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When Chaz Franklin was an assistant with the Marquette women’s basketball team last season, he had a prescient conversation with forward Halle Vice.
Franklin, now the head of player development for the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun, threw out the idea that Vice could be one of the top rebounders ever at MU.
Upon first glance, the 6-foot-1 Vice might not look like a player who can pull down double-digit boards. But closely watch her relentlessness and her ability to find the ball, and it’s clear why the junior is averaging a Big East-best 8.9 rebounds per game.
“It’s funny because she screenshotted me the text message from when we were talking last year,” Franklin said. “And I’m like, ‘Yeah, you can rebound in your area and outside your area and that’s a really valuable skill.’ ”
The Golden Eagles will face top-ranked Connecticut on Feb. 14 at the Al McGuire Center, and the focus whenever coach Geno Auriemma’s team comes to town is the overwhelming amount of talent on the Huskies, including former Germantown High School star KK Arnold, Allie Ziebell from Neenah and former Wisconsin Badgers standout Serah Williams, who transferred after last season.
But MU has a couple of players who have intriguing pro prospects.
Vice is one that has emerged this season. She is also averaging 14.1 points per game and has knocked down 43.2% of her 44 3-point attempts.
“She’s a pro, for sure,” Franklin said. “It’s just a matter of where. How much better can she get?
“Can she play in this league (WNBA)? I think that’s to be determined, but I certainly think she has the potential to because the skill is rebounding and stretching the floor. She can defend multiple positions.”
MU coach Cara Consuegra has been asked a lot this season about Vice’s nose for rebounding, and Consuegra has a ready answer.
“Halle has one of the highest motors out of any kid I’ve ever coached,” Consuegra said. “Like, she just plays really, really hard. And she just does a great job tracking the ball.
“Some rebounders are just naturally gifted as rebounders because they can see the ball and see the path of it and they can go get it. Halle has both things that make you a great rebounder. She goes hard, she crashes every time and she finds the ball and goes and gets it.”
Vice has 11 games with 10 or more rebounds this season, with a high of 19 against Xavier on Jan. 1.
Her non-stop motor was evident even as a young player at Pleasant Valley High School in Bettendorf, Iowa.
“That’s just how I play,” Vice said. “I play hard … I embody that more and more because that’s what my team needed in college.
“And I’ve just kind of grown into it. So I feel like it’s natural, but I also have to work at it, too. Just because people try to take things away from you and people try to stop you from rebounding.”
Vice credits the male practice players at MU for pushing her.
“They challenge me every day,” she said. “They have a motor themselves.”
Vice was also a standout volleyball player in high school, and those skills also seem to help her out-wit bigger and stronger players for the ball.
“I feel like being a multi-sport athlete in high school has helped me in many different ways playing basketball in college,” Vice said. “You just learn how to use your body differently. You learn different angles, you learn how to high-point a ball.”
Vice still has another season in college after this one, but the prospect of being a professional basketball player is clearly something that interests her.
“I think it would be an awesome opportunity to go pro,” she said. “Really anywhere. Definitely a goal of mine. It would be a dream. It would be cool.”
Former MU players such as Jordan King, Lauren Van Kleunen, Liza Karlen and Frannie Hottinger have established pro careers overseas.
Making a WNBA roster is highly competitive, even for first-round draft picks. Vice, Skylar Forbes and Lee Volker will be MU players who at least will get a look.
Volker is averaging 12.0 points per game and shooting a scorching 43.5% on 3-pointers in her fifth college season.
“Lee Volker is an interesting prospect for me because Lee started out at Duke University,” Franklin said. “When you start out at Duke as a true freshman, there’s already a talent level.
“Because you don’t just go to Duke because you like Duke. Duke is an elite basketball program and the coach (Kara Lawson) is the coach of the women’s national team. The coach of the women’s national team picked Lee Volker, so that says a lot.”
The 6-1 Volker’s lateral quickness would be challenged in the WNBA.
“But she is smart enough to be a good team defender,” Franklin said.
Forbes is MU’s top scorer at 15.5 points per game. Her inside-out game has long attracted the attention of WNBA scouts. Like Vice, Forbes has another season of eligibility.
Franklin worked closely with Forbes when Franklin was at MU. He tries not to let his personal connections with the Golden Eagles’ players cloud his evaluations.
“I am also pinging these ideas off other people and doing blind tests,” Franklin said. “So let’s take the name off the board of Skylar Forbes.
“Let’s just make it a blank picture: 6-3, international (Forbes is a native of Canada), plays positions 3 and 4, so on and so forth. Shoots this, shoots that, first-team all-Big East as a sophomore, that kind of thing. Shooting this from the 3-point line, on the second-ranked defensive team in the Big East, so she has to defend, which is non-negotiable for a Cara Consuegra team.”
How Vice, Forbes and Volker fare against Connecticut's roster will be closely watched by pro scouts.
Franklin was in person at the first MU-UConn matchup this season, an easy 89-53 victory by the Huskies on Dec. 17 in Hartford, Connecticut.
“UConn has an embarrassing amount of talent,” Franklin said, evidenced by the Huskies' 40-point average margin of victory this season. “But some of the actions they wanted to run, Marquette was able to be disruptive.
“Then you also have (Huskies star) Azzi Fudd, who at the end of day when everything goes to crash, she just shoots a 25-footer because it’s the only shot available. But it goes in.
“There’s a gap between UConn and everybody. They are undefeated. They’ve been killing everybody. (The Golden Eagles) are actively working to close the gap. And I can see it from time to time, right? In spurts. So Marquette is moving in the right direction, for sure.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Marquette's Halle Vice is a rebounding machine. Is she a WNBA prospect?
Continue reading...
