On Saturday, April 5, the Troy Trojans will play the Buffalo Bison in the WNIT Championship, marking the first time a Troy Women’s Basketball Team has ever competed for a postseason championship. 

Coming into the tournament, head coach Chanda Rigby’s message to her team was all about second chances and becoming “Masters of Second Chances.” She talked to her team about the many jobs she applied to before finally landing the job at Troy as a part of that message. 

“This has been an incredible life lesson that we are living through with this WNIT Tournament,” Rigby said. “It’s such a powerful lesson to learn when you don’t get what you want the first time, you don’t get that job the first time you applied for, you keep going. If things don’t work out that first time, we really believe we have become Masters of Second Chances. 

“That’s where a lot of opportunities come in life. It’s not the first chance, it’s about getting back up and fighting for that second or third or even fourth chance. Briana Jackson texted me yesterday and talked about being masters of second chances. She was talking about what it meant to her to take this lesson forward in life and to always be looking to make the most of the second chances. She said, ‘Coach Rigby, if it wasn’t enough look at what we’ve done. We had to play in two overtimes to get here.’ Everything we’re doing is reiterated and putting exclamation points on us becoming Masters of Second Chances. I’m really proud of that, I’m proud of this opportunity that Troy University has afforded these young women.” 

The Troy team has had to overcome some extreme adversity during this tournament. The game against Buffalo will be Troy’s third in six days and the Trojans will have traveled 3,000 miles during that stretch. Troy started the season off with eight straight road games – including a trip to Alaska – and Rigby said she feels that helped prepare her Trojans for this tournament.

“That was a long stretch to never have a home game,” she said. “God works in mysterious ways and prepares us for things when maybe we didn’t know what was going on. That definitely prepared us looking back.”

Rigby said that at some point during the season she said she felt that she needed to stop talking about conference championships and talk about national championships.

“Several months ago I felt like I needed to stop saying the words ‘Conference Championship’ and replace that with ‘National Championship,’ For awhile there’s people laughing at you,” she continued. “I understand why, it’s a Power 4 world in the NCAA Tournament, but who would have thought we would be here getting ready to compete for a national championship in the WNIT?” 

Troy’s focus is now on Buffalo, the same team the Trojans opened the season with. Troy lost a heartbreaker to Buffalo 80-78 in Buffalo, N.Y., back on Nov. 4, 2024, to kick off the season.

“We started our season at Buffalo and I don’t know that (Troy) had ever played Buffalo before and I know that I had never coached against them,” Rigby said. “It’s ironic that we had never played them before and this year we will have started and ended the season against them.”

Rigby said that both teams are different now than they were back in November.

“We didn’t know our identity back then and were all over the place and they’ve changed a lot and have found themselves,” she said. “They’re a very good transition, put it on the floor and go to the rim type of team. They have one of the best scorers in the nation with (Chellia) Watson. We’re very aware of those things.

“I feel like they respect our post play, which has been our bread and butter this season, but since the new season started in the WNIT we’ve gotten a lot better shooting from the permitter. Both teams want to keep the tempo up a bit and have their own weapons. We’re just really blessed and proud to be in this game.”
Troy and Buffalo will tipoff at 4 p.m. on Saturday in a game that will air nationally on the CBS Sports Network with the opportunity to bring the first postseason championship in Troy Basketball history. 

“I would probably get choked up to talk about what it really means to us to represent Troy in a national championship game for the WNIT,” she emphasized. “We always say we want to be a proper representation of the institution we represent and the school we love. The only proper way to represent Troy is with championships.”