By Chris Umpierre
Daily Bruin Staff
With the loss of six seniors to graduation, including all of the
post players, the UCLA women’s basketball team has some big
shoes to fill next season.
On April 21, the Bruins moved closer to filling those shoes as
they signed three front-court players from Texas junior colleges.
Shalada “She-she” Allen and Stacy Robertson, both from
Kilgore College, and Malika Leatham from Blinn College will compete
as juniors at UCLA next season.
The signings come after the Bruins were shut out in the early
recruiting period.
“When we didn’t sign anybody early, the idea was to
try to find players that were ready to step in and play right away
and all three of these players fit that,” Associate Athletic
Director of Recruiting Michael Sondheimer said.
“I would be very surprised if at least two of them
don’t start,” he added. “If not all three play,
they are all talented people.”
Allen is a quick and athletic 6-foot-2 power forward-center who
averaged 14 points and 7 rebounds last season while being named to
the All-Conference team.
Her teammate, 6-foot forward, Stacy Robertson, who was also
named All-Conference, averaged 14 points and 6 rebounds last
season. She is considered more of a perimeter player, shooting 37
percent from three-point land last season.
6-foot-2 forward-center Leatham, who chose UCLA over Oklahoma
State, averaged 10 points and eight rebounds last season but is
primarily known for her effort on defense.
“These are three extremely athletic players who are hard
workers,” UCLA head coach Kathy Olivier said. “They
will each have a chance to be big contributors and are excellent
additions to our program.”
Kilgore women’s basketball head coach Scotti McClain was
excited about her two players moving on to play for the Bruins.
“The most important thing I see for them is the degree
they are going to get,” McClain said in a statement. “I
think it’s great that they are going to play basketball, but
having a degree from UCLA is going to open doors for them that
basketball alone could not provide them.”
The influx of players will hope to combat the loss of forward
Maylana Martin, center Janae Hubbard, point guard Erica Gomez,
forward Marie Philman, forward Takiyah Jackson and center Carly
Funicello.
Combined, the seniors scored 66 percent of the points and
grabbed 72 percent of the Bruins’ rebounds last season.
“We’ll see; hopefully (the new recruits) can come
through for us,” junior shooting guard LaCresha Flannigan
said.
In addition to the transfers, Olivier expects 6-foot forward
Melanie Pearson to return from a Mormon mission and play her senior
season next year. Before she left, Pearson was one of the
Bruins’ top three-point shooters.
Also, Bruin volleyball standout Kristee Porter is expected to
play basketball next season. The 6-foot guard was a standout
basketball player in high school.
The signings and addition of Pearson and Porter leave UCLA with
one scholarship to give out for next season. The end of the late
signing period is May 15.
“We are looking for the best athlete
available,”Sondheimer said.
One of those unsigned athletes is All-Los Angeles city senior
guard Chanell Law from Washington Prep High School.
The Bruins hope to perform better than they did in the early
recruiting period when they narrowly missed out on several elite
recruits. Most notably, UCLA missed out on two California seniors,
6-foot-2 center Ebony Hoffman and 5-foot-11 guard Diane
Taurasi.
Hoffman chose USC over the Bruins while Taurasi, who has been
named by several publications as the top recruit in the nation,
chose Connecticut over UCLA.
“The early recruiting period was unfortunate,”
Sondheimer said. “We went after the best players in the
country and you don’t get any credit for finishing second in
recruiting. You finish second, you finish last. That’s the
problem with recruiting.”
According to Sondheimer, UCLA almost signed Taurasi, who
averaged 28 points and 11 rebounds in high school.
“We were that close,” he said. “The weekend
before letters of intent, she had a good visit at Connecticut and
turned it around on us.”