Commentary
SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- As a member of the Spanish national team that played the United States for a world championship this past fall, Leticia Romero has familiarity with big games against big opponents amid atmospheres that are, well, sizable. Friday night, standing in an otherwise empty hallway in Notre Dame's Purcell Pavilion after an exhausting effort on the court with a different team and against a different opponent, her eyes gleamed as she talked about having shared that stage with Brittney Griner, Sue Bird and some of the biggest and brightest stars in the sport.
But the spark didn't fade when the subject turned to the game in which she had just competed for Florida State, a 74-68 loss on the road against No. 4 Notre Dame in front of 9,149 fans who were alternately reserved, raucous and, finally, relieved. A win on a night that saw the Seminoles lead for the majority of minutes would have been better, but just being out there was worth savoring.
"I thought I wasn't going to play this season, so for me, right now, it's a blessing to get on the court," Romero said after scoring 15 points in 30 minutes off the bench. "Any game -- I don't care if it's Notre Dame or whatever team it is -- I'm just glad to play with them because I really like this team. It's really special. I chose this team this year, and I love the chemistry, how we play together. And we can play good teams, we can be there."
Just how difficult a journey it was for her to get here -- let alone there -- is underscored by the fact that not even two weeks before the game in South Bend, Romero had been at home in Spain, taking a holiday break from scout team duties during a redshirt season with the Seminoles and waiting for a debut most assumed was still 11 months away.
I thought I wasn't going to play this season, so for me, right now, it's a blessing to get on the court.
It has, in every sense of the phrase, been a long road for the sophomore guard whose arrival changes the complexion of the ACC.
At first denied a release from her scholarship at Kansas State after that school fired the coaching staff that had recruited her, this past spring, Romero became at least the temporary focus of what has been an ongoing national debate about the control schools and athletic departments wield over students. That it was neither attention she sought nor a byzantine bureaucracy that someone from a different country could even begin to navigate and understand on her own only made her story more compelling.
But when Kansas State eventually reversed course, albeit without much in the way of admitting fault or obstinance, Romero transferred to Florida State, most recently a successful basketball home to current Spanish international Leonor Rodriguez and whose cosmopolitan national championship women's soccer program ensures the athletic department is well versed in accommodating international students. Once Romero made her way to Tallahassee, her new school filed an appeal asking the NCAA to waive the redshirt season otherwise required.
"I think any time there is a hardship and there are mitigating circumstances, you should file to see if the NCAA is on the same page as you," Florida State coach Sue Semrau said, noting the coaching change at Kansas State and the challenges that ensued. "And they saw in her favor."
With one last flourish of bureaucratic magic, of course.
Romero's prior status as an ineligible transfer meant she could not travel with the team to road games. Given that players and coaches were set to scatter to the four corners of the map for a Christmas break immediately after a game Dec. 22 at Tulane, Romero left for Spain ahead of time in order to benefit from a few extra days at home. When Semrau received a phone call on the way to the game in New Orleans confirming that the NCAA would grant the player's hardship waiver and make her immediately eligible, Romero was on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
Florida State beat Tulane without her, with Romero watching the game on her computer in the wee hours of the morning at home. Waiting for her the next morning was a message from Semrau asking her to get in touch because there was a new development.
It was, Semrau hastened to add at the end the message, good news.
Naturally, given the rest of the saga, Romero's flight back to Tallahassee a few days later was canceled. And so, with one day of practice as something other than a scout team member, she made her Florida State debut Dec. 29 against Jacksonville and played 20 minutes in a blowout win. That and a few more practices constituted her preparation for Notre Dame.
For a long stretch of the first half, almost from the moment she checked in with only two minutes elapsed, Romero looked like the proverbial best player on the court in South Bend. That is saying something when Jewell Loyd is one of the other players on that court. Romero -- even after she ceded her opponent a head start by beginning the game seated next to associate head coach Lance White and getting instruction from Semrau as the coach walked the sideline -- at one point had personally outscored the fourth-ranked team in the nation 10-8.
She scored on a mid-range jumper, a spot-up 3-pointer and a gorgeous fadeaway after a strong drive. She ran the offense and got the ball to post players Adut Bulgak, Ivey Slaughter and Shakayla Thomas. She was in control, and so was Florida State until a late run, capped by Lindsay Allen's half-court shot at the buzzer, brought the Fighting Irish to within a point at halftime.
The second half was less kind. With a chagrinned Notre Dame making a more committed defensive effort, Romero totaled just three points and committed four turnovers after halftime. Without that special quality, despite an overall strong showing on the boards and in terms of effort, Florida State couldn't hold off the Notre Dame rally led by Loyd, Allen and Brianna Turner.
