Treece finds true passion
McKenna Treece has become a color analyst on radio broadcasts after medically retiring from OU basketball.
Sometime before Oklahoma and Baylor tip off Monday (8 p.m., FS1), McKenna Treece will take her seat on the sideline in Waco, Texas.
She’s listed on the Oklahoma women’s basketball roster as a senior center, but she won’t be in a Sooner uniform or sitting in the row of seats designated for the team.
Instead, she’ll be just a few feet away, sitting in front of audio equipment, dressed in business casual and wearing a headset.
Though a birth deformity in her hips forced her to medically retire from her playing career, Treece is staying in the game as Oklahoma’s color analyst on radio broadcasts and as a mentor to her teammates.
“She’s bridging the gap between player and professional adult in the real world,” coach Sherri Coale said.
Treece never planned to get into broadcasting.
In a perfect world, she would pursue a career in physical therapy after playing four seasons of college basketball with the Sooners.
But when chronic pain led to the discovery of a birth deformity that was causing arthritis in both of her hips, Treece knew that things weren’t going to go as planned.
After 2½ seasons of playing through the pain, Treece made the decision last January to medically retire after her junior season. She finished her collegiate career with 180 points scored over 78 games.
“We just kind of decided between the doctors and myself and my parents that my body wasn’t going to last one more season,” she said. “And if it did, it wasn’t going to be worth the pain that I would be in every day.”
But she wasn’t ready to leave the game entirely.
Because she struggled in a chemistry course, she knew that becoming a physical therapist with all of its science requirements might not work out. So she started looking at other paths that could still keep her involved with athletics.
After the Sooners lost to Washington in the NCAA Tournament last year, Treece’s season continued at the Chesapeake Energy Arena. She shadowed Tyler Pigg, Oklahoma associate director of athletics communications, and got a taste of what working in sports media relations would be like during the NCAA Tournament Regional.
Her internship with OU’s athletic communications department continued into the fall, and once basketball season began, she added another responsibility in working with the radio broadcast team.
There, she found her true passion.
“The radio part of it has been what I’ve fallen in love with,” she said. “That’s what I’m going to try to do what I go to grad school, work on broadcasting, whether that be radio or TV.”
All season, she’s been the color analyst alongside a rotating cast of play-byplay announcers.
With no real way to practice, her first game on the air was baptism by fire. But she soon got the hang of it.
“You have to be in the flow of the moment,” she said. “And I have never done it before, never had any practice. Chris Plank was the play-by-play. He made it super easy for me, and (basketball) is just something I’ve done forever, so now I get to talk about it and tell everyone else about it.”
Treece never wanted to stop playing basketball, but by taking this path, she’s getting a head start on adulthood.
“It’s like she gets to start at second base,” Coale said. “That’s the silver lining to all this. That’s the privilege of it all, the experience that you can’t put a price tag on.”
If all goes as planned, she’ll graduate with a bachelor’s degree in May and stay at Oklahoma for another year to get a graduate degree in Intercollegiate Athletic Administration.
Not playing basketball is still hard, but Treece knows it’s for the best. Though she isn’t practicing anymore, she’s still in constant pain. In May, she’ll have her right hip replaced.
“If anything, I don’t have to rehab as hard because I’m coming back to play,” Treece said with a chuckle. “I don’t have to be in basketball shape. That’s almost reassuring.”