Gamecock seniors look forward to next steps after ‘heartbreaking’ end to careers

All year long, chemistry was key for the South Carolina women’s basketball team. Coach Dawn Staley consistently praised the Gamecocks as being mature beyond their years, and that started with seniors Tyasha Harris and Mikiah Herbert Harrigan.

But when the COVID-19 coronavirus caused the NCAA tournament to be canceled, bringing No. 1 South Carolina’s dream season to an end well short of its national championship ambitions, the team wasn’t together to process the news.

On spring break and slated to return to campus the following day to start prep for the tournament, the players got the news like so many fans did, scrolling through Twitter. A text from Staley on the team group chat confirmed it.

And for Harris and Herbert Harrigan, the news hit particularly hard. Their collegiate careers were over, not with the high of a national title or the pain of a tourney loss — just over.

“It was heartbreaking,” Herbert Harrigan told The State, “just knowing that that’s the way your senior season had to come to an end.”

“Angry, sad, heartbroken. I texted our group chat, ‘OMG, I’m so heartbroken,’” Harris said of her initial flood of emotions.

Harris and Herbert Harrigan are extremely close, but in their respective homes of Indiana and Florida, they were physically separated by hundreds of miles when the news hit.

Since then, they said they’ve each come to terms with how their collegiate careers ended. Harris said she was “upset” when the NCAA initially announced there would be no fans at tournament games, two days before the entire thing was canceled. Now, however, she recognizes it was the necessary call for public health.

For Herbert Harrigan, recalling what wound up being her final college game at the SEC tourney championship is bittersweet now. She was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player and looked to be playing her best basketball in front of raucous, friendly crowds in Greenville.

“I feel like the SEC tournament, I would have enjoyed it a little bit more, just knowing that it would be an end,” Herbert Harrigan said. “I was expecting obviously to play in the tournament and then play in the Final Four and try to win a national championship.”

The question of whether the Gamecocks might be recognized as national champions anyway after finishing the year at No. 1 in both the major polls remains unanswered, but Staley has been vocal in advocating for something like that. On that front, Harris said the team backs her “100 percent.”

There’s also been some talk about the NCAA granting eligibility relief to winter and spring sport athletes who had their seasons cut short, potentially allowing seniors to return for another year. Winter sports are considered less likely to receive some sort of relief.

Both Harris and Herbert Harrigan have already started looking ahead to the next step: The WNBA is still planning to have its draft on April 17, albeit virtually due to public health concerns, and both Gamecocks have hopes of being selected. ESPN’s latest mock draft has Harris as a first-round pick.

That’s been the main focus of the pair’s conversation as of late — which agents each is talking to, what teams have been in contact. They’ve both been doing their best to stay in shape as more and more public places like gyms and courts are shut down due to the coronavirus.

And both expressed excitement about the program’s trajectory heading into 2020-21. ESPN ranked South Carolina No. 1 in its way-too-early rankings for next season, and Harris and Herbert Harrigan said they’re confident Staley can keep up the success they led this past year.

As for themselves, Herbert Harrigan had a simple message for fans after missing out on the chance to play a final few games in front of them.

“It was very unfortunate (how it ended), but I appreciate their support throughout my four years,” she said.