Los Angeles – Cal striker Michelle Onyiah remembers the conversation intimately as short because it was.
In Eleanor Roosevelt High in Riverside County, she was successful enough to be of interest a one that was recruited by “one of my dream schools”.
However, Stanford Co -Trainer Kate Paye was on the pipe to deliver the bad news.
“I can still remember. “I feel it was a 28-second call.”
Onyiah, an important interior for the mindful bears (28-5), when they face the Haas Pavilion against Stanford 83-63 on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. in the USC center of Mississippi State (21-11) against Paye on December 13th on December 13th.
Paye became the head coach this season and succeeded Tara Vanderveer.
“I shook her hand and didn't say it, but I believed:” You said I wasn't good enough to go to your school and I only beat you 20 points, “said Onyiah.” It was all good. I got the last laugh. “
The bears Stanford swept on the Atlantic Coast Conference of their first season and have won their first NCAA tournament since 2019.
Onyiah selected Cal since it had the combination of academics and basketball, but nothing could have prepared for a primary semester plagued with covid, through which the bears 1-16 went. Between the pandemic and the injuries, Cal had problems even putting a team on the bottom, let alone winning the actual games.
There were zoom meetings, social distancing and devices that monitored their movements in reference to others for contact tracking. Smith said it was difficult for her as an adult and can’t imagine what it was like for a newcomer to a university.
Only Onyiah and Smith are still near this team nearby, with the bears in the next years before this yr's breakout season with 11: 13, 13-17 and 19-15 included a 12: 6 record within the ACC. There were moments when Onyiah considered changing the landscape and the financial possibilities of the zero era.
It never happened when Onyiah even kept a fifth season as a doctoral student.
“Michelle and I are connected to life,” said Smith. “She remained. She would have left more money or for teams who won, and she stayed and said:” No, I would love to do this with us. “It's really something special.”
The 2020 season is a standard experience, as is this system that’s stabilized and successful. Smith has received contract extensions up to now two years.
“She helped me to grow up,” said Onyiah. “We go back and forth and it is fun. I support you and she supported me. We have a good bond there.”
Not that Onyiah didn't take into consideration going. While Cal remained intact after the Covid yr, other distinguished recruits began to broadcast.
“Why did I stay? When I went, I wanted a school that was academically the same, and Berkeley is a really good school,” said Onyiah. “I also had a good group of teammates, good friends and a cool community there. I was more than half with the college and didn't want to change.”
Onyiah, 6-foot 3, is a sporty interior (12.2 rebounds, 7.4 rebounds per game) in a melting pot team with an appealing playing style. Five players on average in two numbers. The bears are among the many national leaders in 3-point attempts at 294, with Onyiah the one starter who tried none.
Guards Ioanna Crime from Greece and Lulu Twidale from Australia – Cals “Splash Sisters” – a median of 14.2 and 13.2 points per game. The striker Marta Suarez from Spain a median of 13.2 and Kayla Williams, a native of Southern California like Onyiah, a median of 11.3.
The external threats create space for Onyiah to make use of their speed and postal movements inside, as scored 26 points after a victory over Miami after the 12-on-14 shooting and showed the flexibility to attain inwards with each hands.
“I have the feeling that we still learned how to play together last year,” said Onyiah. “This year we all learned our skills and where we had to be for each other and maneuver in the farm.”
It is a great distance of modest beginnings on the Ramirez Intermediate School in Eastvale, where Onyiah works as a primary school student with a neighborhood Aau team of the local boys.
“I was bad,” said Onyiah. “I didn't know anything.”
But Onyiah worked diligently with Joe Statal, a Ramirez coach and youth coach Chris Stark. Similar to her personalic acid at Cal, Onyiah has retained these relationships and has returned within the low season to work on her game.
“She calls us and we're going,” said Staum. “She didn't know anything about basketball when she came to us, but she was a go-getter and she never stopped.”
Starks said Onyiah was “fearless” when it got here to fidgeting with boys who were two or three years older. Finally, she went seriously with strength training and calisthenics and quickly improved.
“She has this persistence,” said Starks. “I know that things did not go properly at Cal at the beginning and she mentioned that she is transferred. But she is hard, she loves the game and does not want to give up.”
Onyiah said she thought good things were in stock after a 78:71 win against North Carolina State, a final Four team a yr ago and learned a invaluable lesson in a one-sided street against Notre lady, a national power and a No. 3 seed. A later defeat against Notre Dame within the ACC tournament was far more competitive.
“We thought we could be something special because North Carolina State was a top team,” said Onyiah. “Notre Dame, they do everything right. We are also a good team, but sometimes we have our doldrums. We have been less sales and as a team since the Notre Dame game.”
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