When Jane “Juice” Nwaba was a first-year at Pepperdine, three players on the team had names that started with J. Her teammates had to come up with ways to differentiate them, and the nickname “Juicy-J” eventually gave way to “Juice.” Thus, her iconic nickname, which she carried over to Vanderbilt, was born.
Early life
Nwaba’s basketball journey started in childhood. She came from an athletic family and frequently watched her three brothers — who were seven, nine and 10 years older than her — play in the backyard. Playing with her older brothers fueled her competitive spirit, as she aspired to beat them in one-on-one games and engaged in many highly competitive backyard matchups through the years.
“I remember my mom bought me a tiny, little plastic hoop in the backyard. I remember always playing on that and watching [my brothers] play on the big hoop in the backyard,” Nwaba said. “I think from then on, I always wanted to make sure that one day I’d play on that big hoop, too.”
Playing at Palisades Charter High School in Pacific Palisades, California, Nwaba was a two-time MVP in the CIF Los Angeles City Section and led her team to the Los Angeles Open Division championship and CIF City Section championship. However, Nwaba didn’t realize she wanted to play collegiate basketball until her senior year of high school. She had always prioritized academics, and her dream school was UCLA.
“Basketball was never really my main priority,” Nwaba said. “I got my first offer from Cal State then my second offer from Pepperdine and just kind of ran with Pepperdine.”
Experience at Pepperdine
Nwaba obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Pepperdine and loved her academic experience at the university.
“Pepperdine had a great level of difficulty. I think there [were] a lot of great staff members. All the professors were really nice,” Nwaba said. “I was fortunate enough to get very good professors who really cared and were very flexible, especially with my schedule, so [I] really [did] not [have] many complaints.”
On the basketball side, Nwaba’s Pepperdine teams never quite found their footing. Through her four seasons, they went 29-79, with their best postseason appearance coming in the 2022-23 season when the Waves reached the second round of the West Coast Conference Tournament. Nwaba was a consistent starter in her junior and senior years, averaging 31 minutes and 10 points per game across those two seasons.
“I think I was fortunate enough to have great teammates and great people that I surrounded myself with, and — thank God — no injuries,” Nwaba said. “I was able to really grow in my faith at Pepperdine. I think just through all the adversity and through all the losing, there was never a truly good season — just not a lot of winning.”
Transition to Vanderbilt
After graduating from Pepperdine, Nwaba wanted to attend graduate school and utilize her COVID-19 year of eligibility. She took to the transfer portal and went looking for a well-established team that already had a consistent rotation. She found that with head coach Shea Ralph’s program.
“I was just coming to be an addition, not really coming as ‘this person needs to make or break our season,’” Nwaba said. “It was more so just like, ‘how can I just be somewhat of a contribution?’”
That contribution has been greater than Nwaba imagined for herself. After forward Sacha Washington was declared out for the season with a blood clot in her leg, Nwaba entered the starting lineup and has since started 19 of 21 contests for the Commodores.
Nwaba averages 16.2 minutes and 5.7 points per game.
“I was surprised [to start],” Nwaba said. “There’s just a lot of great talent on this team. The coaching staff have a plan for everything they want to do, but I definitely didn’t expect that. And if I’m on the bench [or] if I’m starting, I don’t really mind anything, just as long as I’m on the team and as long as we win.”
She has prioritized the intangibles, bringing physicality on defense, fighting for rebounds and shooting when open. She’s elevated the Commodores in a number of ways. This role helps her play much calmer than she could at Pepperdine — where she shouldered much more of an offensive burden.
“I think my play style is just being very physical, and that’s what I wanted to be coming in here,” Nwaba said. “I wanted to show off my athletic abilities, move my feet and be able to contest shots and just play good defense. I wanted to give a lot of hustle and give a lot of heart.”
Nwaba has enjoyed being a part of a program that is used to winning while also prioritizing player happiness and well-being. She expected a much stricter environment at a Power Four school.
“I think we win, and we have a lot of personality, and I really appreciate that,” Nwaba said. “I really thought Power Five [would be]: you come in here, it’s strict, you go home, you don’t talk to anyone. For us, it’s a lot of community, a lot of fun, a lot of new experiences and a lot of different people that I’ve never thought I would meet.”
Role models and advice
Nwaba said she has looked up to her brothers for most of her life. One of her brothers, David Nwaba, has bounced between the NBA G-League and overseas teams. He has spent time with the Los Angeles Lakers, Chicago Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers, Brooklyn Nets and Houston Rockets.
“They’re the types of players I always want to be,” Nwaba said. “I don’t even match half their energy. They just compete every single time; they just love basketball. They take everything personally and they truly believe that they’re the best. And I love that mentality, and I hope that I can just find that more in me the rest of this season.”
On the women’s basketball side, Nwaba looks up to WNBA players Alyssa Thomas, Napheesa Collier and Gabby Williams. Thomas visited Vanderbilt earlier this fall, and her words of wisdom inspired Nwaba.
“[Thomas] actually came in[to] our gym and talked to us, and it was really cool to see her here,” Nwaba said. “[I love] her ability to just go hard, and she was telling us to just be good teammates. Also, [she said] whatever field you go into, this is the hardest thing you can do now — being in college and competing at this level. Hearing her say that and recognize that was really cool.”
Nwaba wants the future generation of athletes to know that it’s okay to not compete on a top-tier AAU team or get massive “Overtime” or “BallisLife” social media exposure.
“With basketball, it’s just honestly who you know. I played one game at AAU, and I just was blessed enough to have a coach who knew another coach who came and visited me,” Nwaba said. “It’s just really keeping the faith and locking in on what you can control. If you can’t play or can’t afford AAU, that’s fine.”
Nwaba also emphasized the importance of working on skills outside of team practices, even if it’s in the backyard, like she did growing up. More than anything else, though, she prioritizes being a good person.
“There’s not a lot of people with really good character,” Nwaba said. “I feel like, if you could bring something like that to the team, who you are can really take you really far. I encourage young girls just to be themselves, really compete, really have fun and it’ll take you far.”
Academics and future aspirations
Nwaba is enrolled in the medicine, health and society graduate program at Vanderbilt, where she will obtain a Master of Arts in social foundations of health. Nwaba described Vanderbilt as more academically rigorous than Pepperdine but also attributed that to the nature of graduate school in general.
“This is a difficult school. It’s hard — I commend all of [the students],” Nwaba said. “I think [at] Pepperdine, [there were] a lot more tests, but I guess in the grad program, it’s gonna be a lot more writing, a lot more papers, but it’s been fun having to figure out how to balance reading a lot and writing a lot of papers. It’s been a challenge, but it’s fun.”
Nwaba does not have professional basketball aspirations — she hopes to go into a career in either technology or nursing.
“This is my last ride,” Nwaba said. “I think my goal here is just to win, and my goal after this is to really just settle into my career. I want to take everything I learned from basketball — I learned a lot from playing the sport — and bring it to my next journey.”
Nwaba’s basketball journey might be coming to a close, but she’s still got a lot left in the tank. She has helped lead Vanderbilt to a No. 23 ranking in the AP Top 25 Poll, its first time being ranked since 2013-14. The Commodores have NCAA Tournament aspirations and will need Nwaba to keep playing her role to make postseason noise.
Nwaba and the rest of Vanderbilt Women’s Basketball will hit the road this week for a clash with Florida on Jan. 30 at 6:00 p.m. CST.