Women’s basketball not affected by game during finals week
While many students and faculty will be in the classroom focusing on exams Tuesday afternoon, the Central Michigan women’s basketball team will be on the court in competition.
The Chippewas host Memphis in their annual Hoops for Hunger game in the midst of finals week Tuesday at noon. The game will be a rematch of the 62-61 thriller between the two teams last season, which Memphis won in the final moments.
None of CMU’s players will have to miss the game since no players on the team have an exam in that slot.
“We got very fortunate that no one has an exam at that time,” said Head Coach Sue Guevara.
The game had been scheduled for Dec. 15 for quite some time according to Guevara. The reason the game is during finals week is because the university typically has its finals a week earlier.
Memphis was unable to change the time it could play the game and the two teams were already under contract, so the game had to be played during the agreed-upon time.
“Honestly, I don’t like to play during finals week,” Guevara said. “It was a game that we had to do and fortunately we’re able to get through it without anybody missing exams.”
Had any of the players had an exam scheduled during the time of the game, professors would have had the authority to either allow players to miss the game for the exam, reschedule or deny them the privilege to do so.
If a professor would have been against it, that player would have had to miss the game in order to take their final exam.
“Our professors have been great at understanding as long as we let them know in advance,” Guevara said. “It’s just like when we have to miss class to go to a game. And if (a professor) didn’t want to do it, then you know what? I get it, there wouldn’t be too much I could do about it.”
Junior guard Jasmine Harris said the time of the game will work in her favor as she prepares for the grind of finals week.
“I know it’s going to be a hectic week,” she said. “I’m happy that (the game) is in the middle of the day, so at noon I would pretty much be at practice anyway, so it’s fine. It’s better than having to play at 7 p.m. when I would be in the library.”
Junior forward Jewel Cotton said all of her exams will be finished before Tuesday, something she said is a benefit as she gets ready for the matchup.
“I’m knocking all of my exams out (ahead of time),” Cotton said. “On that Tuesday, we just have presentations and I’ve already presented and I did great, so I am just very happy that that day I can just really focus on the game.”
Because the game is the Hoops for Hunger game, Guevara said she anticipates people to be in attendance even though many college students will be in class.
“It’s not like we’ll have a big contingent of students,” Guevara said. “Any students that don’t have exams, hey great, come. We’re going to have a lot of grade school students in the arena along with our family and friends.”
Elementary school students that participated in the contest to collect the food for the event will be in attendance. All of the food collected during game will be donated to a food pantry in Isabella County. The local school that donates the most food wins a pizza party with the team.
With Guevara not in favor of the exam game, she said this situation won’t be a recurring one in the future.
“This is the first time that we’ve had this (exam game),” Guevara said. “And I can tell you that we won’t have it anymore.”
