The only thing newsworthy, for some reason, hasn't shown up in the news. Our current roster has added Maxine Engel (must be a recent commitment), a 6' guard from Memphis Tennessee. She led her team to the Division AA state championship. Was consistent throughout her career, 15 PPG, 6-7 RPG and 5 APG. Numerous regional and state accolades, and ranked 17 in Tennessee by MaxPreps. On paper, she looks like our best recruit out of high school.
That being said, how much the newcomers contribute this year is anybody's guess. Brigham was a big loss, but Whitney's graduation may have a bigger impact. The returning nucleus Brown, Gingras, Loder, and Taiwo have shown that they can be A10 caliber. How much they improve this year remains to be seen. I was able to catch a couple of games on tape of Sophie Haydon (6'3" recruit), who will need some work. I think she moves better than Brigham, but doesn't have much of a post-up game, or inside presence on interior defense. I also saw a few highlights of Leila Patel and she is a legit 3pt shooter. Michelle Ojo reminds me of Luma, both in stature and statistically. Hopefully, she can develop to exceed what Luma did, and actually get better each year.
As far as the transfers go, that's a mystery to me. Of the six of them, only Taylor Webster and Kyra Frames came from a D1 program. The little film I saw on Webster reflects a pretty good player, on a par with our four main returning players. Frames could be the starting PG. That was her role the past few years at Albany (in the America East). We'll have to see what's in store for the other 4 transfers. I did see Lok play a little. Lok was a starter for South Sudan in th AfroBasket qualifiers this summer, and was their best player, but the team was very inexperienced, and lost all their games badly.
Thankfully, we don't have to wait too long before we see these ladies on the court, and to do our expert assessments 
as we are wont to do. I'm looking for a big year from Taiwo, and hopefully if others step up, we can have a better year than last year. We will be challenged by size, but hopefully we can make up for it in hustle and speed.
Last edited by xAC (10/16/2021 12:31 pm)
