With the kids and her teammates all departed, Singer had gone into the stands to make a FaceTime call with one of her friends back in Israel and share some thoughts on her life among the bricks and ivy of Miami, which is some 6,000 miles – and seven time zones – away from her home.
There was a hint of homesickness in her tone as she ended her call with a “Love you, too.”
After that she turned to me to talk about the two very different lives she’s now led as a 21-year-old.
As the 5-foot-4 starting point guard of the 3-1 RedHawks, she leads the team in steals, assists, minutes played and, coming into Thursday’s game, she’d been the RedHawks top scorer, too.
Just two years ago she was in Israel’s Navy and for the past eight years she’s played for various Israeli age bracket national teams in tournaments all across Europe.
But just a minute into our conversation, Millett Hall suddenly filled with the deafening sounds of a warning siren that repeated its warning over and over and over again for 19 minutes straight. That was accompanied by all the overhead lights flashing nonstop.
The startled Singer looked around quickly and finally said in a strained half-whisper: “What’s? … What’s going on?”
The tranquility of storybook Oxford had been replaced by the threats Haifa, Israel’s third largest city, has faced for decades of war because it’s an important port and the home to several oil refineries, chemical plants and a major naval base.
While the attacks were especially horrific in Haifa just after the turn of this century – with suicide bombers often killing dozens on busses, in busy shopping areas and in popular restaurants – it was just five months ago when an Iranian missile barrage on Haifa damaged the Bazan oil refinery, the nation’s largest such facility, and a drone attack, according to the Israeli Army News, injured 67 people.
Although a worker at Millett would later say the siren scare simply had been a problem with a smoke detector, Singer said, “To me this is no joke.
“To me, sirens have meant bombs are coming and we have 30 seconds to find a safe place. Everyone’s home has a safe room – ours is actually my bedroom – but if you’re out on the street, sometimes all you can do is dive down, cover your head with your hands … and just pray.
“Last year was my first year here and the war was still going on at home. My city was being attacked all the time.
“My sister’s high school got bombed. And my mom almost died twice!
“I was on the phone with her one time. We were FaceTiming. She had just parked her car and the alarms sounded.
“I told her, ‘You need to run and find a safe place!’
“She ran into some building she saw and, a few seconds after that, a bomb went off like 10 meters away. I heard it on the phone. And when she ran back out, there was fire everywhere.”
Last year, with the war with Hamas still raging back home and the fate of many of the 251 hostages taken out of Israel in that deadly Oct. 7 raid in 2023 still unknown, Singer struggled through her freshman season at Miami, even while starting 29 games.
“Every night I’d wake up at least three times just to check the news and see what was happening,” she said.
“One time I saw a 17-year-old girl had been killed in a terrorist attack. My sister is 17 and so you can just imagine my thoughts,
“For five minutes I tried calling everyone back home, but no one answered and I was like ‘Oh no!’
“She was OK, but those kind of things get to you. And sometimes I’d come into practice crying.
“I can remember times we’d all go out and be in a crowd and when I saw a stranger reaching for their back pocket, I thought ‘gun!’ And they just thought, ‘cell phone.’
“My teammates really cared about me though and they asked lots of questions. Finally, one time I opened a map and said, ‘OK, come here. Look, this is Israel. And Iran is right here.’ I wanted them to see everything.”
She said the more her teammates realized what she faced, the more they were there for her.
“Last year they were like a blanket to her,” Miami coach Glenn Box said. “They realized their lives had been a lot different than hers.
“Her issues were different. She could walk outside and see a car bombed and missiles flying overhead.”
Box said she confided in teammates like Amber Tretter, the All-Mid-American Conference honoree the past two seasons from Ferdinand, Indiana.
And Singer said she has a special bond with her roommate the past two seasons, Ilse de Vries, the 6-foot-3 forward from Groningen, Netherlands:
“She’s family to me.”
But no one buoys her more than her own family back in Haifa.
Singer’s mom, Daniela, was raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and came to Israel after high school to serve in the military. She’s now a high school principal.
She said her dad, Nadav, manages a sales company. Her older brother Liav did four years of military service and her younger sister Maayan is a high school senior.
“We have a rule back home,” she said. “We talk three times a day, even if it’s just to call and say, “Hey, Mom. Hey, Dad. I’m good. I’m alive.”
She grinned as she thought of a special connection: “At dinner, we’ll FaceTime and they put the phone at my place at the table. It’s like I’m there with them and I want them to feel like they’re with me.
Credit: Jeffrey Sabo
Credit: Jeffrey Sabo
“There were times last year I just wanted to go home. I’d tell them, ‘I should be there with you, not away at college.’
“And they would say, ‘No, we want you there. We know you are safe. When you are there, you make us happy. You make us proud.’”
That’s a point Box has brought up before:
“She is playing for the people back home.”
‘Just try it’
Singer was introduced to basketball at age five and after three years playing on boys teams, she began to compete with girls.
