While we wait (tomorrow) for part 2 of Lauren DeFalco's Q&A to be edited, here's a profile of the new players she mentioned who will be on next season's roster.
Two newcomers:
-Trinity Valley CC Transfer Curtessia Dean – We got her over Ole Miss, Texas A&M, and Kansas. She played with Jasmine Smith in AAU ball and I think she just wanted to come in and know she could compete. This is a kid that we think, if she’s everything we believe, can keep us at the level that we want to be at, the 20-21 win mark and an NCAA Tournament season. We’re really excited about her and I believe we only got her because of the virus. If she visits the BCS schools I think it would have been difficult to compete against that. I think our relationship with her and everything we were able to offer her and all of the Zoom calls we did with Curtessia really paid off.
-Penn State Transfer Mya Bembry – A young lady from West Orange who we obviously watched countless times in high school. She went away and her coach got fired before she got to Penn State, played for the former Marquette coach that got that job and just didn’t like it and wanted to come back home. We’re excited about her, we think we can get her a waiver. She’s a 6’/6’1” guard which is hard for us on our level to get. A lot of those type players go to the BCS schools. So we’re thrilled to get her into our system. We hope she’s going to be like Des whereas you looked at Des’ numbers before she came here and she averaged about three points a game at Syracuse and didn’t do much offensively, but the system here is going to be a little bit better fit for her as it was for Des. So her numbers can be deceiving at Penn State because she wasn't asked to do much, but we saw her a lot in high school and loved her potential so we'll work from there.
Incoming Freshmen:
Amari Wright, she’s from Florida. We needed another kid to compete with Lauren Park-Lane and play if Lauren’s in foul trouble or needs a breather. We really like her. She’s a little bit bigger, she’s stronger, she’s really good defensively. She has a few things we just can’t teach, similar to Lauren. It's so difficult to teach point guard skills, point guard’s are mostly born. They know when to make a pass. I think Coach Willard was saying about Bryce [Aiken], when you’re a born point guard you just know things that can’t be taught. That’s what we’re looking forward to in Amari, that and just competing with Lauren each day in practice and pushing Lauren. Her defensive presence and just being a little bit bigger and stronger is going to give us a good one two punch at the point.
-McKenna Minter’s from Nebraska. Her dad is [former Carolina Panther] Mike Minter, he’s the head coach for Campbell University football. He’s a tough guy, she’s a tough kid. Uber athletic and shoots the pull-up. She's just something different, something that we didn’t have. We saw her late in July. She just gets to the rim, she’s fearless. She came off an ACL but you wouldn’t know it if you watched her play, that’s how tough she is. Just a little bit different as a guard. Doesn’t shoot it as well as she will and that’s where we need to get her in the gym. But her fearlessness going to the basket and her ability to get to the basket and her athleticism is something we didn’t have so we were really drawn to her.
-Brittany Range is a 5’11 kid from Florida. She really, really shoots it well. She’s tough and attacks the rim, but she’s just a really good shooter and has great height. It’s hard for us to get those 5’10, 5’11 backcourt players, especially a kid who can knock it down. In our system we love to shoot threes so we think she’ll slide into that role as a knockdown shooter that can do a little bit of everything for us.
-Skylar Treadwell we’re excited about her too. She’s about a 6’2”, 6’3” stretch four that can shoot it from deep, can handle the ball, can bring it up the court. She can play back to the basket. We think that she’ll learn from Des, Femi, Alexia and help us for a year and really take over that role in the future because as noted she can really stretch the floor with her shooting. That and do a little bit of everything.
We’re thrilled about all the kids coming back and the kids we have coming in . Obviously all 15 can’t play but I think it will be good for competition and for practice. It will keep them engaged and on their toes.
Two newcomers:
-Trinity Valley CC Transfer Curtessia Dean – We got her over Ole Miss, Texas A&M, and Kansas. She played with Jasmine Smith in AAU ball and I think she just wanted to come in and know she could compete. This is a kid that we think, if she’s everything we believe, can keep us at the level that we want to be at, the 20-21 win mark and an NCAA Tournament season. We’re really excited about her and I believe we only got her because of the virus. If she visits the BCS schools I think it would have been difficult to compete against that. I think our relationship with her and everything we were able to offer her and all of the Zoom calls we did with Curtessia really paid off.
-Penn State Transfer Mya Bembry – A young lady from West Orange who we obviously watched countless times in high school. She went away and her coach got fired before she got to Penn State, played for the former Marquette coach that got that job and just didn’t like it and wanted to come back home. We’re excited about her, we think we can get her a waiver. She’s a 6’/6’1” guard which is hard for us on our level to get. A lot of those type players go to the BCS schools. So we’re thrilled to get her into our system. We hope she’s going to be like Des whereas you looked at Des’ numbers before she came here and she averaged about three points a game at Syracuse and didn’t do much offensively, but the system here is going to be a little bit better fit for her as it was for Des. So her numbers can be deceiving at Penn State because she wasn't asked to do much, but we saw her a lot in high school and loved her potential so we'll work from there.
Incoming Freshmen:
Amari Wright, she’s from Florida. We needed another kid to compete with Lauren Park-Lane and play if Lauren’s in foul trouble or needs a breather. We really like her. She’s a little bit bigger, she’s stronger, she’s really good defensively. She has a few things we just can’t teach, similar to Lauren. It's so difficult to teach point guard skills, point guard’s are mostly born. They know when to make a pass. I think Coach Willard was saying about Bryce [Aiken], when you’re a born point guard you just know things that can’t be taught. That’s what we’re looking forward to in Amari, that and just competing with Lauren each day in practice and pushing Lauren. Her defensive presence and just being a little bit bigger and stronger is going to give us a good one two punch at the point.
-McKenna Minter’s from Nebraska. Her dad is [former Carolina Panther] Mike Minter, he’s the head coach for Campbell University football. He’s a tough guy, she’s a tough kid. Uber athletic and shoots the pull-up. She's just something different, something that we didn’t have. We saw her late in July. She just gets to the rim, she’s fearless. She came off an ACL but you wouldn’t know it if you watched her play, that’s how tough she is. Just a little bit different as a guard. Doesn’t shoot it as well as she will and that’s where we need to get her in the gym. But her fearlessness going to the basket and her ability to get to the basket and her athleticism is something we didn’t have so we were really drawn to her.
-Brittany Range is a 5’11 kid from Florida. She really, really shoots it well. She’s tough and attacks the rim, but she’s just a really good shooter and has great height. It’s hard for us to get those 5’10, 5’11 backcourt players, especially a kid who can knock it down. In our system we love to shoot threes so we think she’ll slide into that role as a knockdown shooter that can do a little bit of everything for us.
-Skylar Treadwell we’re excited about her too. She’s about a 6’2”, 6’3” stretch four that can shoot it from deep, can handle the ball, can bring it up the court. She can play back to the basket. We think that she’ll learn from Des, Femi, Alexia and help us for a year and really take over that role in the future because as noted she can really stretch the floor with her shooting. That and do a little bit of everything.
We’re thrilled about all the kids coming back and the kids we have coming in . Obviously all 15 can’t play but I think it will be good for competition and for practice. It will keep them engaged and on their toes.
