DeKALB – Mauvolyene Adams will not return to the Northern Illinois women’s basketball team for her senior season, a decision the Huskies forward had made before Kathi Bennett took over as coach in May, the first-year coach said Tuesday.
“When I got the job, she was not part of the team,” Bennett said. “I had been just staying in touch with her, trying to see if she wanted to rejoin. It was a situation where she just did not want to be part of what we were building. I don’t feel we’re going in the same direction.”
Adams started all 28 games she played in for the Huskies last season and was second on the team in scoring (12.6 points) and rebounding (8.4).
Bennett said Adams had alluded to injury issues with her back as one of the reasons she didn’t want to return to the team.
“Some of the things that I set forth that needed to happen to be a part of our team, I think were going to be difficult (for her),” Bennett said. “I think it was a mutual decision that she was not going to be a part of this team, on my end and on her end.”
Adams will remain on academic scholarship at NIU, Bennett said, and will continue to receive academic services through the athletic department. She is scheduled to graduate next spring, a team spokesman said.
Adams’ departure leaves the Huskies (10-19 last season) with a hole at power forward, but Bennett said 6-foot 2 sophomore Shaakira Haywood – who averaged 1.7 points and 2.0 rebounds in 10.4 minutes per game last season – and freshman Ashley Snead have shown they can contribute.
“I really believe that someone on the team will step up and fill that role,” Bennett said. “Everyone that’s been here and been part of the team has worked incredibly hard, and I believe that we’ll be able to fill it with someone that has had incredible effort and energy and has been here.”
Thorp update: Bennett said freshman Jenna Thorp, a Hinckley-Big Rock graduate, will have surgery later this week to repair a torn ACL and meniscus. Thorp sustained the injury during a summer scrimmage with her NIU teammates.
“She’s resilient,” Bennett said. “Of course it was difficult. But she’s just something else. She’ll find a way to make a positive out of it.”
Bennett said she was uncertain on how long Thorp would be out with the injury but that the guard/forward is “going to help us still this season.”
