fun for me.”
Idara Udo and her younger sister, Sema, will be teammates at UTSA starting next fall.
Udo considers every member of the UTSA women’s basketball program to be her family, but that will take on even more meaning next season when her younger sister, Sema, joins the team.
“Honestly, it’s a dream come true,” Udo says. “I’m extremely excited to have my little sister with me, especially going through college basketball. There are going to be a lot of ups and downs for her coming into college and I’m just glad I can be here with her and kind of guide her since I have a head start on the process.”
Sema Udo has been a two-time First-Team All-District selection at Plano East Senior High and has been named her team’s Most Valuable Player each of the last two seasons. Aston is looking forward to having both Udo sisters take the court for her team next year.
“I’m super excited about that,” Aston says. “I kind of see the same things in Sema that I saw in Idara. They both have fun-loving personalities and they’re competitive.”
Many Division I student-athletes would be excited to add their siblings to the roster — to practice and play games with them. But Udo says it means so much more to her. She gets the chance to welcome her closest friend to the program she loves so much.
“Through thick and then, through everything we’ve been through, she’s my favorite person,” Udo says. “I’m just excited that I get to play college basketball with my favorite person.”
As much as Udo may want to dream about her first season playing alongside her sister at UTSA, she’s as focused as ever on the Roadrunners’ history-making campaign unfolding right now.
“I think that our team has endless possibility and endless potential,” Udo says. “I think this year’s team has a different mindset — a hungry mindset with unfinished business. Even though our program made history last year, we knew we could have gone further. I’m really excited to see how far we go this year because I know that everybody on our team has put in the work and I think we’re going to get rewarded for the work that we’ve put in. That’s our mindset this year — yes, we know we can go far, but let’s do more.”
The UTSA women’s basketball team is currently in first place in the American Athletic Conference standings. The Roadrunners are not only eyeing a conference championship, but the program’s first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 2009.
“It’s kind of hard to wrap your mind around it,” Udo says. “I think it’s incredible. I didn’t really know much about UTSA’s history when I came here, but it was very evident to me when I first started playing that we were going to have the opportunity to make history. It’s special to put work in and grow a program and make a program proud, because that’s something no one can take away from you. It’s something you’ll be a part of for the rest of your life.”
Through the lens with which Udo views every aspect of her life, she believes that the biggest key to the Roadrunners’ record-breaking success has been their family-like bond.
“Family, to me, is everything,” Udo says. “Not only blood family, but the family I’ve created coming to UTSA, on and off the court. Our team is a big family and my teammates are like sisters. That reflects on the court. Our chemistry that we’ve built throughout these years shows on the court. Family is the way to everything. I just love all my family — my UTSA family and my family at home.”
