BOULDER - With the tip-off of the 2009-10 basketball season rapidly approaching, Bianca Smith is at peace. In more of a personal sense than one related to hoops, she can see the court; a clarity and purpose are present that simply weren't a year ago.
Then, she still was entangled in an appeal to the University of Tulsa to release her from the National Letter of Intent she initially signed in 2004.
Now, she's free at last, free at last . . . feel free to complete the thought.
"It's a huge load off my back, a huge burden released," said Smith, a senior guard on the Colorado women's team.
It's a complicated issue, but here are the basics: Smith signed with Tulsa in 2004 when Kathy McConnell-Miller was the school's women's hoops coach. When McConnell-Miller was hired by CU in 2005, Smith chose to follow her.
Smith never enrolled at Tulsa, but because of her signed letter of intent, she faced the prospect of missing two seasons - one as a transfer, the other as a penalty for not honoring her original letter of intent.
She used her redshirt season to fulfill the transfer year obligation (2005-06), then petitioned the NLI Appeals Committee to reclaim one semester of the penalty year.
Had Tulsa stayed stiffened in the matter, Smith would have been forced to sit out the first semester of her final season. But late last season, after administrative wrangling that seemed to Smith longer than the Hundred Years War, Tulsa released her, and her full senior season was reclaimed.
The moment the news was delivered became a precious memory. Recalled Smith:
"We (the Buffs team) were standing at the center circle after practice and Coach Miller said she had some great news. I was thinking, 'What's going on?'
"Then, she said the chancellor (formerly Bud Peterson) had sent her a letter saying Tulsa had released me . . . it was like a punch in the stomach almost. I fell to my knees, crying and thinking, 'You've got to be kidding . . . after all this time.'"
No kidding, the long, laborious deal was done, thanks to the high-level cooperation between universities, tireless work from Smith's mother (Nina Jackson), and assorted daily prayers. Official word, the final paperwork, was received on June 9.
Had Smith stayed sidelined until mid-December, when she officially could have begun playing pending the start of the second semester, she would have practiced with the Buffs and tried to exert herself as the team's only senior leader.
"The thought of having to sit out an entire semester and lose that chemistry and bond you build in practice and preseason games was a bit terrifying for me," Smith said.
"And just also for the coaching staff in practice to want to put me on the floor, then knowing I can't play until January . . . but now, I could come in and start fresh in practice and gain chemistry with my teammates and gain that camaraderie you need to win championships."
McConnell-Miller, prepping for her fifth season at CU, recounts with great admiration Smith's willingness to sacrifice: "I always so impressed that she was willing to give up a year to come and play for us . . . it was like, 'I'm going to get out there and maybe something will change.'
"But as she became a junior, I began to feel like, wow, she's really made some major sacrifices. I never knew if it was weighing on her, but it definitely weighed on me - that a young lady would sacrifice a year of eligibility, which ultimately would lead to a half-a-year of eligibility to come play for me.
"So I always had in the back of mind, I was hoping and praying, that this would change. I had several conversations with the athletic director at Tulsa, Bianca and her mom. And I assured them that whatever time she had here, we were going to make the most of it.
"She bought in and did her thing. After three years, there was a very fortunate intervention, whether it was their feeling at Tulsa, Bianca's development over a period of time . . . but somebody looked favorably at what she had done over three years and realized that this was about Bianca Smith - the woman - and not about Colorado or the University of Tulsa."
Early on, fighting the battle for Smith's final season were her, her mom and a lawyer. Pleas - most of them more personal than legal - were made by Jackson on her daughter's behalf to the Tulsa athletic administration.
"One time when mom was in Tulsa for the opening of new arena, she went in person to talk to coach (Charlene Thomas-) Swinson - not as a parent talking to a coach, but as a mother," said Smith, who will graduate in May with a double major (marketing, sociology).
"It was all pretty tough, for my mom, my family and me. (Jackson) knew it was burdening me to think about my senior season and sitting out half of it. No senior wants to go into the last year knowing they have to miss half of it. I think that was hurting her as much as it was hurting me."
Jackson, though, persevered, and through it all McConnell-Miller's respect deepened: "She's an amazing woman - the mom you wished every player you coached had. She holds her daughter to a high standard, supports her when necessary and never gives up."
Smith could have second-guessed her decision to come to CU, and when Tulsa made the NCAA Women's Tournament during Smith's redshirt season at CU, she conceded she pondered, "What if I was there? Would I have been a part of that?
"But I put it out of my mind; I'm here for a reason, and everything happens for a reason."
Did she fight through dark times wondering if the struggle really was worth it? Not really.
"The decision to come here was made from the heart," Smith said. "This was the best place for me, basketball-wise and academically.
"I've said from the beginning that I think Coach Miller is a phenomenal coach . . . I love her style and staff; it's all very family oriented."
Smith can be a dead-eye perimeter shooter. She holds CU's single-season record for three-pointers attempted (217) and made (80), with both marks set in 2007-08.
But McConnell-Miller is looking beyond the flick of Smith's right wrist. The young Buffs need a floor leader and a cornerstone, and McConnell-Miller believes Smith can be both.
"She impacts this team, on and off the floor," McConnell-Miller said. "This team would have missed her presence and her leadership. And (missing the first semester) would have affected her preparation for the conference."
As much as McConnell-Miller is anticipating what the 2009-10 season will bring for her Buffs, she's looking beyond that with respect to Smith.
"She'll coach for me someday," McConnell-Miller said. "She will be on my staff - she can be a great recruiter, she's got an extremely high basketball IQ . . . she's great on the floor, a good leader. She's one of those players you look at and know she will be a coach."
But Smith isn't thinking in those terms at the moment. She's living in this particular moment, unburdened at last and joyous almost beyond belief at how things have come together.
"Eventually, I knew I'd get released," she said. "There was a point where I just stopped thinking about it. I blocked it out of my mind. Coach would come in and say, we got some people talking to Tulsa . . . .
"But I never would let myself get too high and excited about the thought they would release me. If they did, they did, if they didn't, they didn't. I would cross that bridge when I got to it."
The bridge has been crossed. Rest assured that Bianca Smith is not looking back.
Bianca Smith Timeline:
- November 2004 -- Smith signs National Letter of Intent with Tulsa for the 2005-06 academic year.
- April 27, 2005 -- Kathy McConnell-Miller named head coach at Colorado
- May 20, 2005 -- Charlene Thomas-Swinson named head coach at Tulsa
- June 29, 2005 -- Smith files an NLI Release Request form with Tulsa, which is denied by then-Tulsa AD Judy McCleod.
- July 2005 -- First appeal by Smith to the NLI Appeals Committee was denied
- August 2005 -- Second appeal by Smith to the NLI Appeals Committee is partially successful.
- August 2005 -- Smith arrives in Boulder and sits a year in residency. She is able to practice with the team and receive financial aid, but does not compete.
- Sept. 19, 2005 -- The NLI Appeals Committee determines that Smith be required to sit her first year at CU in residency and that she have to sit/lose one fall semester, to be chosen by Smith.
- Fall 2006 -- Smith begins first season of eligibility, competing as a redshirt freshman for the 2006-07 season. She competes in 2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008-09 and is scheduled to sit during the fall 2009 semester.
- Spring 2009 -- Then CU-Boulder Chancellor Bud Peterson informs McConnell-Miller that Tulsa has agreed to release Smith from her original NLI.
- June 9, 2009 -- Smith officially released from NLI and is eligible to play the entire 2009-10 season.
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
