Tamika Nurse thought it over and revealed why she is leaving the Oregon women’s basketball program.
It wasn’t her choice.
“I never thought that I wasn’t going to be here for my senior year,” she said. “Obviously that’s surprising then because I came here to get a degree and to play basketball for four years and that’s what I intended to do.
“I guess that’s not really the case anymore.”
One day Nurse showed flashes of being an elite point guard. The next day she showed why she flipped back and forth this season between starting and coming off the bench.
And now she is no longer a member of the Oregon women’s basketball team.
Nurse must find another college program willing to take a one-year flier on the quick and occasionally out-of-control point guard.
Her three-year Oregon career has come to an abrupt end, without an NCAA Tournament appearance and a year before Oregon stands poised to make a breakthrough into March Madness.
Nurse sat down with the Emerald for a 30-minute interview during her sophomore season, sharing her thoughts on everything from her favorite sports movie (“Love and Basketball”) to her aspirations for her time in Eugene.
“I just want to win, to be honest with you – that’s what it boils down to. I want to be successful as a team,” she said in March 2007. “I want to do things. I want to go to the NCAA Tournament in my time here. I don’t want to sit her for four years and not make it. I want to do it.
“I will do whatever’s in my power to make sure that we get there.”
Now Nurse’s Oregon career is over. Next season is when Oregon, benefiting from a year’s experience for last season’s six freshmen, will make its push for a berth in the NCAA Tournament.
The timing of this decision is curious. If Smith knew Nurse wasn’t a good fit for the team, as she said in an interview last week, why wait until now? Nurse, who has one year of eligibility remaining, will have to find a school willing to take her on for a single season.
Oregon goes forward with a point guard combo of Micaela Cocks, who started 14 games this season, and Nia Jackson, a promising guard who missed 14 games with injuries. It’s a solid group – along with incoming recruit Darriel Gaynor, any production the Ducks will lose in Nurse’s absence should be offset.
By going this route, Smith will be experimenting with one of the most important positions on the court next season when the team is making its drive toward the postseason. Make this decision a year earlier, and Oregon could have used last season as an opportunity to determine the point guard of the future, while the freshmen made their adjustment to Division I basketball.
In retrospect, it proved wise having Nurse around this season with Jackson’s injury-riddled freshman campaign, but did it really benefit Nurse? She would have found it easier to find a new team with two seasons of eligibility remaining. But at the same time, when Oregon has put so much time into transitioning Nurse into the point guard spot why not keep her around another year and see if she can find consistency?
But now it’s too late.
“I made Eugene my home for three years,” a tearful Nurse said. “I intended to make it for four.”
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