There are interviews with Head Coach Glenn Box and our top returning player Amber Tretter on MURedHawks.com. Just as when they interviewed transfer Enjulina Gonzalez all three sound very different than the preseason interviews last year. They are confident, pleased by the improvement of the returning players, and happy with the depth we now have with the incoming recruits. They are talking about winning.
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That’s great. Now let’s see it on the court.
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Was really cool to see their demeanor changing mid season as they figured things out, Coach Box has done a great job so far
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I made the drive to Oxford to attend a women’s practice this morning. Before getting into that, I would just say that the drive was pretty spectacular today with a bright sunny day and the trees in 4 different colors, red, green, yellow, and brown. I think the good weather is going to hold through the weekend so I think it would be a perfect Saturday for a trip to Oxford. It is not like the UC game or Parent’s weekend/OU game. Traffic and Parking and restaurants should not be an issue. Great day to attend Miami/CMU at 2:00.
So I got to talk to all our coaches and I found that there is a connection I did not know about. We have two new coaches this season, Kim Royster and JR Shumate. I knew that Kim had played at Indiana while Coach Box was there and then spent 5 years overseas playing professional basketball. What I did not know is that in high school she played for Coach Shumate at Newark HS. I guess that is also how Coach Box got to know Coach Shumate as he mentioned that he had been very impressed with the way Coach Shumate ran his high school and AAU programs. I also found out that Coach Shumate also had Miami freshman point guard Emily Bratton on his AAU team so I am sure those relationships helped in recruiting her and in Coach Shumate getting a chance to jump from AAU and HS coaching into a College job.
Along those recruiting lines I also asked Coach Box how he got all his relationships with Coaches and Programs in foreign countries and he said just being involved in recruiting for 20 years. He also mentioned that right now it is difficult to get top prospects to come to Miami because our program has been losing for quite awhile, but he is able to get some talented girls from other countries… When we start winning that may change. This year we have 2 Canadians, I girl each from Spain, The Netherlands, and Israel. We did get one of the top hs players in Ohio last season in Emily Bratton, and his relationship with Coach Shumate and her relationship with Coach Shumate all probably contributed to getting her to Miami.
I was very impressed with 3 freshmen recruits today. All are pretty good. Our 4th freshman, Ziul Gonzalez was standing on the sidelines watching today, hopefully some minor injury. Tamar Singer ( from Israel) is only 5-4 but is very strong and quick. Her natural position would be point guard. Buffalo had a 5-3 guard last year who was very good and there are some similarities in their game. Ilse de Vries ( The Netherlands) is likely going to be a star eventually. She is 6-3 and very smooth and coordinated and showed the ability to play well both inside and out and seemed quick to pick up things they were teaching. 5-7 Emily Bratton is a point guard but is also a good enough shooter and scorer that she can handle the shoot guard position.
I was looking forward to seeing Enjulina Gonzales play, ( 5-9 rs soph from Miami (F) and Mercer ). It turns out that she had missed the last 30 days of practice with an injury and today was her first day back. I thought she looked a little rusty but that explained it. Coach Box told me that he thinks she will be the fastest girl in our league and that she scores well from all 3 areas ( threes, pull up jumpers off the bounce, and driving all the way to the hole)
I am not going to go through all the other girls, but I would say that all 7 returning players looked to have improved, so they have been working on their game. I thought Edwards looked more cut and seemed quicker than I remembered.
We played one secret scrimmage against one of the better Horizon teams and won that and they are having an intrasquad scrimmage with refs tomorrow and after that it is get ready for App Sate Nov 4 in Oxford.
I don’t know how Coach Box plans to utilize all his guards, but I think we will be playing a lot of girls and playing uptempo. We have 4 starters returning from the group that started the last game of the season, a strong win over Ohio. He could legitimately start 2 sophomores and 3 freshmen if he goes by talent alone, but we also have 4 girls in their final season who all have a lot of starts in their background. As long as everybody stays together and pulls together all that depth will be a great asset.
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Any relation to JT Shumate, the men’s player from Toledo from a couple years ago?
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He is the father of former Rocket Center JT Shumate, former Kent State guard Katie Shumate ( last year’s MAC tournament MVP), and Emma Shumate, who was not a starter but in the regular rotation for Ohio State the last two seasons, then transferred to Michigan State this year.
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Hittin’ the gummies again.