Transfers, Freshmen Look to have an Impact

Release Date: November 15, 2000

During last year’s preseason, Monmouth College women’s basketball coach Dennis Mann said, "Realistically, next year should be the year for this team."

Next year is now, and Mann’s words have an excellent chance of ringing true, both because of the development of last year’s young players and the addition of several key recruits.

Three of the new Fighting Scots have excelled in area high school gyms in recent years, including junior transfers Carrie Yerkey (Alexis) and Tracy Nelson (Wethersfield) and freshman Michelle Flaar (Galesburg).

Combined with veterans like Amber Kuhrts, Melissa Jones and Sara Larkin, the new players figure to provide the extra push to get the Scots from a 12-10 season and a fifth place Midwest Conference finish to even more victories and a spot among the MWC’s top four playoff-qualifying squads.

Although Mann lost an All-MWC player off of last year’s squad – shooting guard Erin Bradshaw – two more all-conference performers remain, including Kuhrts, a senior from Toulon, and Jones, who could prove to be one of the best female athletes to ever attend Monmouth College.

Jones, who led the Scots in her freshman season with 14.0 ppg and 7.4 rpg, won the indoor and outdoor MWC high jump championships following the basketball season, and she was second on the volleyball team in kills and blocks this fall. Any concerns Mann had that Jones would be behind because of her time on the volleyball court were wiped away during a recent scrimmage.

"Even though she had just joined us from the volleyball season, she showed a tremendous amount of hustle," said Mann. "She works really hard."

Jones, who can play center or power forward for the Scots, is just one example of the versatility that Mann has at his disposal. Another is Kuhrts, a traditional wing forward, who Mann may start at power forward.

"Amber is actually one of our tallest players," said Mann of Kuhrts, who scored 11.5 ppg last season and has 544 points in her MC career. "She’s a great 15-foot jump shooter, but because of the style we play, she’s going to cause some matchup problems for people."

When Kuhrts plays the No. 4 spot, Mann will have Flaar on the court at the other forward. The Silver Streaks went to state in each of Flaar’s four years in the program, and she started for Galesburg the past three seasons. Despite her young age, she figures to be a leader among her teammates in recognizing what it takes to play championship-caliber basketball.

"She’s a great team player who understands what her strengths are," said Mann, who said Flaar’s best asset is defensive pressure. "Along with Jones, she’s one of our top players who really gets after it on defense."

When one of last year’s starters, sophomore Katie Mitchell, returns from an ankle injury, Mann will have five guards who can contribute. The top one should be Yerkey, who came to Monmouth following two years at Parkland College in Champaign, where she averaged 16.0 ppg.

"She’s very aggressive looking to score," said Mann. "She’s got a very good pull-up jumper, and she can knock down the three."

Yerkey will get the nod at shooting guard initially while freshman Becca Cook starts at the point. Cook, who played her high school basketball in Indiana, figures to make some first-year mistakes along the way, but Mann sees too much talent in the tall, quick Cook to not have her out on the floor.

"She sees the floor so well, and she knows how to set up her shooters," Mann praised. "There’s a lot of ability there."

When Mann needs to go to the bench, he’ll find Mitchell, who scored 4.0 ppg last year, made 13 treys and had 49 assists. He’ll also find senior Erin Fink, who has shown considerable improvement from a year ago and is consistently hitting the open jumper in practice. Finally, there’s freshman Kim Olson, who has already received a lot of ink at Monmouth for her exploits on the soccer field. The former West Chicago High School star broke records for goals and points in a season. If her basketball game is half as strong as her soccer talents, Mann’s found a keeper.

"She’s a physically strong kid with a lot of defensive intensity," said Mann.

The one area where Monmouth might be weak is depth in the paint, but if Nelson’s athleticism holds true to form, the Scots figure to survive quite nicely as a team without a traditional big center.

"We’re intending to apply pressure and play a very fast-paced game at both ends of the floor," said Mann.

Nelson, who also transferred from Parkland, is deceptively agile for a low post and sports a 24-inch vertical jump. Another athletic post is Larkin, who tied Jones for the team rebound lead while averaging 10.3 ppg. A good sign for Monmouth is that Larkin, despite being such a statistical leader a year ago, will probably not crack the starting lineup.

"We’re a lot more aggressive offensively and defensively," said Mann. "We struggled some offensively last year, but we have more ability now, and that shouldn’t be a problem."

Assuming the new and improved Scots do indeed reach the playoffs, Mann was asked what teams they’re liable to meet up with.

"Some of the better teams in the league lost some good people," said Mann. "I still think Lake Forest is your top pick as usual, St. Norbert will be right up there and then Ripon might be pretty strong. We’ll join that list if we develop good team chemistry."

Lake Forest, led by two-time Player of the Year Allison Grubbs, is the defending MWC tournament champion, while St. Norbert, which went 15-1 in league games, won the regular season crown. The Knights return Julie Schill but lost two other key contributors to graduation. Lawrence and Carroll were the other two playoff qualifiers. Besides Monmouth, Ripon is the only other team with two All-MWC platers returning – sophomore guard Molly Kneip and junior forward AnnMarie Ibis.

NOTE: Monmouth’s pocket schedule lists a trip to Florida that has now been cancelled. The team has picked up three single games to replace the trip – a home date Nov. 21 against Iowa Wesleyan College and road games Dec. 3 against Marycrest International University and Jan. 6 against Clarke College.