The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/544673
BY MICHAEL SPATH K atelynn Flaherty returned to Ann Arbor and the Michigan women's bas- ketball team in July after a visit home to Point Pleasant, N.J., but her trip back east was far from a vacation. Her father, Tom, treated Flaherty to marathon training ses- sions, routinely clocking six hours of weights, running, and work on the hard court to prepare her for the 2015-16 season. "He'd say, 'If you don't have a job, then you need to work' and we'd go at it morning, day and into the evening every day I was home," said Flaherty, who learned through sheer exhaustion the demands of being a college athlete last season. "Going into my freshman year, I was thinking, 'It's basketball' but you have school and study hall. You have to lift and do conditioning, and then practice. It's a whole different level. "And then you're playing against the best athletes in the country with a recovery period of one or two days. My body definitely had to be kicked into gear. "This year I feel more confident. Last year, it was a lot of, 'Let's just get through it' but this year, I'm say- ing to myself, 'Let's kill it.'" Both Flaherty and head coach Kim Barnes Arico say the 5-7 guard hit the proverbial freshman wall during her rookie campaign, but it's not easy to see where — Flaherty scored in double figures in 27 of 35 games for the Wolverines, leading U-M in scor- ing with 14.3 points per game. She had her share of clunkers, scor- ing three points on 1-of-11 shooting against Notre Dame Dec. 13 and missed all seven of her shots against Illinois Feb. 28, but Flaherty never went back-to-back games scoring in single digits, and strung together five streaks of at least three consecutive contests with 10 or more points. "She came in as such an incredible scorer, but the speed of the game, the physicality of the game, took its toll a little initially and shook her confi- dence a little bit," said Barnes Arico. "But the season progressed, and she continued to work on her game. She got some extra time in the gym with Coach [Megan] Duffy — they FEMALE ROOKIE OF THE YEAR KATELYNN FLAHERTY SLAM DUNK Katelynn Flaherty Made A Strong First Impression By Leading Michigan In Scoring