The 2019-2020 Women's Basketball Season comes to an Anti-climatic End

Well, that was unexpected. World events intruded on the 2019-2020 Women's basketball season, cutting short many league basketball championships and would not let the NCAA tournament championship even be played. The world events was the pandemic coronavirus, and the correct, but painful, decision was the right one, but it still stings on some many levels; financially for venues and workers and emotionally for coaches and players, especially seniors.

So, the AP put out their last poll for the season and South Carolina is number one. South Carolina Coach Dawn Staley says there should be no argument who is the final #1 team.

According to the Sports Illustrated:

The AP has always released its final poll of the season before the start of the tournament that settles the national championship. Staley said she wasn’t sure if the Gamecocks might recognize this achievement next year with a banner or something else since there was no tournament.

The Stanford Women's Basketball team came in on #7 for the season. Pac-12 buddy Oregon, with stand out star Sabrina Ionescue came in at #2, and they will forever be debating if Oregon could have won the program's first national championship.

There was talk of trying to get another year of eligibility for seniors, as Coaches want the NCAA to allow senior basketball players to return next season, but that seems unlikely. This headline says it all: The NCAA Not Likely To Grant Extra Year of Eligibility for Men's And Women's Basketball.

Stanford head coach Tara Vanderveer was not in support of it, according to the San Jose Mercury News:

“For spring sports it’s legitimate,” she said. “But basketball is different. We played our whole season. What it means is 64 teams didn’t get one more game.”

Still, it's sad to say good bye to the Stanford seniors, Nadia Fingall, Mikaela Brewer, DiJonai Carrington and Anna Wilson. Although will we? It seems both Anna Wilson and DiJonai Carrington want to come bask as a medical redshirt for one more year. According to the same San Jose Mercury News article:

Two of the four seniors, DiJonai Carrington and Anna Wilson, want to return next season as a medical redshirt. There is only scholarship space available for one of them. Wilson applied for the redshirt year before Carrington was lost for the season in November when aggravating a previous knee injury.

What will Tara do?  One thing she said, she doesn't like this shelter in place ordeal for the Bay Area. It reminds her too much of retirement.

Well, congrats to Stanford on a ggreat season, and to all the teams. Hopefully the silver lining is we will appreciate next year's season and March Madness even more.

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