Franklin, now the head of player development for the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun, threw out the idea that Vice could be one of the top rebounders ever at MU.
Upon first glance, the 6-foot-1 Vice might not look like a player who can pull down double-digit boards. But closely watch her relentlessness and her ability to find the ball, and it’s clear why the junior is averaging a Big East-best 8.9 rebounds per game.
“It’s funny because she screenshotted me the text message from when we were talking last year,” Franklin said. “And I’m like, ‘Yeah, you can rebound in your area and outside your area and that’s a really valuable skill.’ ”
The Golden Eagles will face top-ranked Connecticut on Feb. 14 at the Al McGuire Center, and the focus whenever coach Geno Auriemma’s team comes to town is the overwhelming amount of talent on the Huskies, including former Germantown High School star KK Arnold, Allie Ziebell from Neenah and former Wisconsin Badgers standout Serah Williams, who transferred after last season.
But MU has a couple of players who have intriguing pro prospects.
Vice is one that has emerged this season. She is also averaging 14.1 points per game and has knocked down 43.2% of her 44 3-point attempts.
“She’s a pro, for sure,” Franklin said. “It’s just a matter of where. How much better can she get?
“Can she play in this league (WNBA)? I think that’s to be determined, but I certainly think she has the potential to because the skill is rebounding and stretching the floor. She can defend multiple positions.”
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Cara Consuegra likes Halle Vice’s non-stop motor
MU coach Cara Consuegra has been asked a lot this season about Vice’s nose for rebounding, and Consuegra has a ready answer.
“Halle has one of the highest motors out of any kid I’ve ever coached,” Consuegra said. “Like, she just plays really, really hard. And she just does a great job tracking the ball.
“Some rebounders are just naturally gifted as rebounders because they can see the ball and see the path of it and they can go get it. Halle has both things that make you a great rebounder. She goes hard, she crashes every time and she finds the ball and goes and gets it.”
Vice has 11 games with 10 or more rebounds this season, with a high of 19 against Xavier on Jan. 1.
Her non-stop motor was evident even as a young player at Pleasant Valley High School in Bettendorf, Iowa.
“That’s just how I play,” Vice said. “I play hard … I embody that more and more because that’s what my team needed in college.
“And I’ve just kind of grown into it. So I feel like it’s natural, but I also have to work at it, too. Just because people try to take things away from you and people try to stop you from rebounding.”
Vice credits the male practice players at MU for pushing her.
“They challenge me every day,” she said. “They have a motor themselves.”
Vice was also a standout volleyball player in high school, and those skills also seem to help her out-wit bigger and stronger players for the ball.
“I feel like being a multi-sport athlete in high school has helped me in many different ways playing basketball in college,” Vice said. “You just learn how to use your body differently. You learn different angles, you learn how to high-point a ball.”
You must be registered for see images attach
Skylar Forbes, Lee Volker are also pro prospects for MU
Vice still has another season in college after this one, but the prospect of being a professional basketball player is clearly something that interests her.
“I think it would be an awesome opportunity to go pro,” she said. “Really anywhere. Definitely a goal of mine. It would be a dream. It would be cool.”
Former MU players such as Jordan King, Lauren Van Kleunen, Liza Karlen and Frannie Hottinger have established pro careers overseas.
Making a WNBA roster is highly competitive, even for first-round draft picks. Vice, Skylar Forbes and Lee Volker will be MU players who at least will get a look.
Volker is averaging 12.0 points per game and shooting a scorching 43.5% on 3-pointers in her fifth college season.
“Lee Volker is an interesting prospect for me because Lee started out at Duke University,” Franklin said. “When you start out at Duke as a true freshman, there’s already a talent level.
“Because you don’t just go to Duke because you like Duke. Duke is an elite basketball program and the coach (Kara Lawson) is the coach of the women’s national team. The coach of the women’s national team picked Lee Volker, so that says a lot.”
The 6-1 Volker’s lateral quickness would be challenged in the WNBA.
“But she is smart enough to be a good team defender,” Franklin said.
You must be registered for see images attach
Forbes is MU’s top scorer at 15.5 points per game. Her inside-out game has long attracted the attention of WNBA scouts. Like Vice, Forbes has another season of eligibility.
Franklin worked closely with Forbes when Franklin was at MU. He tries not to let his personal connections with the Golden Eagles’ players cloud his evaluations.
“I am also pinging these ideas off other people and doing blind tests,” Franklin said. “So let’s take the name off the board of Skylar Forbes.
“Let’s just make it a blank picture: 6-3, international (Forbes is a native of Canada), plays positions 3 and 4, so on and so forth. Shoots this, shoots that, first-team all-Big East as a sophomore, that kind of thing. Shooting this from the 3-point line, on the second-ranked defensive team in the Big East, so she has to defend, which is non-negotiable for a Cara Consuegra team.”
How Vice, Forbes and Volker fare against Connecticut's roster will be closely watched by pro scouts.
Franklin was in person at the first MU-UConn matchup this season, an easy 89-53 victory by the Huskies on Dec. 17 in Hartford, Connecticut.
“UConn has an embarrassing amount of talent,” Franklin said, evidenced by the Huskies' 40-point average margin of victory this season. “But some of the actions they wanted to run, Marquette was able to be disruptive.
“Then you also have (Huskies star) Azzi Fudd, who at the end of day when everything goes to crash, she just shoots a 25-footer because it’s the only shot available. But it goes in.
“There’s a gap between UConn and everybody. They are undefeated. They’ve been killing everybody. (The Golden Eagles) are actively working to close the gap. And I can see it from time to time, right? In spurts. So Marquette is moving in the right direction, for sure.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Marquette's Halle Vice is a rebounding machine. Is she a WNBA prospect?
Continue reading...
