2020 AGR Girls Basketball Team members: Where are they now?

When it came time to pack and leave for college and play basketball, players on the 2020 Democrat and Chronicle All-Greater Rochester girls team were well aware that the coronavirus pandemic would remain a menace in their lives.

Saniaa Wilson had another year of high school at Bishop Kearney ahead of her then. But even she would feel the effects the pandemic has on college basketball.

"It kind of slowed me down," Wilson said by phone from the State University of New York at Buffalo campus. "With the (college) class of 2020, the pandemic came in during their season and it was cut off (including no NCAA Tournaments).

"For some of the seniors it was unfair to them, this was their last year of college."

The NCAA began to grant another year of eligibility to college student-athletes around the United States in March 2020.

"(The pandemic) made it super tough," Bishop Kearney girls basketball coach Kevan Sheppard said. "In the beginning, I wasn’t that concerned about (the impact in college basketball), simply because talent is talent.

"Once it really got amped up, and the NCAA made the switch that allowed for every player to get an additional year, that really made things difficult (for potential recruits and incoming freshmen).”

There was less of a need for college coaches to recruit high school players to replace players on their teams.

"Especially on the women's side, they usually stay until they graduate," Sheppard said. "Once they get an opportunity to stay and play, get the Master's degree started, 99 percent of them are going to take that opportunity. And that’s what happened.”

The additional eligibility for college student-athletes came a little more than a year after the NCAA began to loosen its transfer rules. Student-athletes can now transfer to another school once and are eligible to play without having to sit out their first season with their new team.

College coaches - who face constant pressures to win - have an even larger pool of players to recruit from and, in some cases, fewer roster spots to refill.

"As a college basketball coach, if you have an opportunity to take a player with two, three years of college basketball, as opposed to a player coming from high school, you are going to go with them. They know what comes with it," Sheppard said.

"That made it really tough for the kids coming out of high school."

Wilson said during the spring of 2020, as a junior at Bishop Kearney, that she planned to accept a scholarship and play at Seton Hall. But the six-foot tall forward, never signed a letter of intent from Seton Hall.

"I had committed to Seton Hall," Wilson said. "There was nothing wrong with the school, the team or coaches, everything was good. (But Seton Hall coach Tony Bozzella) was very open-minded to having a senior stay for another year.

"That stopped me from coming in this fall. I would have had to take a gap year or spend a year at a prep school (and then possibly join Seton Hall). That’s something I’m not 100 percent committed to."

Wilson, who was selected to the Democrat and Chronicle's 2010-2019 All-Decade high school girls basketball team by a group of current and former coaches, had options. More than 20 Division I schools offered Wilson a scholarship to play.

"(University at Buffalo) coach (Felisha) Legette-Jack was willing to have me come in this year," Wilson said. "Absolutely, (I made the right decision). I don't know what my life would have been like at Seton Hall, but Coach Legette-Jack is a phenomenal woman.

"She not only pushes me, but my teammates, to be better, not only as individuals, but pushes to be better as a group. Her coaching staff does, too. She's that inspirational."

Where are they now?

A hip injury that Wilson suffered while in high school really cut down the chance that she would play with Edison graduate Dyaisha Fair and rest of the UB Bulls early this season.

Most of the 2020 D&C AGR Girls Basketball Team members are reserves at this point in their college careers.

JAMESJ@Gannett.com

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: 2020 AGR Girls Basketball Team members: Where are they now?