TCU women's basketball coach Mark Campbell opened up about the challenges his team has faced this season, including forfeiting games and holding open tryouts, due to an unprecedented injury crisis. The Horned Frogs, who had an impressive 14-0 start during Campbell's first season, found themselves in a dire situation after key players Sedona Prince, Madison Conner and Jaden Owens were sidelined with injuries.
The impact of these injuries was so severe that TCU had to forfeit two games and resort to open tryouts to fill roster spots.
“It just shows how quickly a season can turn,” Campbell said Tuesday night, after the Frogs played and won against UCF, in their first game in 10 days, as reported by Stephen Hawkins of the Associated Press.
The team has now been bolstered by four new walk-on players from over 40 tryout attendees. Among the new players is TCU volleyball player Sarah Sylvester, who made a brief appearance in the 66-60 victory over UCF. Two other walk-ons joined the team from state-winning high school teams, and another, a freshman guard from Granbury, Texas, scored over 1,500 points in high school and was twice named district player of the year.
“Just been decimated by the injury bug, you have open tryouts midyear, we haven’t played 5-on-5, and you show up and you get a Big 12 win,” Campbell said. “It’s been a special, hard two weeks.”
The injuries that plagued the team include a broken finger for Prince, a torn ACL and meniscus for Owens and an MCL injury for Conner. The situation led to TCU playing with only six available scholarship players, two of whom were on limited minutes due to their own injuries.
TCU's forfeits rare but not unprecedented
TCU Athletic Director Jeremiah Donati acknowledged the difficulty of the decision to forfeit, a move that is not unprecedented in college basketball but remains rare. Last season, UConn's game against DePaul was postponed because the Huskies didn't meet the Big East Conference's requirement of having at least seven scholarship student-athletes available. Similarly, Xavier had to cancel its non-conference game at Arizona State last month due to a lack of players, and Jacksonville faced health and safety issues in its program, leading to the rescheduling of its game against North Florida last week.
In contrast, the Big 12 doesn't have a set minimum number of players required for a team to compete. This is a policy that Donati expected will be reviewed by the conference. Currently, if a Big 12 team is unable to assemble a team and no exceptional circumstances are present, it results in a forfeit rather than the possibility of rescheduling the game.
Kansas State coach Jeff Mittie commented on the situation, echoing Donati's sentiments on the need for the Big 12 to reevaluate its policies.
“I hate injuries, you know everybody goes through them,” Mittie said. “The Big 12’s got to take a hard look and get our input as coaches and figure out a way that these things don’t happen.”
Meanwhile, TCU is adjusting to its new reality, evident in their latest win, with freshman guard Victoria Flores making a crucial play after overcoming her own injuries.
“MC (Mark Campbell) always says the journey of the season, like there’s going to be injuries, obviously probably not to this capacity usually,” said senior guard Agnes Emma-Nnopu.
“I am just beyond proud of this group of kids,” Mark Campbell added. “They’re suiting up because we need numbers … Get in there and let’s rock and roll.”
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