Romero looked down the stretch, understandably, like someone who needed a chance to catch her breath after a whirlwind two weeks of travel and on-the-job training. Turnovers were an issue for her as a freshman, albeit on a Kansas State team that needed her to force the issue, but at least on Friday, they weren't the product of selfishness or wildness.
"I think Morgan Jones is the same way. They just play basketball," Semrau said. "If somebody is there, they're going to throw it. And I love that, I really do. At the same time, I don't necessarily want to throw the ball to Ama Degbeon, who is a freshman from Germany, when Brianna Turner is behind her. We talked about putting Ama in jail, and that really wasn't fair to Ama. She'll learn that process, she'll learn her teammates and certainly learn the system and how we want to do it."
It will take some time to figure out exactly how the pieces fit together, though with Duke, Louisville and Syracuse ahead in the next four weeks, the first month of ACC play looks more difficult on paper than the second. Romero spent much of her 30 minutes on the court Friday with the ball in her hands. That will be a good thing for the Seminoles, but it will mean some adjusting for guards such as Maegan Conwright, Brittany Brown and Jones, as well as Romero herself. "As a point guard, you need to organize the team and look for the best options," Romero said. "I think I fit with this team because everybody has a different style of game and a different weapon, so it's cool to try to get the best of everybody. They are not selfish at all -- this is not a selfish team. We try always to get the better option. I like our post players -- they are such hard workers. If we are playing together, we are going to be really good."
It is probably too much to hope Kansas State and the NCAA emerged better entities for the experience Romero endured. It might, as has been the case throughout, be left to her to be the human in all of this. She looked the part as she prepared to board the bus Friday night. There was disappointment at defeat. But there was happiness to once again be on the court.
Not a pawn, just a player.
"It was just hard to go through that process, that time," Romero said. "I think I learned to be patient, to not let things come to my mind and [to] accept things that I can't control. I can't control if I have the release or not, so at some point, I just pray for it. I was just going to make the best of what I got. If I had to go to a junior college, I would go and just be the best I can be. If I get to play college, I choose FSU and try to beat every team in the country. That's it."
Publicado en: http://espn.go.com/womens-college-basketball/story/_/id/12120357/florida-state-seminoles-leticia-romero-returns-court
NCAA granted former Kansas State transfer immediate eligibility on Dec. 24
Originally Published: January 4, 2015
By Graham Hays | espnW.com
SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- As a member of the Spanish national team that played the United States for a world championship this past fall, Leticia Romero has familiarity with big games against big opponents amid atmospheres that are, well, sizable. Friday night, standing in an otherwise empty hallway in Notre Dame's Purcell Pavilion after an exhausting effort on the court with a different team and against a different opponent, her eyes gleamed as she talked about having shared that stage with Brittney Griner, Sue Bird and some of the biggest and brightest stars in the sport.
But the spark didn't fade when the subject turned to the game in which she had just competed for Florida State, a 74-68 loss on the road against No. 4 Notre Dame in front of 9,149 fans who were alternately reserved, raucous and, finally, relieved. A win on a night that saw the Seminoles lead for the majority of minutes would have been better, but just being out there was worth savoring.
"I thought I wasn't going to play this season, so for me, right now, it's a blessing to get on the court," Romero said after scoring 15 points in 30 minutes off the bench. "Any game -- I don't care if it's Notre Dame or whatever team it is -- I'm just glad to play with them because I really like this team. It's really special. I chose this team this year, and I love the chemistry, how we play together. And we can play good teams, we can be there."
Just how difficult a journey it was for her to get here -- let alone there -- is underscored by the fact that not even two weeks before the game in South Bend, Romero had been at home in Spain, taking a holiday break from scout team duties during a redshirt season with the Seminoles and waiting for a debut most assumed was still 11 months away.
I thought I wasn't going to play this season, so for me, right now, it's a blessing to get on the court.
It has, in every sense of the phrase, been a long road for the sophomore guard whose arrival changes the complexion of the ACC.
At first denied a release from her scholarship at Kansas State after that school fired the coaching staff that had recruited her, this past spring, Romero became at least the temporary focus of what has been an ongoing national debate about the control schools and athletic departments wield over students. That it was neither attention she sought nor a byzantine bureaucracy that someone from a different country could even begin to navigate and understand on her own only made her story more compelling.
But when Kansas State eventually reversed course, albeit without much in the way of admitting fault or obstinance, Romero transferred to Florida State, most recently a successful basketball home to current Spanish international Leonor Rodriguez and whose cosmopolitan national championship women's soccer program ensures the athletic department is well versed in accommodating international students. Once Romero made her way to Tallahassee, her new school filed an appeal asking the NCAA to waive the redshirt season otherwise required.
