Kornacki: So, Just How Do Wolverines Replace Flaherty?
10/10/2018 10:05:00 PM | Women's Basketball, Features
By Steve Kornacki
• Watch: Kim Barnes Arico Media Day Press Conference
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- So, just how do the Wolverines replace Katelynn Flaherty?
She scored a school record 2,776 points, finished 27th in NCAA women's basketball history and fifth in Big Ten annals. Flaherty's 410 three-pointers made were topped by only one player in NCAA history. And she developed into an all-around player, averaging not only 22.9 points, but 4.2 assists and 2.8 rebounds as a senior.
Flaherty was a dynamo for the University of Michigan.
But hardly a one-woman team.
Senior center Hallie Thome (6-foot-5), whom Wolverine head coach Kim Barnes Arico noted is being scouted by WNBA teams, averaged 17.4 points and 7.0 rebounds last season. Thome is a two-time first team All-Big Ten selection.
Also returning are senior guard Nicole Munger (9.1 points, 4.4 rebounds) and a pair of sophomores who made big contributions: forward Hailey Brown (9.0 points, 5.2 rebounds) and guard Deja Church (7.0 points, 2.6 rebounds).
Barnes Arico is enthusiastic about her five freshmen -- new starting point guard Amy Dilk (6-foot), forward-center Naz Hillmon (6-foot-2), forward Emily Kiser (6-foot-3), guard Danielle Rauch (5-foot-8) and guard Ariel Young (6-foot) -- who ranked No. 12 among national recruiting classes. They are big on talent and just plain big, period.
And there is another talented newcomer in forward-guard Taylor Rooks, a graduate transfer from Harvard who began her career at powerhouse Stanford.
"Katelynn Flaherty is kind of a once-in-a-lifetime player," Barnes Arico told reporters Wednesday (Oct. 10). "Her ability to score the basketball is unlike anything I've ever seen, and she's irreplaceable as a scorer. But the thing we haven't had since I've been here is a tremendous amount of depth.
"So, I think we're going to do it with numbers. We're going to do it from the defensive side. … We're going to be a better defensive team. We have to make it up with a balanced attack, and our kids are excited about that. It wasn't drilled into them, but they knew how good Katelynn was and were looking to get Katelynn Flaherty the ball at all times. Sometimes that stopped our offense. … Now there's more of a balanced attack."
KBA said the second- and third-team units have occasionally beaten the first-string during the first eight practice sessions.
Barnes Arico said Church "has had an incredible summer and a great fall" and is more comfortable as the shooting guard rather than at the point, where she spelled Flaherty last season as a freshman.
"She's a natural scorer," Barnes Arico said of Church, who will back up Dilk on the point.
Dilk was Indiana's Miss Basketball and averaged 17.8 points, 6.7 assists, 5.6 rebounds and 3.8 steals for Carmel High.
"We needed to see if Amy could adjust to and handle that (starting) role," said Barnes Arico. "She had a tremendous high school career, and that doesn't always correlate to having a tremendous freshman season because your freshman year is such a transition. But since practices began, she's taken off.
"She really has a tremendous presence and a calmness about her that point guards need to have. She has an incredible feel for the game, and she makes players around her better. It takes a lot of pressure off Deja as well and elevated her game. She's been really impressive. … She's a shot-blocker. She's a great athlete. Her length is definitely going to affect the game."
Dilk
Hillmon
Hillmon won a gold medal with the USA Basketball U18 team this summer, and averaged 21 points and 14 rebounds per game in leading Gilmour Academy of Gates Mills, Ohio, to the state championship.
"Naz had a tremendous summer (with the national team)," said Barnes Arico, "and she's been a spark for us in practice every day.
"You talk about Amy Dilk and Naz Hillmon. Amy is arguably one of the best point guards in the country coming out of high school. She chose the University of Michigan. Naz is one of only 12 kids on that USA Basketball team, and was recruited by Louisville, Ohio State and everyone. She chose Michigan.
"We are in with recruits that we didn't have conversations with in the past."
Why did Dilk pick the Wolverines?
She said "you get the best of both worlds" with academics and athletics, as well as the tradition of the school's other teams.
