‘Nerve-wracking’: Lake Park grad trying to be patient during long wait on NCAA Tournament bubble

Life on the NCAA Tournament is uncomfortable for a college basketball player. Think sitting on a barbed wire fence uncomfortable.

That’s where 2020 Lake Park graduate Darrione Rogers and her Mississippi State teammates found themselves this week, waiting for Sunday’s announcement of the 2024 tournament bracket.

The week is passing slowly. Sunday night can’t come soon enough.

ESPN projected Mississippi State as the first team out as of Thursday night. Herhoopstats.com had Mississippi State one of the last four teams in the tournament, a No. 11 seed headed for a First Four game in Albany, New York. CBSsports.com had the Bulldogs as the second team out behind Texas A&M.

It doesn’t get more bubble than that.

“It's very stressful. It’s very nerve-wracking,” Rogers said Wednesday.

The Bulldogs (21-11) haven’t played since their March 7 SEC Tournament loss to Texas A&M. That’s the same Texas A&M that CBSsports.com thinks is one spot more likely to make the tournament but still miss.

It doesn’t help that the Bulldogs lost six of their last seven games, including that SEC Tournament game.

“I feel like we got to learn a lot during the season. But going on that losing streak, now we’re fighting for our lives to get in the NCAA Tournament. That’s the only tough part about it,” Rogers said.

You can just hear the “if only” in Rogers’ voice. If only one more play, one more shot, one more game had gone Mississippi State’s way.

The Bulldogs hope the tournament committee will give extra weight to their late January victory against defending NCAA Tournament champion LSU.

“I came to – well, in my opinion -- the best conference in the world to get the exposure,” the 5-foot-11 guard said. “And then, every kid’s dream is to play in the March Madness tournament and make a run. So just not knowing and being unsure – because at this point it’s out of your hands, you can’t control it and you can’t go back in the past and redo certain games or relive certain moments – so it’s just one of those things like, ohh, it’s kind of a tough pill to swallow just being unsure of what can possibly happen. Because at the end of the day anything can happen. We really don’t know now.”

If the Bulldogs don’t earn an NCAA Tournament berth, they could get an invitation to the WNIT, though Rogers isn’t sure they would accept.

High production

Rogers was used to putting up big numbers at Lake Park, where she scored more than 2,000 points and was a two-time all-stater and the 2020 Daily Herald DuPage County All-Area captain. She also led the Lancers to the Class 4A semifinals.

At DePaul she started in 33 games last season and averaged 16.8 points, 5.1 assists, 4.7 rebounds and 1.3 steals. The Blue Demons reached the NCAA Tournament her sophomore season in 2022.

Rogers arrived in Starkville, Mississippi, population 24,657, last summer after transferring from DePaul. It was time for a change, time to go outside her comfort zone, she said.

This season she is averaging 8.3 points and 3.6 rebounds.

“It’s been good being in a different environment,” Rogers said. “This is completely different from being in downtown Chicago. Off the court I’ve had a chance to grow as a person just from being away from home, being away from my family physically. But on the court, just how things are done here, I’ve been able to develop my game, put the extra work in a lot more. So overall I would say this has been a blessing for me to experience this.”

ESPN had Rogers rated the No. 19 transfer coming off a second-team all-Big East season at DePaul. She said 25-30 schools reached out before she settled on Mississippi State.

“I didn’t know that I was going to come here, honestly. I really didn’t. People think I did,” she said.

She took her time making the decision, but not too much. She made the effort to be honest with coaches. She went through the pros and cons for her and her family. She picked the Bulldogs even though she knew it would be hard for her parents, Darwin and Cynthia, to get to SEC games.

A familiar face

It helped that Mississippi State had a family friend on the coaching staff, assistant Corry Irvin, an Elgin native and longtime Whitney Young High School coach. Rogers refers to Irvin as a “mother figure” for her in Starkville, checking on her frequently.

“Honestly, the relationship I had with coach Corry Irvin had a huge role in that because I’ve known her since I was a child. I played for the Mac Irvin Fire with her and her husband (Mac Irvin). That relationship right there carried a lot of weight. And when I was younger (Mississippi State coach Sam Purcell) recruited me back when he was at Louisville, so I already had an idea of how Sam was as a person,” Rogers said.

And if the Bulldogs don’t make the tournament this March? There’s always next year. Rogers plans to take advantage of her “COVID year,” a fifth year of eligibility granted by the NCAA to athletes who endured the 2020-21 pandemic season.

And she still has to complete her degree requirements. Not all of her DePaul credits transferred because the Blue Demons are on the quarter system, while Mississippi State is on semesters. She fully intends to get her degree in sports management.

She can’t wait to see the smile on her parents’ faces at the graduation ceremony.

“That’s who I do it for,” she said.