The recruiting season is nearly over for the UAA women's basketball team, and the early reviews are glowing.
"I don't want to say we upgraded, because that was a special group," UAA coach Ryan McCarthy said of the bunch that won a Division II-record 38 games and finished second in the nation last season.
"But from an athletic standpoint, we have a great chance to be even more athletic."
Case in point: UAA's newest recruit, Division I transfer Autummn Williams, is a 5-foot-10 senior who McCarthy thinks could be the best-leaping guard he's ever coached.
"Autummn can touch the rim," he said. "We didn't have a guard who could do that (last season)."
Williams comes to UAA from Little Rock, where as a junior she saw limited action in 11 games for the 20-13 Trojans.
Before Little Rock, Williams had a stellar junior college career at Trinity Valley Community College in Athens, Texas. She started both seasons, helping the team to the junior college national championship as a freshman and to a third-place finish as a sophomore. She averaged 12.9 points and 3.5 rebounds her sophomore year and 8.4 points and 3.1 rebounds her freshman year.
Defensively, McCarthy said, Williams plays the way the Seawolves do — with tenacity and the ability to run the full length of the court.
Williams is the fifth recruit to sign with UAA, which lost seven seniors from last season. One of the newcomers will join the Seawolves right out of high school, but the others all come with at least two years of college experience.
"We're bringing in a nice blend of skilled players and athletic players — and a lot of experience," McCarthy said. "We went pretty heavy in the JUCO ranks, so we have some players with college minutes.
"We needed some impact newcomers."
McCarthy said he expects to announce one more addition, possibly next week.
Williams is one of two signees who boast Division I experience. Shelby Cloninger, a 6-foot junior forward, spent last season at North Idaho Community College but played D-I ball at Utah State as a freshman.
"When they're coming from Division I, one thing I'm finding is they want to win," McCarthy said. "They're leaving because something wasn't right, the fit wasn't there, but the underlying thing is they want to play for something."
At UAA, they have a good chance to be playing in the postseason. The Seawolves were 67-5 over the last two seasons and were Division II's top-ranked team during portions of both seasons.
The Seawolves made it all the way to the Division II national championship game in March, which not surprisingly has come in handy during McCarthy's recruiting efforts this spring.
"It's helped out a lot," McCarthy said. "Even if they know nothing about Alaska, they know this."
Besides Williams and Cloninger, UAA's new players include 5-9 junior guard Kaitlyn Hurley (of Snow College), 5-9 junior guard Zhara Laster (of Washington's Peninsula College), and 5-7 freshman guard Kimijah King of Seattle's Lakeside High School.
On paper, it's a promising group. Everyone comes with impressive stats and achievements.
"It's just a question of how fast can we learn the defensive system and get into the proper shape and stay healthy and gel from a chemistry standpoint," McCarthy said. "How fast can we learn — and how fast can we learn about each other?"