Kaila Charles had so much going her way. The coronavirus pandemic ground much of it to a halt.
There’s the obvious: Charles was the top scorer and senior leader for Maryland’s fourth-ranked women’s basketball squad. The Terrapins were red-hot — they’d won 17 straight games, they swept through Indianapolis to win the Big Ten Tournament, and they would have been a national No. 1 seed with legitimate Final Four hopes.
Individual career milestones were at her fingertips, too. Charles stood just 16 points away from 2,000 for her college career. She was tied with Alyssa Thomas for most starts in Maryland history; just start that upcoming Round of 64 game, not a tall order, and Charles would break the program record.
And like most college seniors around the country, Charles won’t even get to participate in a traditional, in-person graduation ceremony.
But the 22-year-old from Glenn Dale, Maryland, knows it was all beyond her control. To Charles, there’s no point in dwelling on what would have been.
“I kind of came to peace with it. There was nothing we could do about it,” Charles said. “At the end of the day, it was for our safety. There’s a bigger thing going on in our country. So once I made my peace, it was more about trying to get ready for my next step.”
Upon learning March 12 that the pandemic forced the cancellation of the NCAA women’s and men’s basketball tournaments, Charles gave herself the weekend off to cope with the situation. It took her about two weeks to work through it, she said, but returning to her training helped. There was still another goal she could focus on: preparing for the WNBA draft, which will be held Friday in a “virtual-only” setting on ESPN.
The shooting guard is expected to be a second- or third-round pick, according to recent mock drafts. Charles averaged 14.3 points and 7.3 rebounds in 2019-20 on her way to third-team All-American and first-team All-Big Ten honors. She also showed off her talent as a defender and passer, but WNBA teams looking at her will hope her 3-point shot improves at the next level.
Charles said WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert invited her to participate in the draft remotely. Camera equipment will be sent to Charles’ family’s home in Maryland, where she will watch the draft with her parents and siblings — one of whom recently had a baby boy — and be interviewed on ESPN after she is picked.
She added the WNBA is going to livestream a DJ for the players and their families to enjoy after the draft concludes.
“So we’ll have a little party in our house with that,” Charles said. “We’re gonna make the best of the situation.”
It’s not how Charles pictured her draft night looking, ever since she became serious about a future in basketball around age 12, but that doesn’t bother her. In fact, there’s no guarantee of a 2020 WNBA season at the moment, leaving Charles and other incoming draftees like Sabrina Ionescu and Lauren Cox to wonder what their rookie seasons will entail.
During some interviews with WNBA coaches, Charles said she was assured the league will have “some type of season” in 2020; the idea of bringing all 12 teams to one location for an accelerated season was floated as one possibility. The league would have taken an extended break for the Olympics this summer, but since they were pushed back a year, setting up a revised schedule could become less daunting.
“They’re trying to do their best, they’re trying to make some type of season happen this year, but at the end of the day it just depends on how all this stuff with COVID-19 goes and how things play out. I’m just on my toes waiting for news,” Charles said.
She knows that’s all she can do. When she’s drafted, she’ll have to move out to her new city, potentially as far as Los Angeles or Seattle, without a guarantee of what lies ahead in the coming weeks or months. But from the mantra she keeps repeating, it’s clear the uncertainty will not affect her outlook.
“Like I said, there’s nothing I can do about it,” Charles said. “One thing at Maryland that we learned was, ‘Control what you can control.’ I’ve just gotta control my attitude.
“Even to this day it still lingers. But I’m always like you know what, you can’t do anything about it, keep pushing forward … keep being positive.”
• Adam Zielonka can be reached at azielonka@washingtontimes.com.
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