A Closer Look - Season 2 (Kate Duff)
Coming to the United States from a foreign land to pursue a dream has to be tough. Even tougher, however, is to come from a country where one plays a sport that is not pushed as heavily as another.
Growing up, USC Aiken women’s basketball junior Kate Duff saw her older brother playing basketball and fell in love with it despite one of Australia’s national pastimes for women being netball, among other sports.
Netball is a game with seven players on a side that is similar to basketball with the exception being the player receiving the ball must stand still until they have passed it to another player. There is also no backboard, among several other rules that are different from basketball, but the sport is renowned in Australia.
“I never wanted to play netball,” Duff said. “I didn’t think it was a very physical game and the players wear dresses.”
Instead, Duff started playing basketball on a mixed team when she was five years old. She always played against guys and loved the sport – although she participated in several sports growing up.
“I was the only person out of my friends that played basketball and I stuck with it,” Duff stated. “There are not really many opportunities back home to play basketball, so I always knew I wanted to come to the United States to play.”
Once she decided on the journey in front of her, Duff still had to find the path to get her to the collegiate level playing basketball.
“It was pretty hard to do since not many people from Australia played college ball,” Duff said. “I had no idea where I wanted to go in the United States. I was in the process of talking to coaches and getting my film out there. I narrowed it down to schools in California, South Carolina and Florida.
“I wanted to go anywhere where it was hot,” Duff continued. “I was going to go to New Jersey and that fell through in late July and the process became quite hectic. I thought I would have to wait until the next year to continue my dream, but I e-mailed Coach Brandt and he e-mailed me back within minutes. We spoke on the phone and I signed to come here a few days later. After that, I booked a flight the following day.”
Duff had done her research on USC Aiken prior to reaching out to the institution.
“I looked into all the different schools and I came across USC Aiken,” Duff stated. “I saw the gym, the pictures of the Convocation Center, saw how the team was performing over the recent years and what majors the school offered. It had everything I wanted.”
She had to fend off another school in the state that wanted her, but Duff wanted something different. The other school had multiple players from Duff’s native Australia and she wanted to explore something completely new.
As a freshman, Duff saw time in all 29 games, earning six starts. She averaged just under five points per game and led the team with 39 steals. Duff had a solid assist-to-turnover ratio, which was outstanding due to the tough nature of the schedule.
“It was very exciting to come in as a freshman,” Duff said. “I had to prove myself and I didn’t expect to play at all. The level of competition was a lot better than in Perth. I learned a lot from the upperclassmen that year.”
As a sophomore, Duff helped power the team to an 18-12 mark and a second-place finish in the PBC East Division. She totaled 6.6 points a game and was third on the team with 42 steals. Her foul shooting improved from the previous year and Duff started to become more of a complete player.
“I knew how good the competition was and I knew how good our team could be,” Duff stated. “I tried to improve as much as I could and help the team in any way possible last year.”
Duff has seen time in every game this season and has started more contests this year than her two previous years combined.
“We have high expectations for this season,” Duff said as she recently came off a 10-point performance in the win over UNC Pembroke. “We haven’t reached our expectations yet, but we know that this team has a lot of talent. We are trying to get better and we know as a team that we can win a lot of games.”
Duff is one of five juniors on the team and looks to become more of a leader on the squad – both in the way she performs and vocally.
“I don’t talk much and let others speak up,” Duff commented. “Being a senior next year, I’m going to have to be more of a leader. I have to work on being more confident and getting stronger.”
As well as she’s performed throughout her time at USC Aiken, basketball is not the end of the line for Duff in the United States if she can fulfill her goals.
She wants to stay in the United States and get a green card. Duff hopes to go to graduate school in the United States, but it depends on her application with the green card lottery, which she’s applied to a couple of times already.
Should she be able to pursue her graduate degree, Duff wants to eventually become a stenographer.
“When I was young, I had a lady that watched me from time to time. She was a stenographer and she loved what she did,” Duff said. “I’ve always been interested in that field.”
As far as Duff has come, her goals are now within sight. She will help lead the Pacers for the next 15 months before embarking on her next journey. Duff has traveled thousands of miles to get to Aiken, but she has no thoughts on her journey being over. The goals and expectations she has for the team and herself are now within reach.
