Women's team signs a PG

[Dane Pound]

Patterson mentioned possibly signing another player. I'm not sure where this scholarship came from but it sounds like Thrower is a very good athlete.

 

UALBANY WOMEN’S BASKETBALL ADDS HOUSTON HIGH SCHOOL STANDOUT FOR 2004-05

     Albany, N.Y. -- University at Albany women’s basketball coach Trina Patterson announced on Tuesday, April 27 that Tanika Thrower, a 5-foot-6 point guard from Houston, Texas (Northbrook H.S.), has signed a national letter of intent to play for the Great Danes next season.

     Thrower, a three-year All-District 22-5A first-team selection, averaged 24.0 points, 4.0 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 3.0 steals per game during her senior season. She shot 49.0 percent from the field and connected on 33.0 percent of her three-point attempts in her final season. On the AAU level, Thrower was a member of the Houston Hot Shots team that lost in the 2001 national championship game.

     "Tanika is extremely athletic, is a super competitor and has the ability to create off the dribble," Patterson commented. "Tanika is a quality individual and will fit well with our expectations of a student-athlete at the University at Albany."

     Thrower joins a group of four athletes who signed during the November period. Kelly Martinson, a 5-foot-11 shooting guard from Madison, Wis. (Madison Memorial), Sherri Mikus, a 5-foot-11 point guard from Harrisburg, Pa. (Susquenita), Kirsten Peterson, a 6-foot-4 center from Owego, N.Y. (Newark Valley) and Gia Sanders, a 6-foot guard/forward from Bowie, Md. (The Bullis School) all made commitments last fall.

[statefan]

must be the scholarship that became available when Scipione left school

[mainejeff]

Albany will become a power in this league under Patterson. I am very impressed with her.

[professor]

Easy big fella! Patterson has proven to be a solid coach. However, she has not recruited well! Remember, this years starting 5 were all Mari Warner recruits!

 

Not one of this past years freshmen were any good. Pattersen signed Sharon Major when she got the job.

 

Hopefully the girl's she signed this year are decent. The women should be solid next year but then they lose Hutch, Jones, and Learn. Huge losses!

[Oldtimer]

Coach P. had a scholarship last Fall but I thought was looking for a power forward. Without much available after Fall signings, and the future problems at the point probably took the best available. I think Professor overlooked Lyndsey Clark---freshman with a late start but has a great stride to basket and D is good.

[Patch]

Oldtimer

 

Without a doubt Clark has been Patterson's best recruit but that evaluation is more based on apparent potential than statistics. She needs to get stronger but appears to be an AE level player, other than her everyone has been disappointing.

 

Let's hope this year's class is a strong one so the Danes can continue to be in the top half of the conference, if it's not we will slide quickly after this season.

[Dane Pound]

I really don't know how much you can judge players long-term by their freshman year. Sweetland, Learn and Mookie all had terrific years last year. Their freshman seasons Learn averaged less than a point, Mookie 1.5 ppg and Sweetland had 1.8 ppg with 4 assists for the year and 14 turnovers. That said there is alot of room for improvement with James and Clark. I think James really has to develop substanially over the summer or it won't take alot for one of the freshman to grab the starting PG job.

Other that Sherri Mikus there isn't alot of info out there on women's recruits so we'll have to wait and see what they can do next year. I do know that Gia Sanders comes from what appears to be a women's version of a basketball school. She goes to the Bullis School which in the last few years has produced a couple of ACC and Conference USA players as well as the CUSA Rookie of the Year and Monique Curry of Duke.