The Florida Gators women’s basketball team was the #23 team in the country and depth seemed to be a huge benefit to a team hoping to make a deep run in the SEC Tournament and even into the NCAA tournament.
However, on December 11, all that changed. Gators head coach Amanda Butler informed the world that Florida’s leading scorer, Eleanna Christinaki had quit on her team after not accepting a first half suspension. The Gators defeated North Carolina A&T soundly in Panama City that afternoon, but clearly the momentum wasn’t the same.
It was assumed that Christinaki was home-sick and it made the situation much worse than it should have been. It was also assumed that Christinaki was going back to Greece, where she is a member of the Greek National Team.
On Thursday, Christinaki posted a photo on her official Facebook account that said “New Challenges.” The accompanying photo was of Christinaki in a basketball pose wearing a Univeristy of Maryland basketball uniform.
It appears that Christinaki will be a member of the Terrapins after sitting out for the required one year for transferring.
Christinaki led Florida with a 17.6 PPG average as a sophomore. She will have two years of eligibility upon transferring.
*It should be noted that we could not use the photo from the Facebook account, due to privacy rights.
Also, since Christinaki quit, senior Ronni Williams has emerged. Williams has long been a leader, but her stats have really heated up since Christinaki left.