COLUMN: Turndown for what
On what would have been a great day for the women's basketball team, things turned bleak as Mid-American Conference Player of the Year Crystal Bradford took a fall earlier this week.
During practice Tuesday, the junior guard injured her knee. That was when she got the news, she had won the MAC Player of the Year, an award she deserved to win a year ago, but lost out to Akron's Rachel Tecca.
Bradford got the last laugh. She received the MAC Tournament MVP as the Chippewas defeated the Zips in the finals. Bradford will not be able to repeat that feat missing this years tournament with injury.
CMU must win the tournament championship if it wants to return to the NCAA Tournament for the second-straight year. The bad news on Bradford is devastating for the Chippewas, but it doesn't eliminate the No. 2.
In fact, it could be the edge the team needs to advance.
In the MAC tournament, the top-two seeds receive byes into the semi-finals.
Head coach Sue Guevara has said in years past how the double-bye can lead to rust. In the first year of the setup, Guevara's squad didn't receive a bye and got to the semi-finals. Her team was hot and it eliminated Bowling Green to advance to the finals that year.
Last season, her team got the single-bye and advanced to the semi-finals where it beat Toledo and went on to win the tournament.
Now the shoe is on their foot and it's Guevara's job to make sure her team develops no rust. However, the best player in the conference is out, and now the odds are against the Chippewas.
Another reason this team can win is because it's exactly that, a team.
Bradford didn't do it all herself, she had Third Team All-MAC selections, junior Jas'Mine Bracey and senior Niki DiGuilio beside her as well as honorable mention, junior Jessica Green and MAC Sixth Player of the Year, senior Taylor Johnson on her side as well.
Those players are all healthy and should be ready to prove this team isn't turning down from a stellar regular season. Instead many players are itching to turn up and become this season's MAC Tournament MVP.
