Two days before getting out-rebounded by 36, Ball State women’s basketball coach Brady Sallee announced an increase in size in his first recruiting class as the Cardinals’ coach.
Six new players signed their National Letters of Intent Wednesday, three who are more than 6 feet tall.
Sallee said he was pleased with his inaugural class.
“I don’t know if we could’ve put together a group any better,” Sallee said on Saturday.
Ball State will add four in-state players, one from Ohio and one from Wisconsin to its roster.
“We wanted to do a good job in Indiana,” Sallee said. “We got four really high-level players out of the state. The kids that we got out-of-state are impact-level players, so we’re really, really happy overall on how that class came together.”
The three players who are more than 6-feet tall are Renee Bennett, Shelby Merder and Haley Richardson.
The biggest player is Bennett, a 6-foot-5-inch center from Muskego, Wis. She went to Muskego High School and averaged 6.7 points and 2.0 rebounds per game during her junior season.
Merder is a 6-foot-3 forward from Jasper, Ind. and Jasper High School. She averaged 12 points and four blocks per game last season. Merder is also the Jasper High School all-time leader in blocks.
Richardson is a 6-foot-2 guard/forward from Ligonier, Ind. and attended West Noble High School.
Sallee said getting players with size is not only something necessary because of the current team he has now, but also because of his team philosophy.
“We really targeted size. That was really important,” Sallee said. “I’m big on being the longest team on the floor, and I think this class definitely helps us do that. Clearly, we don’t have whole lot of that right now, so it will definitely help us.”
The other three players in Sallee’s first recruiting class are Frannie Frazier, Calyn Hosea and Jill Morrison.
Morrison attended Winchester High School, just 25 miles away from Worthen Arena, where she’ll play for the foreseeable future. She was named the 2011-12 Muncie Star Press Athlete of the Year and led the entire state of Indiana in scoring with 27.1 points per game.
“These six young ladies are exactly what we had to have as we build our program,” Sallee said in a news release on Thursday. “They bring diverse talents to the table, but the things they have in common, toughness and competitiveness, are necessities.”
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