Coastal Carolina women’s basketball adds nine-player recruiting class

Coastal Carolina women’s basketball coach Jaida Williams said she hopes the recruiting class the Chanticleers announced Friday is the last large class she needs to bring in for a while.

And large might be an understatement.

The Chants announced the addition of nine incoming players, including six true freshmen, two junior college transfers and one graduate transfer.

Not all of those players are coming in on scholarship, and the Chants also have three underclassmen from their 2014-15 roster who are not returning in addition to departed senior leader AJ Jordan. Williams said forward Anna Vogt, the team’s second-leading scorer and leading rebounder last season, center Alira Mihocic and guard Karsen Sims have left the program.

As for the newcomers, 6-foot-4 center Patricia Albert (Chicago, Ill.), 5-foot-10 guard Kennedy Archer (Indianapolis, Ind.), 5-foot-9 guard Breelyn Blanding (Columbia), 5-foot-9 guard Courtney Clasen (Shoreham, N.Y.), 5-foot-10 guard Di’janai Williams (Moreno Valley, Calif.) and 6-foot-4 forward Jamie Williams are the true freshmen while 5-foot-11 forward Derriel Banyard (State Fair Community College in Missouri) and 6-foot-1 forward Yasmin Miller (Northeast Community College in Norfolk, Neb.) are the junior college transfers and 5-foot-11 guard/forward Rachael Gregory (Buffalo) is a graduate transfer.

“This is hopefully the last large recruiting class we’ll have. We are done with the Kentucky basketball type of recruiting where we have the mass numbers,” Williams said with a laugh. “But no, I’m really excited. This recruiting class we really wanted to get longer. I think that’s a piece that has helped make so many teams successful in our league.”

Clasen and Di’janai Williams were McDonald’s All-American nominees in high school, according to the Chants’ news release.

Clasen averaged 14.1 points and 10.0 rebounds per game last season for Shoreham-Wading River High School and recorded a triple-double in the 2014 Class A New York state tournament with 11 points, 14 rebounds and 10 blocks.

Williams, who initially signed with UC Santa Barbara before that program changed out its coaching staff, according to Jaida Williams, averaged 21 points and nine rebounds per game as a senior at JW North High School.

“With Courtney, we were her second visit and she had a couple visits after us planned, and she fell in love with the school and knew this is where she wanted to be,” Jaida Williams said. “And DJ was a major player on the west coast. We’re very lucky to have her. She’s a kid that could have gone [to a] low BCS [conference school]. She was very coveted coming out of high school.”

Gregory, the graduate transfer, averaged 8.3 points and 4.8 rebounds last season for Buffalo, and Williams emphasized her versatility and maturity while projecting her as bringing needed leadership to the roster.

Williams didn’t specify which players were coming in on scholarship and which were walking on to the program and said it’s too soon to project who will contribute right away and who will potentially redshirt.

She’s encouraged this recruiting class provides the foundation she needs to move the program forward after finishing 12-18 in her second season as head coach.

“Right now the beauty of it is they all have skill, they all have competitiveness,” she said. “When you have a roster the size of our roster, the cream is going to rise to the top. So to point a finger and say this particular person is going to be the AJ Jordan of our recruiting class, that’s a little unfair. The ones that play the best together, play the hardest, play Coastal Carolina basketball are the ones that are going to play on the court.”

As for the players not returning from last season, Williams didn’t offer definitive reasons for their departures and said she didn’t know their future basketball plans. She noted that Sims had struggled with the foot injury that sidelined her all of last season. Mihocic made four starts and played in 29 games while average 3.0 points and 4.6 rebounds.

Williams indicated that Vogt, who averaged 13.9 points and 7.7 rebounds as a junior, had family matters that made her want to be closer to her home in Missouri.

The Chants also had five players with remaining eligibility not return to the team after Williams’ first season in 2013-14.

“I think that’s typical when you take over a program,” she said.

“… I think it’s pretty normal when building a base when you look at the transfers across America, Coastal does not stand out with our turnover number. I know for sure last year it was well over 400 [in college basketball].

“I think it’s becoming more common place, I think it’s becoming more of common thing than people realize. There are several factors that go into playing Division I athletics. I don’t think it’s anything coaches shoud be ashamed of. It happens and it happens in large numbers all around the country.”

This story was originally published May 8, 2015 at 10:15 PM with the headline "Coastal Carolina women’s basketball adds nine-player recruiting class."