Terrapin women’s basketball guard Natasha Cloud will transfer from the university before the fall semester for family reasons, coach Brenda Frese confirmed Wednesday.
Cloud, a rising sophomore from Broomall, Pa., recently learned that one of her three sisters was diagnosed with stomach cancer. Her father’s continued struggle with dementia, which Frese said is likely leading to Alzheimer’s disease, also helped Cloud decide she wanted to be closer to her family.
“She’s trying to transfer back close to home,” Frese said. “Obviously, we support it and want to wish her all the best.”
As she seeks a hardship waiver — which would allow her to play in the upcoming season rather than sit out a year, as required of most transfers — Cloud might consider Villanova and St. Joseph’s, two schools within eight miles of her Philadelphia-suburb hometown.
Her departure leaves the Terps with little depth at point guard. While rising senior Anjale Barrett will likely return to her starting job, the departures of Cloud and Dara Taylor — who left for Penn State — puts only incoming freshman Brene Moseley behind Barrett on the depth chart.
And while Moseley is still recovering from a torn ACL, Frese is confident the highly touted Burtonsville native will be at 100 percent for the start of the season.
“All indications are she’s ahead of course,” Frese told TerrapinTimes.com, an affiliate of Rivals.com. “She has been released to work and [strength and conditioning coach] Kyle [Tarp] said she picks up things really fast. She’s going to have a big presence for us. She’s a scoring point guard and fun with the ball in her hands. She’s someone our fans are going enjoy watching play.”
cwalsh@umdbk.com
