Playing the waiting game

Women's basketball team ponders life without Wiggins

By Maggie Thach
The Collegian

IT IS A DIFFICULT time for Chantella Perera and the 15 other players on the women’s basketball team she considers more like sisters than teammates.

It’s not because they’re dwelling on the fact that despite playing their hearts out, they still came up three points short against Kansas State, the eventual Women’s National Invitation Tournament’s champion.
Or because not playing their usual style against New Mexico State led to a first round exit in the Western Athletic Conference tournament.

It’s something more nerve-wracking than that. They’re playing the waiting game.

“We keep wondering what’s going to happen next week,” Perera said. “We anticipate it soon but it’s out of our hands. We just hope that we had some input in the decision that will be made. I hope [the administration] knows how much he means to us.”

What they’re waiting for is to see if Adrian Wiggins will finally be able to take that “interim” tag off his position as head coach. But the answer to this question has more implications than whether or not Wiggins has a job at Fresno State next year.

What will happen to the team if Wiggins doesn’t come back? Will players want to transfer? Will they be able to leave the teammates they consider to be more like family? These are the questions they really want to find answers to. The decision the administration will soon make on who will be the next women’s basketball head coach doesn’t just affect Wiggins; it affects the whole team.

“The last week of the season, I was anxious,” said sophomore Kendra Walker-Roche. “Now it’s easier to just not think about it. I just know from teams that we’ve been around that we’re definitely one of a kind. We’re always getting closer as time goes on. We just want to keep our family.”

Part of the reason the teammates have gotten so close is the turmoil they had to endure last season.

They were advised to stay quiet about everything — to the media, to the fans, to everyone. And the hardest part about it was they couldn’t tell their side of it.

They were in the newspapers for all the wrong reasons. Anything related to women’s basketball was about the Stacy Johnson-Klein saga. The fact that the Bulldogs almost upset Louisiana Tech in double overtime in the WAC tournament, that Amy Parrish made the All-WAC first team and that the team won seven of their last 11 games to close out the season seemed for the most part, to go unnoticed.

But it was the fact they were the only ones that knew what was going on that forged an unbreakable friendship.

“I’m definitely glad it worked out the way it did,” said senior Faith Probst. “Through the adversity, we got closer and the closeness worked for us on the court. Sometimes, it made you want to cry but it helped to know that 15 other girls knew exactly what you were going through.”

There has been talk about players transferring if Wiggins isn’t reinstated but the bond the team has formed has made players second-guess that decision.

“I’d have to think about it. Even if I did have to leave, I’d think about my teammates,” Walker-Roche said.

“Being away from home, they fill a void.”

There are five juniors on the team this year and should they decide to transfer, they’ll have more obstacles to face than just leaving their teammates. Paige Diggs, Brittani Green, Jasmine Plummer, Andrea Roberson and Perera have to think about if transferring and sitting out a year to play their senior season will be worth it.

“I think about sitting out a year, and finding another school with new teammates would be difficult,” Perera said. “We’ve just gone through everything you could imagine. I really don’t want to leave them.”

The bond forged off the court has been capitalized on the court. The team beat Louisiana Tech at the Save Mart Center, the Bulldogs’ first victory over Tech in school history. They set a school record with 24 victories and eight losses and three players were honored with All-WAC selections.

“It would be hard to compare a year to this year,” said freshman Stevie Hagemeister. “We are the best team to ever play at Fresno State. We’ll always have that. [Wiggins] set such high goals. We get that hunger from him. Obviously, we’ve proved we could reach this goal. We can set a higher one for next year.”

That is, if Wiggins is hired.

“Another year with [Wiggins] would do so much. There’s no limit. Anything could happen,” Walker-Roche said. “We have a lot of post-season experience and we’re so close. There’s so many things we could accomplish.”

The answers to these questions are still up in the air. Now all they have to do is wait.

“I felt like I went through two years of drama and this is how it should have been from the beginning, just about basketball,” Perera said. “But all we’ve heard is that we’ll know within a few weeks. We’re not very involved but all we can hope is that they know where we stand. We can’t see anybody else being our coach.”

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