Women's Hoops Hello: Hallie Thome
Kim Barnes Arico and the Michigan women's basketball program rounded out their terrific 2015 recruiting class with a verbal commitment today from Hallie Thome, a 6-5 center from Chagrin Falls, Ohio (a suburb of Cleveland). Two major ranking services have her in their top 100 for 2015: Blue Star has her at #63 and ASGR at #82 (the latter may be out of date as it's from an October 2013 posting, but it's the most recent public ranking that I know of).
I don't have a recent scouting report to post, mainly because Thome suffered a torn ACL last December and missed the rest of her junior season at Chagrin Falls. During the seven games she played before getting hurt, she averaged 19.8 points, 9.8 rebounds, and 2.7 blocks. She's now back with her AAU team, SMAC, playing with them during last week's evaluation period.
Here's a brief scouting report from Blue Star from back in 2012:
This 6-4 center from Chagrin Falls is becoming one of the best interior players in this class. She can post up and score with a variety of moves including the step thru. The ability is there to use her left and right hand equally well inside. She can rebound and is very mobile. Thome plays physically and can defend her position well.
Thome took her official visit to Michigan back in May. The last I heard she had narrowed it down to U-M, Michigan State, and Louisville, taking official visits to each. There were a bunch of other high-major programs who had pursued her, including Kentucky, Ohio State, Purdue, and Vanderbilt. (EDIT: The News-Herald article linked in a reply includes Kentucky among her finalists, so she likely took an official there as well.)
The Michigan staff has now essentially assembled a full squad in the 2015 class:
- PG: Lauren "Boogie" Brozoski (Hello post)
- SG: Nicole Munger (Hello post)
- W: Naomi Davenport (Hello post)
- F: Sam Trammel (Hello post)
- P: Hallie Thome
All five players are ranked in the top 100 by at least one of the major recruiting services. Blue Star has four of the five in their top 100—Davenport #27, Munger #52, Thome #63, and Brozoski #67—with Trammel at #163. Michigan's 2014 class was consensus top 25; the 2015 class will certainly be ranked even higher. The combination of the two should have Michigan competing for Big Ten titles and advancing further in the NCAA tourney than they ever have.
Too bad this isn't a softball upate, because that would be quite a recruiting class!
Here's a photo Thome posted when she announced her commitment:
Any relation to Jim Thome? I seem to remember him being from that area.
Either way, welcome to the family!
I figured someone would ask that. I've looked into it and never found a definitive answer. WikiAnswers has this seemingly contradictory answer:
Unfortunately, no! Although there is a very distant relationship between the two families, Hallie's family pronounces their last name to rhyme with "Home."
To me, this means they are related but only very distantly.
Here's a chart outlining the 2015-16 roster as it currently stands. At this point, there are no open scholarships for 2015. (For those who missed it, Rebecca Lyttle transferred after the end of the 2013-14 season to Northern Kentucky, coached by former Michigan associate head coach Dawn Plitzuweit.)
| Name | Position | Hgt. | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Madison Ristovski | PG | 5-10 | Sr. |
| Halle Wangler (walk-on) | G | 5-9 | Sr. |
| Kelsey Mitchell | F | 6-0 | Sr. |
| Paige Rakers | SG | 5-11 | Jr. |
| Siera Thompson | PG | 5-7 | Jr. |
| Danielle Williams | G | 5-9 | Jr. |
| Maria Backman | W/F | 6-2 | So. |
| Jillian Dunston | G/W | 6-0 | So. |
| Katelynn Flaherty | PG | 5-7 | So. |
| Emoni Jackson | W/F | 6-1 | So. |
| Terra Stapleton | C | 6-4 | So. |
| Lauren "Boogie" Brozoski | PG | 5-5 | Fr. |
| Naomi Davenport | W | 5-11 | Fr. |
| Nicole Munger | SG | 5-8 | Fr. |
| Hallie Thome | C | 6-5 | Fr. |
| Sam Trammel | F | 6-1 | Fr. |
Death, taxes, that new uniform thread is always started by Wolverine Devotee, and this other thread that got inexplicably negged by one person is always Voltron is Handsome
The News-Herald has an article on Thome's commitment following an interview with her. It says she picked Michigan over Michigan State, Louisville, and Kentucky, so she must have taken an official to Kentucky as well. Here's an excerpt:
“It’s crazy. I’m definitely so excited,” said Thome, who announced her decision on Twitter earlier in the afternoon on July 18. “I don’t know why it took me so long to pick Michigan. They were there from Day 1.”
. . .
Thome, who averaged 19.8 points and 9.8 rebounds per game last season before being injured, called Michigan head coach Kim Arico with the good news of her commitment.
“She started screaming,” Thome said. “She was like, ‘Oh my god.! I’m in a car. You’ve gotta call Coach Mel and tell her, too.”
Mel Moore is an assistant at Michigan who helped recruit Thome.
“She said it was such an exciting day for them,” Thome said of Arico’s message.
Thome’s game, for the most part, has been post-oriented. Her height, physical strength and soft touch have made her a difficult matchup in the paint over the years.
She is working on expanding her repertoire by extending her shooting range this summer.
“It’s very important because most are used to guarding me down low in the post,” she said. “Now they’ll have to come out and guard me. I’ll have the opportunity to drive more to the hoop.
“I want to be an all-around player.”
You are kind of obsessed about the in-state players, aren't you? I've said this before: The Michigan coaches recruited them hard early but then the older sister committed to MSU. At that point, Michigan had little chance at the younger one and already had some guards committed just as highly ranked as the Gondrezicks. It's pretty much time to move on at that point, isn't it?
They're good players, sure, but Michigan will be just fine without them.
Women's recruiting seems extremely difficult to follow. I coached, tennis, against Indiana's Miss Basketball and was amazed to see how far down the list she was nationally. After years of seeing Mr. Basketball generally being an extremely highly recruited person, it was a bit strange.
Have to say that I'm glad to finally see her graduate though. I've always felt bad for my #1 singles player having to play against a D1 caliber athlete multiple times a year.
August 15th, 2014 at 12:39 PM ^
Hallie Thome is now ranked #90 in ASGR's updated 2015 rankings. Rankings for Michigan's other 2015 commits:
- 91. Boogie Brozoski
- 100. Naomi Davenport
- 113. Nicole Munger
- 141. Sam Trammel
ASGR has the class ranked #31 in the country, although that doesn't take into account recent commits, including Thome's.