By Timothy Dashiell
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
The deadly COVID-19 pandemic that has moved across the nation to negatively impact health, the economy, education and people’s wellbeing also has had a devastating effect on college sports.
Take Towson and Morgan State universities for example. The virus stripped both schools’ Women’s Basketball teams of an opportunity to compete in a championship match. Still, despite their incomplete seasons, officials at both programs are finding a way to regroup, reflect and prepare for the future.
The Morgan State Bears Women’s Basketball team finished the season third in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) with a 12-4 conference record, and after the No. 1 in the conference, the Bethune-Cookman Lady Wildcats, were surprisingly defeated in the first round, the Lady Bears instantly became the tournament’s favorites. But the coronavirus had begun its onslaught so the tournament was cancelled.
Coach Ed Davis Jr. and his team left the Norfolk State University campus without playing a single game in the tournament.
“We were absolutely devastated when we found out the tournament was cancelled, those girls were ready and with Bethune losing, we knew we could win. They were the only team that gave us any issue,” Erin Brown, one of the team’s athletic trainers, told The Baltimore Watchdog.
MEAC is a collegiate athletic conference whose full members are historically black colleges and universities in the Southeastern and the Mid-Atlantic United States. Division 1 in the NCAA, the conference was founded in 1970 and has 11 members with 16 fielded sports.
Hours later, another Baltimore college team faced the same fate. The Towson Tigers Women’s Basketball Team was in Elon, North Carolina to defend its 2019 Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Championship after finishing fourth in the conference. Expectations were high. The Tigers had eight seniors, three 1,000 point scorers and were primed and ready to make one more run for another championship.
“Man, we were ready to rock and roll, we were playing some of our best basketball at the time and our seniors were ready to defend that CAA title,” assistant coach Zach Kancher told The Baltimore Watchdog.
Just like the MEAC, the CAA cancelled the tournament before any quarterfinal games were played. The CAA is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA’s Division I whose full members are located in East Coast states from Massachusetts to South Carolina. Most of its members are public universities.
“Once the NBA cancelled their games after having a player test positive we knew it was a possibility,” CAA Commissioner Joe D ‘Antonio told The Baltimore Watchdog. “But once the ACC cancelled [its] tournament just down the road in Charlotte, we knew it was the right time.”
The cancellations marked the end of the 2020 season for both teams as well as the devastating end of college basketball careers for five Morgan and eight Towson seniors, including 1,000-point scorers Nukiya Mayo and Q Murray.
“I never would have thought that this is how it would end,” Murray said in a lengthy Instagram post days after the cancellation. “I feel like I have no closure. I feel robbed. I feel angry. Me and my team had unfinished business.”
“What we did last year is legendary and we were on our way to do it again,” Murray continued. “The records we broke, the ppl we shocked, the memories we made, are all unforgettable. Everything happens for a reason, if this is God’s plan, I have to live with it.”
Still, despite the disappointing end to the season for both teams, and the recent uncertainty brought on by the stay-at-home orders and curfews, both teams still find ways to keep in touch, bounce back and prepare for next year.
“We are still in touch with all the players, making sure they’re still working out and eating right while at home, while also making sure they’re taking care of that schoolwork, of course,” Brown said.
The Tigers also have made adjustments while completing critical tasks and keeping their ultimate goals in mind.
“The objective hasn’t changed,” Kancher said, “build a championship program. We’re still recruiting just as hard, building those relationships and we’re still in contact with our players, having zoom meetings where we evaluate, check in academically and break down film twice a week.”
D ’Antonio explained that “the NCAA allows eight hours of virtual meetings per week and, for sports like Women’s Basketball, there was a strict mandate put in on ‘no team structured physical activity.’ All of our schools have done a great job with the adjustment.”
The stay-at-home order hasn’t stopped Towson as coaches still obtained verbal commitments from recruits Aleah Nelson, who is transferring from Cincinnati, and Narrie Docson, a junior college transfer who committed to the Tigers without even visiting the campus.
“With university recourses we were able to do a virtual tour and still conduct the business we needed to conduct and we’re definitely excited to welcome our new recruiting class,” Kancher said.
As both Towson and Morgan continue to adjust and bounce back, both schools are preaching to their athletes that this situation is bigger than athletics.
“This is about more than just some games being cancelled; people are dying, losing jobs. Life probably won’t be the same after this,” Brown said.
Kancher said that this pandemic, and how colleges and universities adjust to so many changes have provided many life lessons not just for his team, but for the entire generation of young people.
“Young people, pay attention to the world happening around you,” he said, “you have the power to change so much with your votes and with the elected officials you’ll put in office to handle times like this.”
Another hopeful sign came from the NCAA Division I Council, which recently voted to allow schools to provide spring-sport student-athletes an additional season of competition and an extension of their period of eligibility.
Members also adjusted financial aid rules to allow teams to carry more members on scholarship to account for incoming recruits and student-athletes who had been in their last year of eligibility who decide to stay. The Council vote also provided schools with the flexibility to give students the opportunity to return for 2020-21 without requiring that athletics aid be provided at the same level awarded for 2019-20. This flexibility applies only to student-athletes who would have exhausted eligibility in 2019-20.
And, schools also will have the ability to use the NCAA’s Student Assistance Fund to pay for scholarships for students who take advantage of the additional eligibility flexibility in 2020-21.
Division I rules limit student-athletes to four seasons of competition in a five-year period. The Council’s decision allows schools to self-apply waivers to restore one of those seasons of competition for student-athletes who had competed while eligible in the COVID-19-shortened 2020 spring season, explained Michelle Brutlag Hosick, associate director of communications, NCAA.
“The Council’s decision gives individual schools the flexibility to make decisions at a campus level,” said Council chair M. Grace Calhoun, athletics director at Penn. “The Board of Governors encouraged conferences and schools to take action in the best interest of student-athletes and their communities, and now schools have the opportunity to do that.”