‘Our team has unfinished business.’ TCU women’s hoops hopes NCAA grants extra year
If given a chance, TCU seniors Adeola Akomolafe and Kianna Ray would jump at the opportunity to play another year of college basketball.
Both would prefer to go out on a better note after the NCAA canceled March Madness amid the coronavirus pandemic. The TCU women’s basketball team would have been a lock to make the 64-team field after going 22-7 and finishing second in the Big 12.
“I feel like if seniors want the chance to come back, they should be offered that option,” said Akomolafe, a fifth-year senior. “I personally would come back and play another year because our team has unfinished business.”
Said Ray: “I would take the opportunity if it were given!”
The question is whether the NCAA will provide that opportunity for winter sport athletes. It’s already said eligibility relief will be available for all spring sport athletes, regardless of class.
There’s a number of factors that go into making a decision of that magnitude, but those associated with the TCU women’s team feel the NCAA should afford the same opportunity after players’ dreams of chasing championships and March Madness were cut short.
After all, the NCAA acknowledged the basketball seasons were “incomplete” in announcing its decision to not release tournament brackets on Sunday.
“You work hard all year to shine in March, but this year was different,” Ray said. “Everyone dreams of competing in the nationally recognized March Madness, and few earn the title of ‘National Champions.’ Imagine working all year, or for some four or five years, for that to never happen. It’s super disappointing that I will forever be haunted by endless question marks at the end of my senior season.
“Being offered an extra year of eligibility is what’s right. I realize that something like that has never been offered before, but this circumstance hasn’t happened before. People always say ‘drastic times call for drastic measures,’ and I feel everyone who has an input in this decision should remember that.
“So many seniors had their careers ended by this — played in my last game, unknowingly. Got on the plane to travel to compete for the last time, unknowingly. Got laced up for the last time, unknowingly. If people were able to see the impact of this decision — been on the plane with us when we found out that our careers were declared over completely out of our control — I think they’d have a change of heart.”
For TCU women’s coach Raegan Pebley, she sides with the players in wanting more eligibility. She had the unenviable task of telling her players the Big 12 tournament had been canceled and then March Madness.
The NCAA delivered another gut punch by not releasing the brackets, something that would’ve helped soften the blow for a program such as TCU that had been in line for its first March Madness berth in a decade (2010).
“This is even more of a reason to give these athletes another crack at competing for a championship with their current team,” Pebley said.
Granting eligibility to winter sports athletes remains under consideration. TCU athletic director Jeremiah Donati does not expect a decision is “imminent.”
As far as Donati is concerned, there’s multiple layers to making such a decision.
As devastating as it is for the TCU women’s team, the men’s team had likely played its final game in a loss to Kansas State in the opening-round of the Big 12 tournament on Wednesday night.
There are more programs similar to the TCU men’s team than the women.
“It sounds great in theory,” Donati said. “But I’m not sure how that could be applied across the board to all winter sports and student-athletes. Some seasons were complete and some were still playing.”
Another factor is if the NCAA would allow every athlete an extra year of eligibility as it’s doing with the spring sports, or if it would limit the eligibility relief to only seniors.
But that leads to another layer whether seniors who want to play another season would have the opportunity to transfer (if their previous school has, say, a highly-touted incoming freshman at the same position).
And the list goes on.
For now, it’s a wait-and-see approach with how the NCAA goes forward.
“While some decisions can be made quickly like the suspension of recruiting activity, others may take time to reach conclusion,” the NCAA said in a statement. “As details become available, we will share with our membership and the public.”