"We're also on the rise right now," said Dilk, "and so it's fun to be part of this group. I love the Block M, and everyone saying, 'Go Blue!' It's a global university and something I wanted to be part of, representing the Block M. And the class I came in with, we're already sisters. (She's rooming with Hillmon in East Quad.)
"And I came here for basketball camps since eighth grade. So, each year, coming and seeing the players and the coaches, it's been my top school in the recruitment process."
Why did Hillmon, whose mother, Nasheema, played basketball at Vanderbilt and professionally, choose Michigan?
"I chose Michigan because I came from a high academic school and I wanted to keep that up," said Hillmon. "I wanted to be part of the academics here, and with the athletics, I wanted to be part of a program that's building and doing better every year. And, of course, the family feel. I came in and felt a sense of community here. I'm a big family person, and to have that with athletics and academics was big for me."
Thome also played a role in influencing Hillmon, as did associate head coach Melanie Moore.
"We're from the same area," Hillmon said of Thome, "and knowing that Coach Mel put so much work into Hallie, and that I could come in and receive the same amount of work meant a lot to me."
Thome
Thome, from Chagrin Falls, Ohio, enters this season with 1,633 points and 676 rebounds, and a challenge from Moore to finish with both 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds.
She would be the first at Michigan to reach both milestones. But Thome would have to average more than 10 rebounds per game to equal something Moore did at Siena College with 2,021 points and 1,122 rebounds.
"It definitely is a challenge," said Thome. "But I think I'm ready for it, and it's great to have Coach Mel prepping me for this because she did that herself in college. And to know it would be something that hasn't been done before is definitely exciting, but I'm not really focused on that.
"I'm focused on our team all day long, and I feel by doing that everything will fall into place."
Barnes Arico added, "The WNBA is calling every day to watch her. She's just been a real special, special player in our program."
Munger, her classmate from Doylestown, Pennsylvania, could be primed for a breakout season after finishing second to Flaherty last year in treys (Flaherty 118, Munger 59) while shooting a solid .404 behind the arc. She also made 35 steals as a defensive ball hawk.
"She can shoot the basketball, I believe, better than anyone in the country," said Barnes Arico. "I have to constantly remind her of that because she doesn't shoot the ball enough for my liking."
Munger said, "I started October shooting the ball really rough (in practices). But then I focused on getting back into the gym and doing what I know how to do, getting with (assistant) Coach Wes (Brooks). And if I believe in it, I know my teammates are going to have my back. 'Shoot the ball. We believe in you.' That's awesome.
"I've got to be ready on the catch to shoot it. We have to show we have shooters beyond Katelynn, and we know we do. We were having a rough practice, and then three or four of us scored in a row. And the best part of that scrimmage was that it didn't matter who scored. Not that it mattered last year. But we were just so focused on Katelynn, and the defense was, too. But we're more versatile now, and that's going to make the defenders think, 'Who's going to shoot the ball now?'"
Munger
KBA noted that when opponents double-team Thome down low, Munger must make them pay from the outside, just as Flaherty did. But there are others who can make the deep shot, too.
Brown (.459), Church (.333) and swing players Akienreh Johnson (.350) and Priscilla Smeenge (.400) are also threats behind the arc. Junior Kayla Robbins is another guard-forward in the mix, and had 12 points against Delaware State while grabbing eight rebounds against Penn State. Â
The Wolverines finished 23-10 last year and returned to the NCAA Tournament, advancing to the second round. Forward Jillian Dunston (3.3 points, 9.0 rebounds, 3.5 assists) also was lost from that team, and her rebounding and leadership will need to be replaced, too.
But Barnes Arico has confidence in the players up and down her 14-player roster.
"It's not like we're starting over," said KBA. "It's a culture; it's been built. I think the excitement and the enthusiasm is, 'Katelynn's gone, but now it's Hallie's and Nicole's and Sam's (Trammel) senior years.' And each class is a great group of basketball players."
She wants this team to win for Munger and Thome, as well as Michigan.
Thome said, "No one's ever going to replace Katelynn Flaherty, but I think we have an exciting team, and that it won't be obvious that we don't have Katelynn Flaherty."
