The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/447116
shape and I was 100 percent healthy and I was able to do things that al- lowed me to be successful. "I wasn't focused on numbers or anything. I just went out and played hard, had fun and tried to win." Now a senior, Goree led the Wol- verines in minutes played (31.5 per game) and rebounding (10.6 per game) as of Jan. 15. She was just a shade behind the leading scorer Katelynn Flaherty (14.7 points per g a m e ) a t 1 4 . 5 points per game. Goree has man- aged to average a double-double through the sea- son thus far, and while doing that for an entire sea- s o n s e e m s i m - possible, Barnes Arico is amazed that she's been able to do it for even this long. "I didn't think it would be realis- tic for her to do it up to this point, especially with the attention that she's getting every game," Barnes Arico said. "She's now the first per- son on the other team's scouting re- port and she has still managed to average a double-double even being the focal point of every other team. That's pretty impressive. "She just keeps finding ways to be effective. Sometimes it's scoring, some days it's rebounding, obvi- ously some days it's both and she gives that to the team almost every night. She keeps finding a way and she keeps getting better and better. It's great for her confidence and for our team as well." Filling the stat sheet and winning games is obviously important to Goree, but she just hopes that when her playing days are over that her teammates and people that watched her play recognize what she did at Michigan. "I hope they say I did whatever it took," she said. "I'd want them to say that I worked hard. I'd like to think I do the intangibles. I dive for loose balls, I take charges, and I want to do all the little things and do whatever it takes to try to win and be suc- cessful. I hope o u r y o u n g e r players can look u p t o m e f o r that." Goree's basketball career isn't over yet, but when it is she'll be able to look back and reflect on quite a journey. When she's coach- ing someday, she'll be able to give words of advice that run the gamut of experience. "I can relate to every player," she said. "I can relate to a freshman who's not playing. I can relate to a person who's been injured. I can relate to someone who's been suc- cessful like I was my junior year. Nothing is impossible and I've lived that. "In just two years, I went from not playing at all to being second-team All-Big Ten. You can do anything with hard work." ❑ Goree "Nothing is impossible, and I've lived that. In just two years, I went from not playing at all to being second-team All-Big Ten. You can do anything with hard work."