University of Georgia Athletics
Georgia Is Final Stop On Makolo's Collegiate Journey
November 13, 2024 | Women's Basketball, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
Roxane Makolo is an expert mover. If you need advice on how to load up and move to another city, the Georgia women's basketball guard now playing at her fourth school can teach you plenty.
"I always find a way to (pack) everything that I need and move it to the next place," said the 5-foot-10 Makolo, a sixth-year player who was a freshman at Purdue during the 2019-20 season.
In many ways, Makolo's life has been one of movement — and learning. She'd done and is still doing plenty of both.
Born in Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo — Americans may know Kinshasa best as the location of the legendary Rumble in the Jungle fight between Muhammad Ali and George Forman in 1974 — Makolo and her family moved to Saint-Hubert, Quebec, Canada, near Montreal, when she was about six years old.
Makolo said she started playing basketball when she was around 12, after seeing her older brother, Ronald Mpia, play.
"He had to babysit me but he would never want to stay at home, so he would go to the park and play with his friends, and I would just sit there," Makolo said. "When I got to (middle school), that's when I started. I joined a club team and it just went from there."
It didn't take long for Makolo to pick up the sport and earn her way onto Canada's junior national teams. She spent four years playing for Canada in FIBA competitions around the world, from Mexico to Thailand.
When it came time to decide where to play collegiately, Makolo chose Purdue. Always a defense-first player, though she had five assists in her college debut, she played in 31 games for the Boilermakers as a freshman. Injuries forced her to miss her sophomore and junior seasons, though she did manage to graduate from Purdue in three years with a degree in Communications and a minor in Psychology.
When Purdue's coach was fired after Makolo's junior season, she went looking for somewhere else to play. And that led her to her first stop in the Southern part of the U.S., TCU, in Fort Worth, Texas. Now a semi-regular user of the word "y'all," Makolo said she probably picked it up during the year she spent in Texas.
Playing for the Horned Frogs, and also working on a master's degree in Supply Chain Management, Makolo started 19 games and averaged 5.8 points and 3.5 rebounds a game. After TCU's coach resigned late in the season, Makolo went back into the transfer portal and wound up in sunny California at USC, where a good friend of hers was playing. Makolo enrolled in a new master's program at USC, in Entrepreneurship, while on the court she played in 23 games for the Trojans.
So how did she wind up at Georgia, playing her last year of college basketball and working on another master's, this time in Business Analytics?
"At the end of my year (at USC), at first I thought I was done" with basketball, she said. "I don't know, I just didn't want to end how I ended, so I was like, OK, I'm going to give it another try. And that's how I ended up here."
Makolo has started the Lady Bulldogs' first three games and is averaging 8.7 points and 5.0 rebounds a game heading into Thursday's matchup against Georgia State at Stegeman Coliseum. Senior guard Asia Avinger said Makolo brings a lot to the team on and off the court.
"I love Roxy," said Avinger, who is averaging 12.7 points per game while shooting 12 of 18 from the field and 4 of 8 from 3-point range. "She's always going to work hard and give her best effort, and she's just a good person to be around. She always has a positive outlook and she's always talking about pouring into each other.
"She's a great veteran to have on the team. She makes my job easier."
Avinger added: "If anything, she's the best defender on the team."
And that's music to Makolo's ears because she takes great pride in her defense.
"It's just a mindset when you're on defense," Makolo said. "Every time I guard someone I'm like, if I'm not scoring, you're not scoring, so both of us, zero points. Also, the thing about defense is, it's just about being tough. I like to play offense, but I feel like my defense fuels my offense.
"If I get a steal, that's two points. And the more steals I get, the more points we get. That's just how I think."
Staff Writer
Roxane Makolo is an expert mover. If you need advice on how to load up and move to another city, the Georgia women's basketball guard now playing at her fourth school can teach you plenty.
"I always find a way to (pack) everything that I need and move it to the next place," said the 5-foot-10 Makolo, a sixth-year player who was a freshman at Purdue during the 2019-20 season.
In many ways, Makolo's life has been one of movement — and learning. She'd done and is still doing plenty of both.
Born in Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo — Americans may know Kinshasa best as the location of the legendary Rumble in the Jungle fight between Muhammad Ali and George Forman in 1974 — Makolo and her family moved to Saint-Hubert, Quebec, Canada, near Montreal, when she was about six years old.
Makolo said she started playing basketball when she was around 12, after seeing her older brother, Ronald Mpia, play.
"He had to babysit me but he would never want to stay at home, so he would go to the park and play with his friends, and I would just sit there," Makolo said. "When I got to (middle school), that's when I started. I joined a club team and it just went from there."
It didn't take long for Makolo to pick up the sport and earn her way onto Canada's junior national teams. She spent four years playing for Canada in FIBA competitions around the world, from Mexico to Thailand.
When it came time to decide where to play collegiately, Makolo chose Purdue. Always a defense-first player, though she had five assists in her college debut, she played in 31 games for the Boilermakers as a freshman. Injuries forced her to miss her sophomore and junior seasons, though she did manage to graduate from Purdue in three years with a degree in Communications and a minor in Psychology.
When Purdue's coach was fired after Makolo's junior season, she went looking for somewhere else to play. And that led her to her first stop in the Southern part of the U.S., TCU, in Fort Worth, Texas. Now a semi-regular user of the word "y'all," Makolo said she probably picked it up during the year she spent in Texas.
Playing for the Horned Frogs, and also working on a master's degree in Supply Chain Management, Makolo started 19 games and averaged 5.8 points and 3.5 rebounds a game. After TCU's coach resigned late in the season, Makolo went back into the transfer portal and wound up in sunny California at USC, where a good friend of hers was playing. Makolo enrolled in a new master's program at USC, in Entrepreneurship, while on the court she played in 23 games for the Trojans.
So how did she wind up at Georgia, playing her last year of college basketball and working on another master's, this time in Business Analytics?
"At the end of my year (at USC), at first I thought I was done" with basketball, she said. "I don't know, I just didn't want to end how I ended, so I was like, OK, I'm going to give it another try. And that's how I ended up here."
Makolo has started the Lady Bulldogs' first three games and is averaging 8.7 points and 5.0 rebounds a game heading into Thursday's matchup against Georgia State at Stegeman Coliseum. Senior guard Asia Avinger said Makolo brings a lot to the team on and off the court.
"I love Roxy," said Avinger, who is averaging 12.7 points per game while shooting 12 of 18 from the field and 4 of 8 from 3-point range. "She's always going to work hard and give her best effort, and she's just a good person to be around. She always has a positive outlook and she's always talking about pouring into each other.
"She's a great veteran to have on the team. She makes my job easier."
Avinger added: "If anything, she's the best defender on the team."
And that's music to Makolo's ears because she takes great pride in her defense.
"It's just a mindset when you're on defense," Makolo said. "Every time I guard someone I'm like, if I'm not scoring, you're not scoring, so both of us, zero points. Also, the thing about defense is, it's just about being tough. I like to play offense, but I feel like my defense fuels my offense.
"If I get a steal, that's two points. And the more steals I get, the more points we get. That's just how I think."
Assistant Sports Communications Director John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
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