Women's hoops player leaving ODU for Hampton

JO GUILFORD
5'-10" R-JUNIOR GUARD
PORTSMOUTH, VA
PHOTO GALLERY
(Photo Courtesy ODU Athletics)

NORFOLK, Virginia - JoNiquia Guilford will play for the Hampton University women’s basketball team next season. She’s eager and excited for that opportunity. That much, she and Old Dominion head coach Karen Barefoot agree on. How she got there, well, that’s a different story.

Guilford is one of two Lady Monarchs players who were released from their scholarships and are set to transfer, joined by center Brittany Campbell.  But Guilford said she wishes she weren’t leaving the program.

Guilford and Roger Smith, her coach at Wilson High School in Portsmouth, say Guilford’s scholarship was pulled by Old Dominion. Barefoot says Guilford made the choice in the face of reduced playing time.

“It was taken away,” Smith said. “They released her. It was not her initiating the release. They were going in another direction. I know it’s a business. I don’t like how that it is, but it is. Her job depends on winning. I just don’t like how it was handled.”

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