Nakashima's world, role expanding
By Leila Wai
Advertiser Staff Writer
On Tuesday nights, expect to find Boise State junior guard Jodi Nakashima watching one of her favorite television shows, MTV's "The Real World."
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
"I follow that as much as possible," said Nakashima, a 2001 Roosevelt High graduate from Waipahu. "I think it would be fun to go to a different place and not know anyone."
Jodi Nakashima has adjusted well to living 3,500 miles from home.
She's experiencing just that, living roughly 3,500 miles from Hawai'i in Boise, Idaho.
Nakashima has learned "to just be open to anything and just understand that people have been raised differently and come from different backgrounds."
She has also made the adjustment on the court, where her 1.58 3-pointers a game lead her team and rank fifth in the Western Athletic Conference. The 5-foot-7 guard has played in all 24 games, starting 16, for Boise State (7-17 overall, 4-11 WAC).
Nakashima is averaging 5.7 points, 1.6 rebounds per game and 1.3 assists per game. She is also second in the WAC in 3-point shooting percentage at 42.7.
"I call her the executioner," Boise State coach Jen Warden said. "I know when I put her in, our team is going to execute well."
Warden, who took over the program two years ago, inherited Nakashima as a sophomore. She said what she knew about Nakashima was that she could "shoot the ball, flat out."
Nakashima was the Hawai'i prep 3-point champion as a senior, making 26 3-pointers in 10 games and averaging 15.3 points per game. She averaged 1.3 points and 6.7 minutes per game as a freshman at Boise State, and 1.4 points and 6.3 minutes last season.
She said her biggest adjustment on the college level was to be more selective with her shots.
"Just more or less taking better shots, wide-open and uncontested shots," she said.
Nakashima said that in high school her size was big for her position, and she was depended upon to score.
But in college, everyone can score, and the emphasis isn't on her to shoot all the time, she said.
Nakashima returned home last week for a conference game against Hawai'i, and scored two points in 20 minutes in a starting role.
"It was good, but short," she said of her trip back home. "It's always fun to be in a warmer place."
Yesterday, temperatures in Boise reached 46 degrees, "which is kind of warm, actually," Nakashima said.
She wants to try skiing or snowboarding, but hasn't yet because, "I'll probably get hurt. I'll wait until after I finish basketball."
Warden calls Nakashima "an extremely mature kid," who is growing into her role as a starter and an upperclassman this season.
"She understands what players can and can't do, and what she is capable of doing," Warden said.
"When I first inherited the program, she didn't have the confidence as a leader and a starter," Warden said. "Now she's starting to help set the tone of the team."
Nakashima, a nursing major, said that the best part of her college experience is hanging out with her teammates.
She shares an off-campus apartment with two gymnasts, with a couple of teammates living in the same complex. They all get together to watch the reality television programs Monday and Tuesday nights.
"I don't know why I like it so much, I just do," said Nakashima, a self-professed reality-television junkie. "It's just entertaining and funny."
Reach Leila Wai at lwai@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2457.
