June 25, 2009
Rhoads (10) pictured in top row, second from the right (Photo by IPFW)
When Jence Rhoads hits the court of Memorial Gym this season, she’ll have some added international flavor to her game.
Rhoads traveled to Austria, Italy and the Czech Republic as part of Athletes International, a non-profit organization that gives American athletes in over a dozen different sports a chance to play around the world, in early June.
She had to raise $4,000 over several months to fund her excursion to Europe but the trip was well worth it.
“Somebody e-mailed me and asked if I would be interested in playing overseas, going on a team to play over there,” Rhoads said. “I felt that would be a really cool experience.”
It was indeed cool but also jarringly different from the rough-and-tumble Southeastern Conference.
“International play is a lot different,” Rhoads said. “Less physical, they call fouls all the time, they pass a lot more, they don’t dribble as much. SEC play is definitely more physical. I learned different things just to be able to play against people who don’t speak my language.”
It was her first experience abroad that she could remember, since her only other time in Europe was a trip to France when she was in pre-school. That being said, her favorite place on the trip wasn’t because of the basketball there.
“We spent the most time in Austria so that was probably my favorite,” Rhoads said. “In Italy, we went to Venice so that was pretty cool too. But I really liked Austria, it was very pretty.”
A point guard by trade, Rhoads also used the opportunity abroad to play some shooting guard. That should come in handy in the upcoming season as Rhoads will be leaned on more to help shoulder some of the scoring load for Vanderbilt, now that top scorer Christina Wirth has moved on to the WNBA.
Rhoads displayed flashes of that ability last season, putting up a career-high 16 points in Vanderbilt’s upset of then-No. 3 Auburn on Feb. 19, and going 6-12 from the field to score 15 points, second-best on the team, in the SEC tournament semifinal victory over LSU.
Rhoads played in all 35 games last year with 22 starts, leading the team with 3.8 assists per game while also shooting an impressive 50 percent from the field. Perhaps her most impressive statistic was her 2.49 assist-to-turnover ratio, good for third in the entire nation.
