Stanford's Ogwumike sisters a powerful combination

When an AAU club in suburban Houston invited 11-year-old Nneka Ogwumike to play basketball, the coach told her mother some of the games would be out of town.

"Why do we have to go to Dallas?" Ify Ogwumike asked the coach, Albert Coleman. "Why can't we just play in somebody's driveway?"

Ify is a middle school principal, and the idea of spending weekends in a gym was completely foreign to her. Her husband, Peter, spends a lot of time in Europe and Africa for his work with a West Coast-based computer company. It was left to Ify to do the planning, navigating and driving.

Basketball took her two oldest girls to 38 states before they got out of Cy-Fair High School in Cypress, Texas. At Stanford, it has made them household names. Nnemkadi Chinwe Victoria Ogwumike, a 6-foot-2 junior, was last season's Pac-10 Player of the Year. Chinenye Joy Nenna Ogwumike, a 6-3 freshman, was an instant starter.

Nneka and Chiney are a lot alike. They could pass for twins. Associate head coach Amy Tucker and Chiney watched a video for 10 minutes before they realized it was Nneka, not Chiney, they were looking at. During Chiney's first couple of months on campus, friends and teammates repeatedly got them mixed up.

"It happens all the time, even with coaches," Chiney said.

Rematch with UConn

The sisters and their teammates will have their hands full when they play top-ranked and two-time defending national champion Connecticut tonight at 6. The sold-out game at Maples Pavilion will be shown on ESPN2.

Stanford was the last team to beat the Huskies, in the 2008 national semifinals. Since then UConn has reeled off 90 straight wins, eclipsing the NCAA record of 88 set by the UCLA men's teams in the early 1970s. During the streak, UConn has beaten Stanford three times, including a 53-47 win in the 2010 NCAA championship game.

"Ogwumike" means warrior in Igbo, one of the national languages of Nigeria, where Peter and Ify were born. "Nnemkadi" means "my mother is still with me." "Chinenye" means "God gives." The two are certainly warriors under the boards, Nneka averaging 17.4 points and 8.9 rebounds, Chiney 11.0 and 6.6.

Beyond their fierce competitiveness, "they're alike in their dedication to their family and their love for basketball," said Ann Roubique, their coach at Cy-Fair High. "They care about the people around them."

Chiney is more outgoing than Nneka, but then, she is more outgoing than 99 percent of the college students in the known world. "Nneka would blend into a group with her demeanor," Roubique said. "Chiney comes in, and it's a bit of a whirlwind."

Said her mother, "Chiney has never met a stranger in her life."

High school overachievers

Besides being A-students and senior class presidents in high school, both were Gatorade National Players of the Year as seniors. When Nneka was a junior and Chiney a freshman, they lost the state 5A (large school) final to Rockwall-Dallas in overtime. The loss still rankles Nneka even though Cy-Fair won the title her senior year. Chiney also won the state title as a senior.

Roubique said she misses their upbeat attitudes even more than their skills. "Obviously the talent is undeniable. Some coaches go a lifetime without being around that kind of talent."

At age 11, Nneka was extremely raw and "had glasses that covered her entire face," said Coleman, who coached the sisters with the Cy-Fair Nike Elite for many years. "Halfway through her first year, I told her mom she was going to be phenomenal. Even at that time she could jump out of the gym. She couldn't make a layup, but she was the most athletic kid on the court."

Both girls had a drive to excel. "They spent hour after hour after school on the driveway," Coleman said.

Joining an AAU team

Coleman had wanted Chiney to play on his 10-year-old team when she was 9, but she resisted, saying she wanted to learn all the plays before joining the team. He told her, "We only have one play, and half the kids don't know it."

He predicts that before her college career is through, Chiney "will be the No. 1 player in the country."