When she has a particularly joyful day on the practice court — when everything clicks, when her shots fall, when she plays great defense — USF women’s basketball player Romi Levy said she almost feels guilty.

As USF prepares for its Monday night season opener against Texas-Arlington at the Yuengling Center, Levy is juggling conflicting emotions.

“Sometimes, I might be smiling or giggling and I’ll think to myself, ‘Whoa, why am I having fun?’ ” Levy said. “My family is in danger. My cousin is a first-line responder and everyone worries about him coming home safely. And I’m here in America playing basketball.”

“I appreciate this opportunity. I love what we have at USF. But at the same time, it’s hard. It’s very, very hard.”

Levy, a transfer from Auburn University, is from Israel. Her country was attacked on Oct. 7 by Hamas, a Palestinian terrorist group, to ignite a war that is the latest chapter in seven decades of conflict between the Israelis and Arabs.

Levy’s town — Herzliya, along the Mediterranean Sea on the country’s central coast — is about an hour’s drive from the Gaza Strip, where the violence began. Even as a kid, Levy said she remembers intermittent moments of rockets being launched and air-raid sirens blaring — “not a normal way to live,” she said — but the last month has been far worse.

“It’s hard to watch all the reports, hard to imagine what’s happening,” Levy said. “I know many people who have been murdered. You can’t act like you don’t care. You care so much. But you have to find ways to insulate yourself and just hope this can stop.”

For Levy, basketball is more than her beloved sport. At times, it’s valuable therapy.

“I can’t imagine what Romi’s family is going through,” head coach Jose Fernandez said. “They’ve lost friends and loved ones. That region is very unstable.”

“I’m sure it all weighs on someone like Romi. At the same time, she wants to be thought of as a basketball player, a student-athlete. We are glad she’s in Tampa as part of our program. We are supporting her in every way we can. She’s going to help us and be a key part of this team.”

Levy made it clear that she enjoyed her time at Auburn, where she was selected to the SEC’s All-Freshman team in 2021. But after a torn ACL, two knee surgeries, and a coaching change, she no longer felt a fit with the Tigers.

She was attracted by USF’s winning ways, Fernandez’s reputation of developing athletes for the professional ranks and the program’s success with international players.

Already, Fernandez has evaluated and adjusted Levy’s game. She’s now a 6-foot-3 wing. With a smooth, left-handed shot and an athletic body to run the court, she looks the part. It’s a contrast from her role at Auburn, where she was mostly an interior player who set screens and operated with her back to the basket.

“Romi can definitely shoot the three and I think she has a great mid-range game,” Fernandez said. “She can shoot over people. She can post up against smaller guards.”

“She definitely needs to get stronger and better equipped for the physical side of this game. I think she has been struggling with a brand-new system and her different position, where she needs to adjust to more ball-handling and defending the smaller, quicker guards. But she’s a pleasure to coach. She’s a wonderful young lady and a really good basketball player.”

She averaged 6.7 points and 4.2 rebounds in her final season at Auburn, where she enjoyed celebrating Jewish holidays with men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl and other Israeli students. At USF, she already has tapped into the university’s Israeli community and feels at home.

Despite all the changes to her basketball game, she’s feeling more comfortable on the court, too.

“I know for sure this will benefit me in the long run, but I’m learning everything from zero,” said Levy, 23, who has three seasons of USF eligibility remaining. “It’s a very different game, a different system, a different mindset, different coaches, different positions … everything different. So the coaches are obviously going to be on my butt, but I’m trying hard and I’m getting better.

“The encouraging thing is I’m versatile. I feel I can do everything on the court. I’m the type of player who fills out a stat sheet — you know, points, rebounds, assists, steals, all of it — and I think I’ll be taking that to a higher level and affecting the game in many different ways.”

Levy said she expects her basketball experience to make a difference as well.

“What I learned being in America and playing in the SEC is that the kids over here are amazing athletes with incredible skills,” said Levy, who helped Israel to a 2018 bronze medal at the Under-18 European Championships. “We don’t see that so much overseas. But I feel I have a basketball I.Q. that can make a big difference and I know Coach Jose values that.”

“I think my knowledge of basketball and sports in general, it was kind of a natural for me. It runs deep in my family.”

Levy played on the Israeli National Basketball Team — as did her older sister, mother and grandmother. In fact, her grandmother, Tamara Metal Schumacher, was the first woman to represent Israel in the Olympics. She was the nation’s flag-bearer for the 1952 Helsinki Games while competing in track and field (high jump and long jump). On her arm, Levy wears a tattoo of her grandmother’s Olympic number (23).

Levy’s father was a professional soccer player and an Ironman triathlete.

Her sister, Sean, gave up basketball after concluding she wasn’t good enough to reach the highest levels of international play. So she shifted to the backup plan.

She’s now an international supermodel who lives in New York. When Levy opened her iPhone’s camera roll to show her sister’s work — whether it was magazine covers, billboards or advertising on skyscrapers — it was a travelogue.

“This is her for YSL (Yves Saint Laurent) in Shanghai … here, she’s walking for Chanel in Miami Beach … these are billboards in New York … this is her face on a bus in Paris,” Levy said. “She sells beauty. She’s amazing.

“Her face is like a combination of a little boy and a girl, so they use it in multiple ways. She’s a natural beauty. It’s a hard, competitive life, but she is thriving. It’s interesting. One daughter is a supermodel in New York. The other daughter is playing college basketball in Tampa. My parents are proud of us.”

Levy’s parents, Alon and Liat, own a rehabilitation center that works with veterans from the Israel Defense Force (IDF), where Levy did her country’s mandatory two-year Army service before beginning her college basketball career. That exposure inspired Levy to strive for a career in physical therapy or orthopedics.

She’s hoping to become a key performer for the Bulls, who are seeking their ninth NCAA Tournament appearance in 12 seasons. But mostly, she thinks about her family and prays for their safety. And she dreams of a solution, a happy reunion with her parents, a time of peace. The Jewish people have a word for it.

Shalom.