NCAAW: Louisville’s Olivia Cochran aims to will her way to the WNBA

Olivia Cochran began playing basketball in fifth grade.

She came by the sport honestly. Her mother, Tara Williams, was an All-SEC player at Auburn before suiting for the Phoenix Mercury during the WNBA’s 1997 inaugural season. She then was dispersed to the Detroit Shock in the 1998 expansion draft. Three years later, Williams was playing professionally in Israel when she found out she was pregnant with Cochran. Williams came back to the States, where she gave birth and played for the Birmingham Power in the National Women’s Basketball League. Williams made the decision to leave basketball to raise her daughter, something she has described as a “win-win situation.”

On Feb. 6, Cochran, now a fifth-year senior for the Louisville Cardinals, hit a career milestone when she scored 1,500 career points and helped Louisville beat California, 70-63. She told Swish Appeal that the feat is a “great accomplishment” that she said is owed partly to her teammates, who gave her the shots she needed to hit the goal.

But Cochran is also focused on her future—the remainder of the 2024-25 season, to be sure, but what she hopes to accomplish after college.

Like her mom, Cochran hopes to play in the WNBA. As a player, she’s similar to the Indiana Fever’s Aliyah Boston. She has a lot of power. She can stretch out at the 4 and 5, playing from the high post and in the low post. She also has a tremendous stockpile of power and strength that propels her to the basket. Her footwork isn’t her strongest skill, but that’s something she can develop at the professional level with the right environment.

Cochran, who has remained loyal to Louisville in this new era of the transfer portal and NIL deals, also is multi-faceted off the court, something that is always refreshing for a young hooper. Outside of the gym, she’s passionate about broadcasting, which, she tells Swish Appeal is “something I’d love to do,” whether it involves on-camera or off-camera work. But basketball is her past, present and (hopefully) future—something that has been true a long time.

Ahead of her freshman year at Louisville, ESPN described Cochran as “the best high school women’s basketball prospect to come out of Georgia since Maya Moore.” Her AAU coach told ESPN Cochran had “willed her way to the top.”

In a lot of ways, she still has that same fire inside her. Her favorite part of her collegiate career was the 2021-22 season, when Louisville made it to the Final Four because “the team really stuck together.” She added, “That was just an awesome experience for me at a young age—having people depend on me was an awesome feeling.” (As the social media post from former Louisville assistant coach and current Mississippi State head coach Sam Purcell shows, Cochran was integral to the Cardinals’ NCAA Tournament success.)

That emphasis on teamwork and working together is part of what makes Cochran a compelling athlete on the court, where she consistently shows up where she needs to be. It’s also what could make her the heart of a professional locker room, where accountability and support matter almost as much as skill and athleticism.

Her future can be what she makes it, and if she plays her cards right, she could end up right where she wants to be.