Just over a decade after helping North Dakota make the NCAA Tournament, Mia Loyd, a 5-foot-11 forward who was a three-time All-Big Sky selection during her tenure with the Fighting Hawks (2012-13), won a championship in Latvia, helping lead TTT Riga to the title while also winning numerous Women’s Baltic Basketball League awards along the way.
And yet, the Minnesota native calls Australia home. She currently is playing Down Under, representing Cairns in the NBL1 semi-pro league.
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She recently spoke to Swish Appeal about her far-flung, highly-successful hooping experiences, in addition to how she has become a more complete player. Some highlights from the conversation include:
On becoming a part of history with North Dakota making March Madness in 2014:
North Dakota was a Division II school for a while, but they had racked up a lot of championships, so it’s not like the team and the school and the women’s program were not known for a winning culture. Obviously, my first year was a bit rough as a freshman because we had just gotten into the conference [the Big Sky]. But once that sophomore year hit, I think everybody kind of got on board and was like, “Okay, we have a very, very talented team. Let’s just take it and and go from there,” and that’s what we did. And I thought that it was awesome to be a part of history. I get goosebumps thinking about that [Big Sky] championship game.
On the season she had at TTT Riga in Latvia, winning Player of the Year, Import Player of the Year, Forward of the Year and Finals MVP
We did have some unfortunate things kind of happen as far as injuries go. When it came to the Baltic League Finals, one of the imports that we brought in, she ended up breaking her wrist. I ended up pulling my hamstring. So it was just a domino effect of unfortunate events, but at the same time, we still ended in our Baltic League at third place, and then we obviously won the Latvian league, so it was it was just awesome to kind of go throughout that whole season with the ups and downs and still finish with two medals.
As far as our Euro Cup goes, I think we could have done a little bit better, but overall I would say I’m very pleased. I haven’t had a a breakout season like that in a while. So I would say that was one of my best seasons in Europe so far and I’m very pleased with myself and happy. But I was surrounded by a great team who was able to help me achieve those awards. I wouldn’t have been able to do it if I didn’t have the point guard that I had or the shooting guard that I had or, you know, forwards that I have as well to play off of. So I think it was an awesome year.
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A special thank you to Maxym Lejeune of LBM Management for arranging the interview.
