Friday Features: Sixth- and Fifth-Year Seniors Receiving Second Chance at VSU
By Chris Megginson
Last March,
Taylor Buie and
Kia Perry thought their basketball playing careers were over. Buie, then a fifth-year senior at Nova Southeastern, and Perry, a senior at Belmont University, both had a senior season shortened due to a second injury. Their careers were given new life this year though with a call by Valdosta State University head coach Carley Kuhns.
Now, Buie and Perry are among the Lady Blazers’ starting five as they enter the second half of the 2017-18 season as sixth- and fifth-year seniors.
“The thing for me as a coach that I’m most excited about for those two is they get to go out and end their career and leave basketball on a positive note, and not by injury, hopefully, providing invaluable minutes and experience on a competitive team,” Kuhns said. “I think their best basketball is yet to come.”
In May, Buie decided she wasn’t quite done playing basketball. After a second surgery to repair a stress fracture in her foot, Buie emailed a few coaches to seek a new team, after leaving the Nova program during the injury. Once an honorable mention All-American and All-South Region honoree, helping Nova Southeastern to an NCAA Division II Elite 8 and Final Four during her freshman and sophomore seasons, Buie was sidelined as a junior in 2014-15 by an ACL injury. She returned to the Sharks’ starting lineup in 2015-16, but her career was cut short by a stress fracture early in her redshirt senior season last year.
Unlike most transfers, Buie had already graduated Nova with an undergraduate degree and two master’s degrees during her five year career, giving the opportunity to select a school solely for basketball and not worrying about completing a specific degree. One of the few schools she emailed was VSU.
When Kuhns received the email, she did a double take at the name. When she realized it was the same Buie she’d heard of at Nova, her only question was, “Do we have any scholarships left?”
Kuhns, who is in her second year as the Lady Blazers’ coach, was still an assistant at Belmont when Buie dropped 17 points to help lead Nova Southeastern to a win at Valdosta in November 2015. But she knew Buie’s name from a scouting report from a November 2016 return trip to Nova. However, Buie didn’t dress for the game. What Kuhns did not know at the time was Buie suffered her then-career-ending stress fracture prior to the VSU game. At the time of the initial communication with VSU in May, it was unknown if Buie would be medically cleared to play, but needing a veteran guard, Kuhns took her chance.
“I didn’t know if I was really going to get people to call me back, because I was coming off of injury,” Buie said. “My hopes weren’t too high but if a team wanted to take me, I was going to be happy with it … It was a risk she took on me, and I’m glad she took it.”
“It’s a crazy story, and crazy that it worked out,” Kuhns said of Buie’s move to VSU. “She wanted to play on a veteran team that would hopefully have a chance to make an impact in their conference.”
Buie was supposed to be the final piece of the puzzle for the VSU recruiting class for the coaching staff.
However, as Buie became healthy, a trio of injuries during the preseason left Kuhns presenting another second-chance offer. This time to Perry, who was now a few months into her role as Valdosta State’s graduate assistant coach after completing her degree at Belmont.
While coaching at Belmont, Kuhns began recruiting Perry in 2011 as a sophomore at Station Camp High School in Tennessee, where she scored more than 1,000 points in her career and was twice named Region MVP. Playing behind veteran guards at Belmont, Perry came off the bench in 16 games each of her first two seasons before an Achilles injury sidelined her for her junior season in 2015-16. As she prepared for what could have been her redshirt junior season, the Achilles injury occurred again. She chose to make 2016-17 her final season, appearing in 13 games and receiving her only start on Senior Day.
Kuhns approached Perry three days before the 2017-18 season opener about trading in her clipboard for a uniform. Perry discussed the decision with her family, her former Belmont coaches and a former teammate who ended her career with an injury and decided to jump on the chance to lace up her shoes again.
“Graduating last year, I never thought I’d be able to step back on the basketball floor again. I thought it was the end of it. Having this opportunity, I was overjoyed,” Perry said.
Perry was initially cautious about her transition to the roster.
“I thought it was going to be a very hard transition, but my teammates made it smooth,” she said. “They embraced me and they encouraged me knowing that I was very out of shape, basketball wise.”
Among those teammates was Buie, who was glad to have a teammate with a similar story.
“We were all excited about it,” Buie said. “We took her in with open arms.”
Buie was also nervous about fitting into the VSU roster, which returned three of its top four returning scorers from the 2016-17 Gulf South Conference championship team.
“I hadn’t been here, so it’s hard to come in and lead. I have experience, but you have to build rapport with your teammates,” Buie said. “It gets better every day. I think the break has been good for us … We have a lot of good players, and I’ve got to find how I fit in with those players.”
Averaging 10.8 points and 2.7 assists per game, Buie is one of only two players to start all 12 games so far this season, including her first two career games in her home state of Washington back in November, where she was able to play in front of family and friends and score a season-high 22 points against Saint Martin’s.
Perry has played in all 12 games so far and worked her way into the starting point guard position the last six games for Valdosta State. She is among the GSC leaders for assist/turnover ratio at 2.31. Her 228 minutes played has eclipsed that of her career total at Belmont.
After coming off the bench at Belmont, Perry says it was a big leap to become a starter, but she’s felt confident in the role because of Kuhns’ trust and her teammates’ encouragement.
“It’s been really good. I’ve struggled with confidence issues throughout my career, and being in the lineup with the starting five has boosted my confidence level,” Perry said.
Kuhns said Perry provides joy, energy and consistency as a player, a tradeoff for the gap she leaves on the bench for the coaching staff during games.
“She was definitely well equipped to step in and contribute to us,” Kuhns said. “She’s very positive and that’s a tangible you need to have on a team, if you’re going to have success.”
Success is exactly what Buie hopes to bring to the team with her past NCAA South Region experience.
“I’m here to have fun and hope to have the opportunity to get to the Final Four and maybe past the Final Four. I’ve been to the tournament a couple of times, and keep getting stuck at the same point. Maybe a new team will be the secret ingredient,” Buie said. “I’m excited to see where we go from here. We had a couple of bumps early, but I think we’re ready to bounce back.”
Off the court, Buie is pursuing a certification in public administration to go along with her undergraduate degree in criminal justice and master’s in athletic administration and business administration. Perry is in her first year of a two-year master’s degree in higher education leadership. She continues to maintain some of her in-office duties as a graduate assistant and watches film with the staff. She plans to return to the VSU coaching staff at the end of the 2017-18 season.
Follow Megginson on Twitter @jcmeggs. Email comments to megginsonjc@gmail.com.
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2017 Friday Features Archive
September 1 |
Mississippi College
September 8 |
Montevallo
September 15 |
Valdosta State
September 22 |
West Georgia
September 29 |
Alabama Huntsville
October 6 |
Union
October 13 |
West Alabama
October 20 |
West Florida
October 27 |
Delta State
November 3 |
Christian Brothers
November 10 |
Shorter
November 17 |
North Alabama
November 24 |
Lee
December 1 |
AUM
December 8 |
West Florida
Decemeber 15 |
Mississippi College
December 22 |
Lee
December 29 |
West Alabama