Leticia Romero To Play At Florida State

The Florida State women’s basketball team just got significantly better. Leticia Romero, who was recently granted a release from Kansas State, will play in Tallahassee with the Seminoles from now on. Romero has been at the center of a transfer debacle that blew up over the internet after the likes of Jay Bilas and Seth Davis came to her defense.

The 5’8 guard, who led the Wildcats in essentially every statistical category last year, is not eligible to play this upcoming season, but will be able to play in the 2015-2016 season due to NCAA rules. The Seminoles, unlike the Cats, did make the NCAA Tourney last year, but were bounced in the second round.

As a K-State fan, I don’t know how to feel about this. Obviously, i’m happy for Leti Romero. But I cant help but resent her at least a little bit. Whenever someone wants to leave the Wildcat family, it hurts a little inside. This is the reason so many K-Staters came to the defense of the university when this story originally broke.

I will preface the rest of the article by saying this, of course any student-athlete should be able to leave their school if they don’t want to be there.

That being said, it doesn’t seem like Romero ever really gave Jeff Mittie and the new coaching staff a chance at all. And as this story developed I couldn’t help but think, did it really have anything to do with the new coaching staff? Or did Leticia Romero just not want to  play for a struggling team?

In my opinion, great players, and great leaders, play through adversity. If Romero was truly a superstar, she would have stayed with her teammates that have put in just as much work as her over the past year. She would have helped change the program, she would have elevated her squad to the next level. She didn’t. She left.

Don’t get it twisted, this is not me saying she should have been forced to stay. I wrote a story about how she should be able to leave, I was one of the biggest advocates.

This is however, me saying I would not want a teammate that leaves when things get rocky. Nobody would. That isn’t a teammate at all if you ask me.

This is along the same lines as the LeBron James argument, if he is so great, why did he give up on Cleveland? That of course is a little different, because LeBron was there for seven years, and took a GARBAGE team to the NBA finals.

What is Romero’s excuse? She never elevated this team to the next level, she had a very good season statistically, but I didn’t see her make the team much better, as a whole. And that’s what superstars do. They make their teammates look like superstars too.

Obviously, it would be nice to have Romero back on the team this season. She is a very talented player. But, championship teams are built like families. Not even that, championship teams are families. And family doesn’t pack up and leave because of adversity.

At least, not the Wildcat family.