Ignatius L Hoops
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http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/...-terps-women-seniors-0226-20170223-story.html
It's Senior Day for the Terps:
Four years of growing up in Xfinity Center, and they had never stared at the banners from this vantage point. The names — Coleman, Toliver, Doron, Bullett — looked back at them on eye level.
As Brionna Jones and Shatori Walker-Kimbrough posed for photos on a catwalk above the arena where they've won 63 games and lost just five, their position seemed fitting. The two seniors are now immense figures in the story of Maryland women's basketball, just like the All-Americans who preceded them to the rafters.
On Sunday, when the Terps host Minnesota, that status will be formalized. A veil will drop to reveal their jerseys, residing in the pantheon.
It was hardly clear that would be the case when Jones and Walker-Kimbrough arrived in College Park in the summer of 2013. They were solid prospects but hardly the cream of the crop if you perused ESPN's HoopGurlz rankings. Jones was rehabilitating a bum knee and needed to lose 40 pounds. Walker-Kimbrough was a toothpick who had only recently settled on basketball as her primary sport. Coach Brenda Frese had to keep shouting that greatness was within her reach, because Walker-Kimbrough didn't always believe it herself...
...But even as chaos sometimes reigned around them, the pair maintained a relentless ascent. Walker-Kimbrough became the greatest sharpshooter in the history of the program, Jones the surest two points in the women's college game.
"They're both extremely competitive, Shatori outwardly and Bri inwardly," Frese said, reflecting on her senior stars. "You see that consistency in the way they prepare — the first to arrive for workouts and the last to leave."
Jones and Walker-Kimbrough have led such dogged, head-down lives that they seem almost befuddled by how high they've climbed now that they're down to a handful of college games.
It's Senior Day for the Terps:
Four years of growing up in Xfinity Center, and they had never stared at the banners from this vantage point. The names — Coleman, Toliver, Doron, Bullett — looked back at them on eye level.
As Brionna Jones and Shatori Walker-Kimbrough posed for photos on a catwalk above the arena where they've won 63 games and lost just five, their position seemed fitting. The two seniors are now immense figures in the story of Maryland women's basketball, just like the All-Americans who preceded them to the rafters.
On Sunday, when the Terps host Minnesota, that status will be formalized. A veil will drop to reveal their jerseys, residing in the pantheon.
It was hardly clear that would be the case when Jones and Walker-Kimbrough arrived in College Park in the summer of 2013. They were solid prospects but hardly the cream of the crop if you perused ESPN's HoopGurlz rankings. Jones was rehabilitating a bum knee and needed to lose 40 pounds. Walker-Kimbrough was a toothpick who had only recently settled on basketball as her primary sport. Coach Brenda Frese had to keep shouting that greatness was within her reach, because Walker-Kimbrough didn't always believe it herself...
...But even as chaos sometimes reigned around them, the pair maintained a relentless ascent. Walker-Kimbrough became the greatest sharpshooter in the history of the program, Jones the surest two points in the women's college game.
"They're both extremely competitive, Shatori outwardly and Bri inwardly," Frese said, reflecting on her senior stars. "You see that consistency in the way they prepare — the first to arrive for workouts and the last to leave."
Jones and Walker-Kimbrough have led such dogged, head-down lives that they seem almost befuddled by how high they've climbed now that they're down to a handful of college games.