Price contributing to wins
Mikail Price is the senior starting point guard for the most successful Nevada women’s basketball team in school history, but it almost didn’t happen.
“I wasn’t interested (in sports) after I graduated from high school,” Price said. “I wanted to focus on school. I didn’t want to play basketball at all. I didn’t even like track (in high school), but I did it.”
Price was captain of her high school basketball team, but when she got to Foothill Junior College she wanted to quit.
Price didn’t want to commit to any sport because of family issues, Foothill coach Jody Craig said.
She wanted to commit to education.
“Some schools just teach you the front story of history, but there’s always more to it than that,” Price, who enjoys going to museums and watching the History Channel, said. “I like the scandals and the conspiracies. Like ‘who shot JFK?’
“I’m always interested in learning. It’s good to be informed. It’s not good to be ignorant.”
Craig didn’t want Price to just sit in the classroom. She wanted her on the court.
“I just pointed out what she was giving up,” Craig said. “She needed a place to settle down and refind her love of basketball.”
Price was awarded first-team All-Conference her freshman and sophomore years at Foothill. She also won the Coast-Confer 2005-06.
“She would take a lot of hits,” Craig said. “We played one conference game (against the College of San Mateo) and she went up against one of the best guards in the conference. (San Mateo) used a lot of on ball screens and Price had to run through about 30 to 40 in one game.
“She was getting banged up but she held the guard under her average, while adding more than 30 points (for us). She would get knocked down but she would always get right back up,” Craig said.
Price said that her success in junior college left her hungry for the Division 1-A experience.
“She always hustles,” coach Kim Gervasoni said. “Her defense was what impressed me. I knew she would fit well in our system.
“She had a limited role for us last year, though. It took me a while to figure her out.”
Price played in every game for the Pack last season, but only started in three.
“It was frustrating,” Price said.
She averaged 13 minutes per game.
“(Even through tough times) she’s always positive,” Nevada guard Dellena Criner said. “She is good at turning things into jokes.”
Her sharp wit always has her teammates in stitches, Gervasoni said.
“She busts us up with her ‘moral of the story’ jokes,” Nevada guard Johnna Ward said. “If someone throws the ball out of bounds for a turnover she will say ‘moral of the story, don’t throw the ball out of bounds.’
“It’s silly, but it cracks us up.”
Price has excelled her senior year for an improved Pack.
Her minutes per game have doubled and her point total (10.2 ppg) has tripled. Price is fourth in the Western Athletic Conference in steals per game (2.18), but defense was expected by Gervasoni—offense wasn’t.
The 5-foot-7 guard has excelled at attacking the basket and getting to the line. Price went to the line for 18 free throws, Jan. 26, against WAC elite New Mexico State. After Criner got in foul trouble, against the team with the best overall record in the WAC, Price led the Pack with 20 points in the overtime victory. She ranks seventh in the conference in free throw shooting with 75 percent.
Price and the Pack are one game out of first place in the WAC standings. There are six games left in the regular season before Nevada heads to Las Cruces, New Mexico for the WAC tournament.
The only senior starter on the team relishes the fact that, after all she has been through, this will be her final season.
“Hopefully we can take this team to its first ever NCAA tournament,” Price said.
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