She excelled, and by age 13, she was part of the under-14 national team that competed against other nations. Last summer was her second season with the U-20 team playing in the EuroBasket Championships.
Off the top of her head, she rattled off Greece, Belgium, Macedonia, Latvia, Spain and Lithuania as some nations she’s competed in.
Coming out of high school she was required – as are all Israeli young adults – to do military service.
“Girls must serve at least two years and boys, two years and eight months,” she said. “I joined the Navy, which in Israel is actually part of the Army. In two years, I learned a lot.”
She continued to play basketball and after the military she said her dad suggested she go to college and play basketball.
Initially she balked at the idea.
“I didn’t think that college was for me,” she said. “But my dad kept saying I should go. He said it had always been his dream.”
He said it could be hers, too.
Her friend and former club teammate, Yarden Garzon, also suggested she try college ball in the U.S.
Garzon had been recruited to Indiana University by Box, who spent four years as the associate head coach on Teri Moren‘s staff before he took over the Miami program three seasons ago.
In three seasons with the Hoosiers, Garzon scored 1,204 points and won All-Big Ten honors three years in a row before transferring to Maryland this season.
“Yarden and I are really close, and she told me (college basketball) is for you – just try it,” Singer recalled.
“Coach Box had seen me when he recruited Yarden and when he called, we talked for 45 minutes.
“I’d heard from Yarden about him and I saw what he did at Miami.”
In May of 2023, Box took over the Miami program that had been knocked off its foundation by a coaching scandal and then the transfer of the team’s top seven players.
Although he got the job late and inherited only four players who had played any significant minutes the previous year he began to rebuild.
I trusted him,” Singer said.
Box also has a friend in Israel who spoke to Singer on the benefits of joining a RedHawks program where she could grow as a player while getting a quality education.
“She heard from people she knew, people who told her she’d be taken care of here,” Box said, “And that’s what has happened.”
‘Family Forever’
As a freshman last season Singer helped lead the Redhawks to a 19-12 season, their first winning campaign in six years.
Since then she’s been on a fast break attempt to learn as much as she can on the court … and off.
“I’m making food now,” she said proudly. “Last year I didn’t know, so when I came home over the summer I got my mom and said, ‘Ok, this is the time for me to learn to cook.
“She’s a great cook and she started teaching me everything.
“I have the recipes in my phone now, but sometimes I have to call her because I get stuck. The food tastes pretty good. It’s not like hers, but it still reminds me of home and that’s what matters.”
She has another reminder of just where she comes from and if you watched her closely on the court against Indiana Southeastern – where she dished out a career-high 12 assists – you may have gotten a glimpse.
Against the Grenadiers, she wore long white tights beneath her uniform pants. They reached almost to the tops of her socks, but that enabled you to see an inch of a tattoo on her lower left leg.
Asked about it, she pushed down her sock to reveal the entire tat, a long stem rose and the words:
“Family Forever.
“My mom has one just like it,” she said quietly. “It reminds us of each other.”
And what about her dad, does he have a similar tattoo?”
“No, he’s too scared,” she said laughing,
Then again, her dad doesn’t need ink to cement his bond. He’s the one who pushed her to try college ball, which already is producing indelible memories.
After just one year of college basketball and now for games into season two, she’s shown improvement that shows up both on the stat sheets and in her leadership capabilities.
Last season she averaged 6.3 points and 4.2 assists a game. Now she’s averaging 10.5 points and 6.5 assists.
Last Monday she had a career-high 18 points against Oakland. Three days later she had the career-high 12 assists, something that especially struck a chord with her.
“Assists always make two people happy,” she grinned.
Meanwhile, she’s reduced her turnovers from 3.8 a game last season to 3.0 this season.
“She’s grown up a lot from last year, not just off the court, but on it.” Box said. “She has more discretion. Last year she’d just chuck a pass (that no one caught). Now she thinks maybe I shouldn’t do that. She’s developing in so many areas.
“And she’s a tremendous leader. She does have a different perspective than other people and she should.
“She’s lived through war times. She’s been in the military. And she’s, I don’t know, how many thousands of miles from home? She’s a kid whose real-life experiences, I feel, have helped shape her leadership qualities.”
Just as she’s adjusted to campus life and the college game, the threat at home has lessened after the peace deal that Israel and Hamas signed 38 days ago.
In December she said her entire family is coming to Oxford for a visit.
“I can’t wait for them to get here. They’ll see how nice it is.”
Almost on cue, the sirens that had been blaring non-stop throughout the interview suddenly silenced and the lights quit flashing.
She eased back in her seat and nodded:
“Miami just feels right to me. I’m really glad I came here. I’m having so much fun. I’m playing basketball at a high level. I’m getting my academics. I’m on a beautiful campus and I have good people around me.
“I’m doing something I love with people I love. You can’t ask for more than that in life.”
A big smile now lit up her face.
That detour back to those under-siege and siren days in Haifa was over.
She was back in Oxford now – sitting courtside at Millett after a career day – and she was living the dream.
About the Author