LANCASTER, Calif. -- The Antelope Valley basketball teams know it will be their "Last Dance" in the NAIA men's national tournament next week. It doesn't matter if UAV falls to Huntington (Indiana) in the opening round Friday or runs the table and wins the whole thing — when the season concludes, the basketball program ends with it.
The private for-profit university is no longer in operation after the California Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education issued an emergency decision to "cease operation of all degree programs" last week because of financial mismanagement. UAV men's basketball coach Jordan Mast privately fundraised more than $47,000 on GoFundMe to help his team and the women's basketball program finish their respective seasons at the conference and national tournaments.
The school is now offering online-only instruction after it lost its on-ground campus. Many professors at the university quit. Employees at UAV — including Mast — received only 25% of their gross salary in cash and the rest in stock from Genius Group Limited — a Singapore-based firm that acquired the university in 2022.
"The analogy of a rollercoaster ride is very true in this situation," Mast told CBS Sports last week. "The highs are we continue to play at a high level and win basketball games. You are experiencing that stuff that's supposed to be all positive. But then the lows are the reality that sets in. Where are these guys going? How are they finishing their degree program? Are we going to be able to continue? Are there enough funds?"
When Mast's team returned home from winning the Cal Pac conference tournament title to Southern California last week, he got the keys back to their home gym — literally and figuratively. The locks for the Pioneer Events Center changed because they lost the facility from the university.
The founders of UAV, Marco and Sandra Johnson, are allowing both the men's and women's teams to practice inside its own basketball gym for the remainder of the season. The Johnsons remained landlords of the campus they founded in 1997, which opened the path for the basketball team to remain a tenant.
"Really awkward, you got your key taken away and now you get it (back) during the same season," Mast said. "It's really given us more peace knowing we are not going to have to be driving around to different high schools and different places to try and find a place to practice. We get to finish the season at our home court and our home base."
When UAV's season inviability ends, there will be questions looming over the program. Can seniors on the roster finish their degrees? Will credits transfer to a different institution? Where do the players who have eligibility remaining go? The transfer portal isn't as rampant at lower levels of college basketball compared to Division l. While players may test the waters to play at a higher level in college basketball, most remain with the program for three or four seasons — leaving multiple players on UAV without a home for next season.
Two of UAV's players are international student-athletes — one of which is former four-star recruit Sam Onu, who played at Memphis and Florida Gulf Coast before finding a home at the NAIA school in Southern California. Onu is one of many who have had their door handle removed outside his dorm. Players have created makeshift openings so they can access their living spaces. The power and internet inside the dorms have been spotty at best.
This is all happening in the background while the players are trying to compete for a national championship.
"It's been terrible living in the dorm rooms," Onu said. "I'm worried because I'm hearing we have to move out by the end of the semester I'm guessing something like that. So (I'm) trying to figure out where I'm staying. Coach (Mast) has been doing everything in his power to make sure we are taken care of. But yes, I am worried about where we are going to stay (after the season)."
The other intentional player on the roster is Erik Nicholas — a junior forward who grew up in Belize. Nicholas has some family that lives nearby in Los Angeles, but there is distress about where he will go when the school inviability kicks the students out of the dorms.
"Being an International student is different because I can't just drive 30 minutes home," Nicholas said. "I have to catch a flight to go home. That's what makes it different. ... (Because) I'm an International student, I have nowhere to go to (if we get kicked out)."
UAV star guard Michael Hayes - the two-time Cal Pac Player of the Year - has a different worry. Will he get to walk the stage at graduation? Hayes didn't walk at his own high school graduation for what he calls "his (own) fault." Hayes didn't get a chance to walk at his graduation from Las Positas College - a community college in Northern California - due to COVID-19.
Hayes likely won't get to walk the stage at his final destination because the school is no longer in operation.
"It sucks that we might not even have a stage to walk on," Hayes said. "I've been waiting so long (to do that). ... I was really expecting to walk the stage this year. I was excited for it. It's a good feeling when your folks ask you when do you get to walk the stage. I don't know (when or if that will happen). I will still get my degree online. It's still a degree in my eyes."
People within the program are essentially volunteering their time to make a run at a championship. UAV is currently on a 10-game winning streak and has a 26-4 overall record heading into the tournament.
The gym is secured. Players know for now where they're going to sleep at night. Thoughts about how people within the program will make a living or where players with eligibility will play college basketball next season are on a temporary pause because basketball players have a chance to do something that happens frequently in Southern California at a school on the verge of no longer existing: Create a Hollywoodesque ending by winning a championship.
"When we initially found out the news, you saw a lot of worried guys that were concerned about housing, gym, and everything else," Mast said. "I would be a liar if I said we looked like a good basketball team (during that time) because we looked poor. But when we got some answers that we would be able to finish (the season) as far as we raised the funds, you have a roof over your head, you have a gym - you saw a team transition to its 'us against the world' mentality."
