3 College basketball stars who medically retired from NCAA athletics ft. Ava Jones
Playing for your college basketball team is the dream of every basketball player who wants to fulfill his/her dream of playing in the NBA/WNBA. Moreover, the ultimate dream is to retire as a legend of the game.
However, some players had their ultimate dream come to an end in college after retiring due to an injury or any other medical reason. In this article, let's have a look at three basketball stars who medically retired from NCAA athletics in the past.
3 College basketball stars who medically retired from NCAA athletics
Chase Jeter
Chase Jeter started his collegiate career with Duke in 2015 and played there for two seasons while averaging 2.1 ppg. After two seasons, he entered the transfer portal and committed to the Arizona Wildcats and was redshirted for his first season with them.
In the 2018-19 season, he made his debut for the Wildcats. He played in 26 games that season and 16 games in the following while averaging nine points per game for the program.
Fewer starts in his second season for the team were a result of a series of injuries that ultimately led to his medical retirement in 2020 after being undrafted in the NBA draft that year.
Austin Hatch
Austin Hatch played for the Michigan Wolverines as a freshman in the 2014-15 season. He starred in only five games for the program and averaged 0.2 ppg. Before he could continue to pursue his basketball dream, he survived two plane crashes, which, unfortunately, killed a few members of his family.
It was followed by severe injuries and trauma that he faced in his life, ultimately leading to his medical retirement from basketball in college.
Ava Jones
Iowa basketball player Ava Jones featured in the 2023-24 roster for the program but announced her medical retirement from college basketball on Friday.
Two years ago, Jones and her family were in an accident that killed her father. The accident left Jones with a traumatic brain injury, torn ligaments, shoulder injury and more
Since then, she has not been at her best, and after consulting with doctors, she retired from college basketball while retaining her scholarship to continue her studies.