The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/246097
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL PROFILE Cyesha Goree's Improvement Creates Post Presence Junior forward Cyesha Goree logged 31 total minutes, scored 13 points and grabbed six rebounds in just 12 game appearances over her first two years on campus. In the summer leading up to this season, head coach Kim Barnes Arico mentioned that Goree may double her career minutes in the Wolverines' first game of the season because there was a gaping hole in the post Goree notched six double-doubles while averaging 11.6 points and 9.7 rebounds per contest during U-M's 13-5 start. PHOTO COURTESY MICHIGAN ATHLETIC MEDIA RELATIONS after Rachel Sheffer and Sam Arnold both graduated. There was a twinge of doubt in Barnes Arico's voice when she said it. "There were times during the first year I got to know her where she would miss a class or do something," Barnes Arico said. "I said, 'Your biggest challenge is to be great every day, not 75 percent of the time.' Whether that's basketball, training habits, eating habits or the classroom, you want to be great every day. "Being at Michigan is not only about playing basketball. If she didn't take care of business and strive for excellence in the classroom as much as on the basketball court, she wasn't going to have an opportunity to play. She really took that to heart. She knew with graduation that this was her opportunity, and I was thinking, 'What are we going to do?'" Goree answered the call better than Barnes Arico could have hoped. Instead of going home for summer break, Goree elected to stay in Ann Arbor and take classes, which she aced. She also worked with the Michigan strength and conditioning staff as much as she could and did extra conditioning on her own. By the end of the summer, Goree was in the best shape of her life. At the outset of teams drills and practices, she was able to go full speed. "It started last year toward the end of the season," Goree said. "Our seniors were going to leave. They left a great mark on the program, and we were like, 'We want to build on this and become a successful program.' At that point, I put everything I had into it, so I could help