Perhaps helping to ease the sting of losing highly touted freshman Morgan Jones a few weeks ago, the Wildcats picked up a heralded recruit in the spring signing period, Devon Brookshire. She is a 6'3" lefty wing from California, who missed the latter part of her junior year due to an ankle injury, but came on really strong as a senior, averaging 18.8 points and 10.3 rebounds in a pretty tough league.
ESPN has her rated at three stars and the 56th best wing prospect in her class. Brookshire chose NU over Arizona State, Georgia Tech and Brigham Young. She joins three other freshmen who will be on campus in the fall: fellow wings Maggie Lyon and Lauren Douglas and post Christen Johnson. All are solid prospects and will give the Wildcats a lot more depth than they had this past year.
In other news, the Wildcats' coaching staff will have a new look next year, as head coach Joe McKeown's top assistant, Ali Jacques, is taking over Siena's program. Kudos to Jacques, who came to NU with McKeown after serving with him two years at George Washington.
Siena's gain is NU's loss, since Jacques had an excellent reputation, both as a recruiter and on-court coach. She has been the recruiting coordinator for NU, and it's no coincidence that the Wildcats' talent level has increased significantly in the last few years. No word yet on who might replace her.
NU's coming off a 14-16 year, missing the postseason after making the NIT the two previous years.