In four years at Boston College, new Rutgers Women's Basketball guard JoJo Lacey dealt with enough adversity to last a lifetime, on and off the court. Through that adversity and her years of experience with the Eagles, she is ready to make an impact on a Scarlet Knights team full of young talent ready to take the next step.
Lacey hails from Douglassville, Pennsylvania - located roughly an hour and a half from Jersey Mike's Arena - and is excited to spend her final college season close to home, after joining the program three weeks ago.
"This is my coming-home school."
Prior to her time as an Eagle, Lacey was a five-star recruit. After playing her high school ball at Westtown School in West Chester, she was ranked at 53rd in the nation in the vaunted 2020 recruiting class.
On a Rutgers team that features highly-touted recruits Zachara Perkins and Kiyomi McMiler, Lacey says she can bring a new perspective on the adjustment to the college game.
"For me, it's very humbling," she said. "You don't expect as an underclassmen, because of how high of a level you've been playing, that college sports are going to hit you any differently than it was in high school, especially if you played AAU, especially if you're on a circuit. And so for me, I would say, how I can mentor and teach the underclassmen is that you're going from the top back to the bottom. And that's going to happen at every level. For me, it's to mentor them, just let them know that it's okay to mess up and everyone goes through this phase. It's just about how you hit it mentally, and how you choose to overcome it will determine a lot and how successful you are."
That adjustment period came for Lacey coming out of high school especially. As part of the 2020 class, she had to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic impacting the end of her high school years, and then the beginning of her college experience.
Even after getting over the pandemic hurdle, she suffered another setback. Two days before the Eagles' season opener and Lacey's collegiate debut, she tore three ligaments in her ankle and needed surgery. After eventually making her debut three weeks later, she was limited to playing in only seven games during her freshman campaign.
After slightly growing her role in her sophomore year and playing in 21 games, she broke out as a key contributor for Boston College, starting in all 33 games and seeing her scoring average leap from 1.7ppg to 10.
Midway through her senior season, on January 4th, tragedy struck. Lacey's father, Barry, passed away at the age of 58. She did not play for a month following while dealing with the loss. However, during her time in the transfer portal, she experienced a touching tribute from the Rutgers coaching staff.
During Lacey's two-day visit on the Banks, she was able to have dinner at a local steakhouse, where she noticed something strange.
"The waiters, the servers, all them were walking around with t-shirts on," she said. "I'm like, why are they wearing t-shirts, it's a fancy restaurant, what's going on here?"
What was going on? The restaraunt workers had been given shirts by the Scarlet Knights' staff that featured the number four - Lacey's jersey number at Boston College - and "Supporting you from heaven" on the back. Across the front read "Heaven Sent", the same two words written as a tattoo on Lacey's left arm.
"For me," she said. "It was the extra step and the extra mile the coaching staff went to show me how much they cared and supported me as a player and a person."
Lacey also noted her time in the portal was a bit of a flashback to her high school recruiting days, with coaches from all over the country constantly in contact, along with a new wrinkle of players in contact as well.
"It was a lot, to be honest," she said. "But I would say I'm happy, and I'm glad it's over. And I'm very happy to land at Rutgers."
On the court, Lacey brings a hard-nosed defensive presence and will serve as a veteran leader on a team where eight of the 11 scholarship players - including Lacey - will be entering their first or second year in the program.
Her experiences through four years of college basketball will serve as a valuable learning point for all of the Scarlet Knights, young and old.
"As an upperclassman, you kind of know the ins and out of college basketball, you know the ins and out of workouts, how meetings go the coaching staff all that," she said. "So for me, I would say I want to bring a leading example to the underclassmen, and to the program in general."
Lacey also talked about how she wants to make an impact, past just playing basketball.
"I want to make a difference" she added. "Of course I want to play and so I want to make that difference. But I want to go to school and make an impact, to take that school somewhere. It's also Coach Co[quese Washington]'s third, fourth year at Rutgers. So for me, everything's presenting itself the right way. It's time for her, of course, to put her team on the map and her name on the map. She's bringing the right players to do it. I would say that's including me."
With the Scarlet Knights' roster beginning to take shape, the time for players returning or arriving on campus and the preparation for the season coming soon, it will be all about getting the team to gel and mesh with one another before November rolls around.
Lacey will be a big part of that after moving from the ACC to the newly-expanded Big Ten with newcomers UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington on the way.
What is her message to Rutgers fans as the program enters a pivotal year in Washington's third year at the helm?
"It's go time."
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