"I think any time there is a hardship and there are mitigating circumstances, you should file to see if the NCAA is on the same page as you," Florida State coach Sue Semrau said, noting the coaching change at Kansas State and the challenges that ensued. "And they saw in her favor."
With one last flourish of bureaucratic magic, of course.
Romero's prior status as an ineligible transfer meant she could not travel with the team to road games. Given that players and coaches were set to scatter to the four corners of the map for a Christmas break immediately after a game Dec. 22 at Tulane, Romero left for Spain ahead of time in order to benefit from a few extra days at home. When Semrau received a phone call on the way to the game in New Orleans confirming that the NCAA would grant the player's hardship waiver and make her immediately eligible, Romero was on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
Florida State beat Tulane without her, with Romero watching the game on her computer in the wee hours of the morning at home. Waiting for her the next morning was a message from Semrau asking her to get in touch because there was a new development.
It was, Semrau hastened to add at the end the message, good news.
Naturally, given the rest of the saga, Romero's flight back to Tallahassee a few days later was canceled. And so, with one day of practice as something other than a scout team member, she made her Florida State debut Dec. 29 against Jacksonville and played 20 minutes in a blowout win. That and a few more practices constituted her preparation for Notre Dame.
For a long stretch of the first half, almost from the moment she checked in with only two minutes elapsed, Romero looked like the proverbial best player on the court in South Bend. That is saying something when Jewell Loyd is one of the other players on that court. Romero -- even after she ceded her opponent a head start by beginning the game seated next to associate head coach Lance White and getting instruction from Semrau as the coach walked the sideline -- at one point had personally outscored the fourth-ranked team in the nation 10-8.
She scored on a mid-range jumper, a spot-up 3-pointer and a gorgeous fadeaway after a strong drive. She ran the offense and got the ball to post players Adut Bulgak, Ivey Slaughter and Shakayla Thomas. She was in control, and so was Florida State until a late run, capped by Lindsay Allen's half-court shot at the buzzer, brought the Fighting Irish to within a point at halftime.
The second half was less kind. With a chagrinned Notre Dame making a more committed defensive effort, Romero totaled just three points and committed four turnovers after halftime. Without that special quality, despite an overall strong showing on the boards and in terms of effort, Florida State couldn't hold off the Notre Dame rally led by Loyd, Allen and Brianna Turner.
Romero looked down the stretch, understandably, like someone who needed a chance to catch her breath after a whirlwind two weeks of travel and on-the-job training. Turnovers were an issue for her as a freshman, albeit on a Kansas State team that needed her to force the issue, but at least on Friday, they weren't the product of selfishness or wildness.
"I think Morgan Jones is the same way. They just play basketball," Semrau said. "If somebody is there, they're going to throw it. And I love that, I really do. At the same time, I don't necessarily want to throw the ball to Ama Degbeon, who is a freshman from Germany, when Brianna Turner is behind her. We talked about putting Ama in jail, and that really wasn't fair to Ama. She'll learn that process, she'll learn her teammates and certainly learn the system and how we want to do it."
It will take some time to figure out exactly how the pieces fit together, though with Duke, Louisville and Syracuse ahead in the next four weeks, the first month of ACC play looks more difficult on paper than the second. Romero spent much of her 30 minutes on the court Friday with the ball in her hands. That will be a good thing for the Seminoles, but it will mean some adjusting for guards such as Maegan Conwright, Brittany Brown and Jones, as well as Romero herself. "As a point guard, you need to organize the team and look for the best options," Romero said. "I think I fit with this team because everybody has a different style of game and a different weapon, so it's cool to try to get the best of everybody. They are not selfish at all -- this is not a selfish team. We try always to get the better option. I like our post players -- they are such hard workers. If we are playing together, we are going to be really good."
It is probably too much to hope Kansas State and the NCAA emerged better entities for the experience Romero endured. It might, as has been the case throughout, be left to her to be the human in all of this. She looked the part as she prepared to board the bus Friday night. There was disappointment at defeat. But there was happiness to once again be on the court.
Not a pawn, just a player.
"It was just hard to go through that process, that time," Romero said. "I think I learned to be patient, to not let things come to my mind and [to] accept things that I can't control. I can't control if I have the release or not, so at some point, I just pray for it. I was just going to make the best of what I got. If I had to go to a junior college, I would go and just be the best I can be. If I get to play college, I choose FSU and try to beat every team in the country. That's it."
Publicado en: http://espn.go.com/womens-college-basketball/story/_/id/12120357/florida-state-seminoles-leticia-romero-returns-court
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