Panthers look to forget the past and rebound for next season

Giancarlo Navas/ Staff Writer

As the final buzzer rang in the 76-44 defeat at the hands of Marshall, a season of misery and controversy finally closed for the FIU women’s basketball team.

Nothing went right all season for this team, after a season opening win FIU stumbled the rest of the way, finishing with a 5-26 record. The worst in Conference USA and one of the worst years in the history of the program.

Losing ways

Despite FIU only managing five wins this season it was shockingly an improvement from last season. Let that sink in, a 5-26 record is an improvement. Yikes. FIU went 3-26 the season before and was 0-18 in conference play, they failed to qualify for the Conference USA tournament.

Before FIU’s home opener for the 2015-2016 season, the FIU women’s basketball team had failed to win a game in the year 2015.

Last season also featured another lowlight, which was a 14 game losing streak, which was finally broken at home vs the University of Birmingham Alabama in early February. That marked FIU’s first conference win since 2014. Almost two calendar years prior.

Conference Tournament run

Despite the festering turd that was FIU’s season, they managed to pull off an upset win over the 11 seed UTSA in the Conference USA tournament.

To keep FIU’s season alive Taylor Shade had one her best games of season, scoring 22 points, including the go-ahead layups very late in the game.

Freshman Kristen Hudson also had her Steph Curry moment of the season, making a step-back contested three to tie the game with under two minutes to play. The game felt like a passing of the torch as it would be the last game FIU would win after falling to Marshall two days later, because senior Taylor Shade and freshman Kristen Hudson both had huge games.

The two were FIU leading scorers in that game and were clearly the two best players for the Panthers that game. As Shade won’t be playing collegiate basketball anymore, Hudson will have to lead the team for the next few years.

Marlin Chinn’s scandal

The losing wasn’t even the worst part, now former FIU Head Coach Marlin Chinn was accused of not only committing NCAA violations, but also pursuing a sexual relation with team captain Destini Feagin.

According to David Neal of the Miami Herald, Chinn told Feagin that he has “sexual fantasies about” her among other creepier things. It is to be noted that the University has since “relived” Chinn due to committing an NCAA violation and not for the alleged sexual harassment of Destini Feagin. Chinn gave Feagin $600 to pay a debt on her FIU account, which is a violation of NCAA rules.

Going Forward

Another rebuilt yet again, after Cindy Russo’s retirement it appeared FIU had a leader going forward coming from a successful program in Maryland. This summer was set to be his first recruiting tour and a step in a new direction.

Now, FIU is a program who exiled a disgraced figure and is again in a sports purgatory. No coach in place and no idea what’s next. Their best player is graduation after improvements each year and there is no one in place to succeed her.

Hudson is still too green and the rest have had shaky seasons. Expect a few more seasons in the gutter before things can reasonably get better.