Oregon’s senior laden roster for 2006-07 – five to be exact – is gaining a much-needed infusion of youth heading into the 2007-08 season.
High school seniors-to-be Nicole Canepa and Tatianna Thomas, two California recruits, both made verbal commitments to Oregon’s women’s basketball program.
Thomas, a 5-foot-10 guard from Hart High in Newhall, Calif., is joining high school teammate Taylor Lilley, who starts her freshman year this fall at Oregon. Canepa, a 6-foot-5 post at St. Ignatius in San Francisco, is the logical replacement for 6-foot-6 senior forward Jessie Shetters.
Oregon’s four other seniors: Eleanor Haring, Jamie Hawkins, Carolyn Peterson (formerly Ganes) and Cicely Oaks complete their eligibility next season.
Canepa recently joined her AAU team, the NorCal Elite, to play in a tournament in Oregon City earlier this summer. Along with her mother and father, Canepa also visited the University to show her dad the campus and meet with women’s basketball coaches Bev Smith and Selena Ho.
Her high school coach Julie Berry said Canepa is an athletic talent, who was drawn to Oregon’s location and academics.
“In terms of our offense (last) year, we were able to run the floor with her size, but at the same time get into a half-court game and she has a variety of moves with her back to the basket and facing (the basket),” Berry said.
When she made her choice, Canepa had scholarship offers from Arizona and Loyola Marymount and also looked at UCLA and Oregon State.
“They were one of the first schools to take a special interest in Nicole,” Berry said of Oregon.
Berry, who resigned to take another coaching position across the Bay, said “Not too many people her size have her mobility, her footwork, her versatility and her athleticism.”
Thomas, who plays for Finest Basketball Club, an Adidas sponsored club, is in Atlanta, Ga., for two weeks to begin July. She’ll go to San Diego with her high school team July 22-24 and then head to Texas for a final tournament with her AAU team.
She’s already gone to a UCLA basketball camp, where she regularly talked to Bruin coach Kathy Olivier, who played a small part in recruiting Thomas.
“She has a very bubbly personality, which you wouldn’t think,” Thomas said.
The important thing this summer, Thomas said, is that she can focus on playing basketball, not on the high-profile names in the stands.
“It feels good to not have to worry about ‘Oh, that college coach is in the stands’ or ‘Hey, I’m being recruited by that person,’” Thomas said.
Now that the recruiting process is complete, Thomas hopes she can focus solely on becoming a team leader much like Lilley was for Hart High last year.
Hart High coach Dave Munroe and Lilley agree that Thomas’ potential is up to her.
“She can score, obviously, with her body size and the way she can get in there,” Lilley said. “Teams had to pay attention to her. They couldn’t just let her be.”
Thomas has played competitive basketball for only four years. In other words, it’s still a learning process.
“At times before we got into spring ball, she would go to the hole hard, but if it was cut off. She was a little bit out of control,” Munroe said. “I’m teaching her that if you are going hard and you see that somebody is coming to help, pull up and shoot the little jump shot and not force stuff.”
Lilley noticed Thomas’ interest early on when she saw Oregon photos posted as wallpaper on her computer.
Another Hart teammate, Megan Ford, a junior this fall, has received a letter of interest from Oregon, who wanted information on her summer schedule. She had a knee injury early last season and missed 14 games, but came back and played a large role in their championship run, Munroe said.
Canepa received attention from teams across the nation, Berry said, but then restricted her choices to West Coast schools to remain close to her family. She built a close relationship with Oregon coaches and made her decision.
“Nicole’s family is very, very close knit,” Berry said. “I think being 3,000 or even a 1,000 miles East would be very difficult for her family as well as herself.”
Lilley honored
Lilley was named the Los Angeles Times Southern California Player of the Year.
“That was probably one of my biggest achievements,” said Lilley, who played with many of the girls listed on The Times first-team. “The biggest achievement was winning CIF, for sure.”