Mulkey doesn’t let break derail season
felt like a freak accident but nearly cost her the season.
Rice center Nancy Mulkey transferred from Oklahoma in 2017 and sat out a year due to NCAA transfer rules. After ranking fifth in the Big 12 in blocks per game, Mulkey was poised to be a central part of the Owls’ success this season before she fell and fractured her wrist during a preseason practice in late October.
As she sat in the emergency room, she anxiously awaited the results.
“I just cried,” she said. “I was freaking out. They said you have to have surgery, that’s the quickest way.”
“The thought of possibly having to redshirt again, I couldn’t even describe how upset I was because this was something you couldn’t even prevent. I rolled my ankle and fell, you barely brace yourself and break your wrist.”
At 6-9, Mulkey was considered one of the best centers in the country coming out of Cypress Woods High School, where she won a Class 6A state championship with current teammate Erica Ogwumike in 2015.
Mulkey went on to Oklahoma and started 18 games and averaged 1.9 blocks per contest. She recorded the third-most blocks by an Oklahoma freshman (62) and tied for the seventhmost blocks by a Sooner in a single-season.
A year after Ogwumike and her sister Olivia transferred to South Main, Mulkey joined them. The sisters spoke glowingly of Rice, and the school’s proximity to the Texas Medical Center boded well for a prospective occupational therapist.
Mulkey spent the next year trying to get bigger and stronger.
“My stamina was one of the biggest things I wanted to work on, so I’ve definitely improved there and just getting stronger in general,” she said. “To see where I’ve come from just coming in this year to now, there’s definitely been a lot of improvement.”
That growth added to the excitement of her would-be debut, which was slated to be against a Top 25 Texas A&M team on Nov. 7. Instead, she missed the first month of the season.
“They said let’s just wait until we see Dr. (Shari) Liberman, the orthopedic surIt geon. She said that it’s usually a minimum of three months,” Mulkey said of the initial diagnosis. “I had to have surgery. Two weeks later, I went back and got the splint off.”
In the three weeks that followed, Mulkey worked to recapture the range of motion in her right wrist through twice-daily rehab.
Five weeks after the injury, the doctor tested her grip strength in both wrists and found them to be comparable. In December, six weeks after the fracture, Mulkey was cleared to return to basketball-related activities.
“To just beat that time frame of three months — I was able to play in six weeks, I worked incredibly hard to come back,” Mulkey said. “To know that I didn’t miss nearly as much as I thought I would miss means a lot.”
Mulkey played 19 minutes, recording 14 points and 5 blocks in her Rice debut against SMU on Dec. 15. The next game she recorded a season-low two points in a loss to North Carolina.
Since then, the team hasn’t lost.
“When we first arrived, we didn’t have a center,” coach Tina Langley said of Mulkey’s impact. “As she’s come on, we’ve tried to adapt so that we fit all personnel. She’s incredibly talented. I think she’s one of the best centers in the country and can do so many things well.”
Mulkey averages 13.7 points and 5.6 rebounds per game. But she’s arguably at her best overseeing the post on defense, where she’s blocked eight shots on three different occasions.
Her nine blocks against UAB on Jan. 26 reset her own school record. Despite playing eight fewer games than the nation’s leader, Mulkey ranks fourth in the country in total blocked shots and would lead the nation in blocks per game (3.87) if she had played enough games to qualify.
That impact earned Mulkey the Conference USA Defensive Player of the Year award and first team all-conference honors. Heading into the NCAA tournament, she’s hoping to exert her influence against Power Five programs again. First-round opponent Marquette’s tallest player is 6-4.
“C-USA is very competitive, but to get back playing Power Five schools is definitely going to be fun,” she said, before reflecting on the moment and her journey back to the court.
“If you asked me a year ago if I would be in this position, I probably couldn’t tell you yes,” she said. “That’s what I want people to know. Even though the previous history of this injury (suggests) you’re going to be out three months, anything is possible.”