Nakeia Burks’ thoughts of initially contributing to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball team in the 2016-17 season changed in the snap of a finger.
Due to injuries for other guards, the 5-foot-10 freshman went from not playing a single minute in the Mocs’ previous eight games to starting Sunday when UTC lost 61-33 at South Florida.
Burks will be back in the starting lineup this morning when the Mocs (5-4) host Belmont at McKenzie Arena at 11.
The UTC team is undergoing a transformation. It already lost point guards Chelsey Shumpert and Molly Melton for the season with injuries, and guard/forward Aryanna Gilbert is currently out as well, so the thought of Burks redshirting – a likely scenario if everyone was healthy – went out the window.
As for her first collegiate action, Mocs coach Jim Foster said she played “terrific.”
“A selfish kid might want to continue with the other idea (of redshirting), but a kid like Nakeia will use this as an opportunity,” he said. “We need some guard help, and she has really progressed significantly the last three-four weeks. She makes us better because she does a lot of the little things you’d like someone to do.”
Burks played 17 minutes against the Bulls. It wasn’t the best of starts, as she had five turnovers and only two points, but considering her first action was against a Top 25 team, that fact can be overlooked.
“I’ve had to step up and I’m happy for it,” Burks said. “I just look forward to helping any way I can. I’m not really setting personal goals for myself – I’m setting team goals, and I want to help us get back to the SoCon championship game, win and go from there.”
Despite big losses to top-ranked Connecticut and USF, the Mocs have had good wins: over Arkansas State, which otherwise lost only at Florida; over Southern Miss, which otherwise lost only at Baylor and which just defeated Ole Miss by 19; over McNeese State, which is 6-3; over UT-Martin, which beat Alabama; and over Butler.
Foster said Tuesday that “you can’t lose sight of the forest for the trees.”
“We have not played a bad basketball team,” he said. “Injuries are part of the game, and how we fight through the adversity created by injuries determines the character of the group. We lost our leading scorer (Shumpert): What does that mean? It means it’s somebody’s opportunity to be the leading scorer, and we can progress from that point. You don’t feel sorry for yourself; we have to handle adversity and treat it how it needs to be treated.
“That can’t be an excuse at any level.”
And because of those injuries, Burks is going to be a big part of what happens going forward.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.