Jerry Carino

@njhoopshaven

Although they may threaten and delay and even impose conditions, college sports teams rarely block someone from transferring to play elsewhere.

Rarer still -- virtually unheard of -- is a college blocking a transfer who already has a degree.

The case of Daisha Simmons, then, is like Halley's comet.

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The former all-state guard at Gill St. Bernard's, who spent her first collegiate season at Rutgers before transferring to Alabama, has been stymied by the Crimson Tide in her attempt to finish out her career as a postgrad at Seton Hall.

"It's a travesty," her mother Christine Simmons said. "She gave 100 percent on the court and she graduated. It's very spiteful."

Simmons is enrolled at Seton Hall taking courses toward an MBA. She is on scholarship and can practice with the Pirates, but cannot play in games. Under normal circumstances, Alabama's refusal to approve the transfer would spell the end of her career. But upon reviewing Simmons' case the NCAA issued an extraordinary compromise, allowing Simmons to fulfill her final season of eligibility next year---in 2015-16.

"The NCAA has made its decision in this case, and The University of Alabama considers this matter closed," Alabama spokesman Doug Walker said in a statement to Gannett New Jersey.

But Simmons and those around her do not consider it closed. They view it as Exhibit A of a broken-down system in need of reform.

"It's unfair that coaches can leave without an issue, but when a player decides to leave they have to go through this kind of situation," said Simmons, who endured a coaching change after her first season at Alabama. "Coaches have too much power over their players. It's not right."

Better to come home

After scoring a Somerset County-record 2,488 points at Gill St. Bernard's, Simmons spent a nondescript season at Rutgers (2.4 points, 2.4 rebounds per game), then headed south to Alabama. She sat out 2011-12 per NCAA transfer rules and blossomed the following winter, averaging 12.4 points, 3.8 assists and 2.1 steals.

Last season Simmons got even better, posting 13.8 points and 4.3 assists per game. She recorded Alabama's first triple-double since 1998. The Crimson Tide finished 14-16 under first-year head coach Kristy Curry. Simmons graduated with a degree in business.

But issues lingered beneath the surface. Simmons' 32-year-old brother Chaz has end-stage renal disease and requires kidney dialysis several times per week. Simmons also wanted to pursue an MBA during her postgrad season, but was not accepted into Alabama's program.

"With the family issues on top of the MBA situation, I decided it was better for me to come home," she said.

This was late May. Though April is the most popular month for transfers, it's not unusual for players to leave right up until the start of July's academic summer session.

But Curry balked, and Alabama's brass backed her up.

"Given the timing that she wanted to transfer left little or no time for the women's basketball team to make alternate plans to replace her," Alabama director of athletics Bill Battle wrote in a letter explaining Alabama's refusal to sign off on the transfer.

Seton Hall's written appeal to the NCAA said such a stance was particularly hypocritical when "Alabama is benefiting from this same waiver process with a men's football transfer (graduate Jake Coker) vying for the starting quarterback position who was granted the ability to play immediately because Florida State supported his transfer."

The same week Simmons decided to transfer, Kansas State conceded to withering national criticism and allowed standout guard Leticia Romero to leave. The school originally declined to approve her transfer even though the coaching staff had just been fired.

That's how the occasional uproar over transfer blockades typically end---with the school letting go. Not this time.

"I've been a head coach for 23 years and I've never seen an instance like this in my career," Seton Hall coach Tony Bozzella said. "I've never even heard of an instance like this, where someone wants to leave a program for educational and family-related reasons and does not get released. I don't understand it."

A double standard

Simmons' coach at Gill St. Bernard's, Mergin Sina, said Alabama exploited a rotten system.

"These kids are at such a disadvantage when they sign that letter of intent -- they don't tell you the whole thing," Sina said. "There's so much stuff that kids don't know, and they get trapped and they don't realize they can't get out of it."

Sina has sent several players to Division I programs over the past decade; his son Jaren is a sophomore guard for Seton Hall's men. Too many college coaches, he said, demand loyalty without reciprocating.

"Considering that coaches push kids out (by not renewing scholarships), and they're doing it a lot more these days, that's shameful," Mergin Sina said. "I won't name schools, but I get phone calls from coaches saying, 'Give me two weeks and I'll clear out a roster spot.' So it's a double standard. The kids have minimal say in their future."

Simmons is uncertain what her future holds. Seton Hall has offered her a scholarship for two years, long enough to complete her MBA coursework in 2016. But she is 23 years old and was banking on playing this season so she could hold a job next year while finishing up school.

"My mother is currently working two jobs with diminishing health issues and my brother's heath is also declining each day as he awaits a kidney transplant," Simmons wrote in a letter to the NCAA. "So not being able to work full time for another year will put my family in great despair."

Simmons has retained an attorney. Three weeks ago she sent one final appeal to Battle.

"I don't understand why the quarterback on the football team was allowed to be a graduate transfer and play right away but I am not being allowed to do the same," she wrote. "I love the people and time I spent at Alabama and I don't want this to end the wrong way, but my mother and I are prepared to do whatever we need to for me to play this year, and we won't stop fighting until it happens."

Staff writer Jerry Carino: Jcarino@MyCentralJersey.com