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With Baxi Ferrol about to play the EuroCup Women Final, Swish Appeal caught up with their rookie wing Moira Joiner, discussing her expectations for the big game, Ferrol’s positionless basketball and the team’s Cinderella run, which involved wins over traditional European powers Galatasaray and Lyon.
Joiner also shared memories from her early years in Saginaw, Michigan, as well as her time at Michigan State (2019-24). Below are some highlights from our conversation:
On concussions putting an end to her sophomore season at Michigan State:
That was probably one of the hardest years of my college career, or life honestly, because when I had multiple concussions, the doctors were like, “Okay, you’re done. You have to sit out the rest of the season.” What? Never. Then, come to find out, they were worried that I would never play basketball again. So they were trying to figure out, “Okay, is it worth trying to come back to play?” And in my mind, there was only one solution: Come back to play.
So I did a lot of what you call “brain therapy.” And it took so much patience. Because it’s not like you rolled an ankle or you tore something where you can see your muscles physically getting better. It was a lot of pressing myself to the limit and then stopping. I could ride a bike for five minutes and my head would start hurting and I’d have to stop for the whole day. And for me, who’s constantly working, it was so hard to be like, “Okay, that’s all my body could take for the day and now the next day I do something else.” And it wasn’t always physical therapy, either. It was playing mind games so my mind would, you know, fire more rapidly than it did from the concussion. And it was just a lot of mental patience and just having faith that I was going to make it back. It took at least six months of slow therapy until I got back to full health and I was able to come back and play.
On the 1 through 3 positions on Baxi Ferrol being interchangeable:
I think the coach decided to recruit me here because I fit his style of play. I like to run, I play defense. I’m interchangeable, as you’ve said. And yeah, the system is. Besides the 5 and maybe the post 4 player, who has to guard the other 4 on the floor, the 1 through 3 positions are pretty interchangeable, and then you can add the 4 in there sometimes. I just think that the system fits players who love to move a lot as well. And I think that makes it hard to guard.
On the expectations for the EuroCup Women Final against Villeneuve d’Ascq:
They’re a great team. Obviously, they made it to the Finals just like we did, so you always have to take them seriously. All this preparation is to try our best to stop what they do best, but I do think it’s going to be a great series. As our team, I think we have an advantage with speed and how we play in transition, and how we move the ball. So I think it’s going to be a little bit more of focusing on what we’ve been doing well to get to the Finals, and making sure we do that well.
A special thank you to Jeanne McNulty-King of 2X Inc. for arranging the interview.
