COVID-19 brought these Fresno State players back home, and is keeping them from it
It’s an odd twist. The COVID-19 pandemic that played large for Deon Stroud and Isaiah Hill when they were deciding to transfer to Fresno State – to transfer home, really – has also been keeping them from setting foot on campus or starting practices with the Bulldogs.
The NCAA cleared the way for student-athletes in football and men’s and women’s basketball to return to campus on June 1 for voluntary workouts, but more than one month later Fresno State has yet to reopen, awaiting approval from the California State University system and state officials.
So Stroud, a transfer from Texas-El Paso who is from Fresno, is in Los Angeles, working out with a trainer, getting up shots.
Hill, a Tulsa transfer, is at home in Bakersfield where he set a Liberty High scoring record with 1,822 points, getting in the gym five days a week.
Both, waiting for a homecoming that has been months in the making.
“It’s going to mean a lot,” said Hill, who last season played in 31 games with seven starts on a Tulsa team that was 21-10 and finished in a three-way tie for first place in the American Athletic Conference.
“My family gets to come to the games. I feel more comfortable where I am now. It’s an all around great thing …”
Stroud’s uncle: Carl Ray Harris
For Stroud, who played his freshman and sophomore seasons in high school at San Joaquin Memorial, the Fresno State connection runs deep.
The 6-foot-5 guard is the nephew of former Bulldogs star Carl Ray Harris, who ranks fifth on the school’s all-time scoring list with 1,583 points in just 93 games from 1991 to ’94, playing in front of close to 10,000 a night at the downtown Selland Arena.
“My uncle played in previous years, set records and stuff I feel like I can reach those,” Stroud said.. “But the feeling, that’s the most important thing to me … the Save Mart Center. I feel like there’s nothing like playing at home. That home feeling is different.
“I’m really looking forward to seeing myself with Fresno across my chest. I think that’s a different statement. Hometown kid … I’m just liking the hometown vibe, to be honest with you.”
Transfer waiver requests in works
COVID-19 was a push in that direction for Stroud and Hill, who will each need to obtain a transfer waiver to be eligible to play this season, whenever it might come during a pandemic.
Hill remembers traveling to the American Athletic Conference Tournament back in March and once arriving, being told that the event had been canceled.
“It was scary at first – nobody knew what was going on,” he said. “Somebody on our campus got it. I know people back home who got it. It was just getting out of hand. That’s when I decided I had to get back home. I just wanted to make sure I was close to my family during a time like that.”
What’s next is what they have been waiting for since committing to the Bulldogs in the spring.
Coach Justin Hutson this season has some guards to replace, after Jarred Hyder transferred to Cal and Niven Hart decided to hire an agent and remain in the 2020 NBA Draft after just one season of college basketball.
The pieces still are scattered, the players working out at home during the coronavirus pandemic. But that can change soon and Fresno State, an athletics department source said, is in the process of putting together and filing those transfer waiver requests.
“It has been awhile since I played in Fresno,” Stroud said. “My first idea was to go to Fresno State but the coach (Rodney Terry) had left and he went to UTEP, and I had a relationship with him, first. I felt I should continue that relationship. After two years, I felt like that wasn’t the best place for me and with everything going on with COVID, I wanted to try some place closer to home.
“I thought it was a great idea to come back, to be closer to family. I always wanted to play at the Save Mart Center.”
This story was originally published July 7, 2020 at 4:29 PM.