Women rehab playoff aspirations

PORTALES - While the pandemic sidelined her basketball career, Jena Mehlbrech got a start on her prospective career by job shadowing a physical therapist in Portales.

Now after helping rehab eastern New Mexico residents, the junior guard is hopeful she and her Greyhound teammates can rehab Eastern New Mexico University's playoff aspirations that were so suddenly taken away by the COVID-19 pandemic.

On March 8, Mehlbrech and her teammates had just returned home from the Lone Star Conference tournament in time for a watch party to celebrate their second-consecutive NCAA tournament berth. By the end of the week, the tournament was canceled and on-campus workouts were delayed until further notice.

Further notice was since replaced by Tuesday, when the Greyhounds were cleared by the college to begin practicing for a delayed basketball season that will tip off some time in December.

One goal, Mehlbrech said, is to simply play the whole season. Though it's not entirely up to them, the Greyhounds will try to do their part by keeping themselves away from situations where they could become infected.

"A lot of us feel like we have unfinished business," Mehlbrech said. "We felt like we could do some damage last year, and a lot of us are back."

Greyhound coach Josh Prock starts his eighth season with arguably his most veteran team in a Green and Silver tenure that includes 100 wins, a Lone Star Conference regular season title, two NCAA tournament appearances and a tournament selection the pandemic kept from fruition.

There are just three newcomers on the Greyhound squad in post Stacy Ajobiewe and Division I transfer posts Jamesia Amand and Alexsis Johnson, and Prock said he's been impressed by all three.

As for the returners, Prock said, "they've all been working hard. We're a couple of days into practice, but they've all come back in really good shape. I'm impressed with that. The basketball IQ of this team is high, and I'm really looking forward to coaching them."

The Greyhounds are cleared by the Lone Star Conference to play a 22-game schedule, all but one game against an LSC opponent. There has been no vote as to whether that season will begin Dec. 31 or Dec. 10.

There are some holes the Greyhounds need to replace, including second-team All-LSC selection Natalie DeLonge and assistant coach Durmond Jennings, who took an assistant position at Division I North Texas.

"He was a heck of a coach," Prock said. "Having Mikaehla (Connor) here who's played for me, K.K.'s done a really good job. We hired a young man by the name of Will Watkins; he's come in and done a phenomenal job."

When asked about any sense of frustration from the rest of the university community that other student groups aren't being cleared to return to campus, Prock said he honestly doesn't know given the bubble nature of operations.

While there are no doubt feelings of resentment from a playoff opportunity taken away so suddenly, Mehlbrech said the feeling right now is one of being hopeful without feeling entitled to a season.

"We didn't know if we were even going to get the chance to play this year," Mehlbrech said, "so it kind of got put into perspective. There's a grateful attitude. It made us hungrier to do better. We knew there was a good chance we weren't going to get to play."