waiting
8-Sports
played point guard — the appropriate
position for her size — and learned how
to deal with enormous pressure when
leading the ball up the court and creating
space.
She kept waiting. High school started
and with it, Goree hit her growth spurt.
By then, Goree had learned to love
being physical and tough, easing the
transition to play in the post and helping
her eventually make the transition to the
collegiate level.
Goree had finally become “Big Byrd.”
***
Today, many Michigan fans wouldn’t
recognize the Crisler Center before its
2012 renovations. For Goree, though, the
two are indistinguishable.
The outside walls were colorless,
windows didn’t line the concourse, and
the building seemed as if it had been out
of commission for years. Inside, players’
benches were on the opposite side of the
court, the jumbotron lacked today’s
enormity,
and
the
lower-level
bleachers were colored maize.
Despite its imperfections, it
still served as home for Goree
when she was a high-school
freshman.
“I kind of feel like
I’ve
been
at
Michigan for
10 years,”
Goree
said. “I was here at those games when
Crisler was the original.”
Mesmerized,
Goree
watched
the
Wolverines closely, envisioning herself
replicating every move and every basket
in her own mind on the very same court.
Nearing the start of high school, the
Grand Rapids native started attending
as many home games as she could.
She idolized players like center Krista
Phillips, forward Carly Benson and guard
Veronica Hicks, and she witnessed the
evolution of the team as it went from
coach Cheryl Burnett to Kevin Borseth,
who later recruited her.
Goree remembered being shy around
the players, who would always say hello,
sign autographs or take a picture with her
after each game.
“I felt like I was a part of the team, even
though I wasn’t,” Goree said. “It’s just
something that I loved and wanted to be
in their shoes one day and give back that
same feeling I got with them.”
She knew she belonged on the Crisler
hardwood. She was just waiting for the
opportunity.
***
The love never subsided, and at the
start of her freshman year, Goree started
signing up for any Michigan basketball
camp she could make. She even spent a
birthday playing inside Crisler. She always
knew that there was only one uniform she
wanted to wear.
At the end of her sophomore year,
though, that dream nearly vanished.
In the first game of the National
Youth Basketball Tournament at
Kalamazoo Courthouse, Goree
went for a block and tore
her right anterior cruciate
ligament.
Fortunately,
the
injury came at the end
of
the
season
with
several months to rehab
her knee before the
start of junior year —
recruitment season. If
there was any chance of
making it to Ann Arbor,
Goree needed to be in top
form.
She
got
a
cadaver
replacement in her right
knee, endured a five-month
recovery period and waited for
the day she could return to full
strength. When she did, there
were two full years ahead of her
to finish high school on a high
note.
Borseth
showed
great
interest
in
Goree,
who
exhibited unequivocal talent
on the court. In just a two-
year span at Wyoming Park
High School — after spending
her first two at Rogers High
School — Goree set the
school’s single-season block
record at 73 while averaging
16.9 points (560 total) and 13.7
rebounds (455).
Goree had also become
even more acquainted with
the Michigan team, and
started attending tailgates
with
players
and
their
families
during
football
season. That was when
she met Sam Arnold, a
freshman forward at the
time and one of Goree’s
best friends to this day.
“I think Byrd has such a
magnetic personality,” Arnold
said. “I think people love
to be around her, and
I think she lights up
a room. … She was all
about Michigan. From
when she was little,
she was waiting for
that offer.”
The
waiting
paid off when she
received a phone
call Borseth.
“We
want
you,” he said.
***
Though
Goree
was finally wearing
maize and blue, she
had to wait another
two years to log her
first
meaningful
minutes.
“For her coming in, there was getting
in shape and being able to play at the
college level and college speed,” Arnold
said. “Getting stronger, getting her
conditioning level up.”
Arnold,
four
other
juniors
and
three seniors were ahead of Goree in
experience, so she sat on the bench for
almost all of her rookie season, playing
just nine minutes in three games.
As she waited, the dream she was living
nearly fell apart once more in March 2012,
before Michigan traveled to Oklahoma for
the NCAA Tournament.
During a practice, Goree cut the wrong
way in a full-court, one-on-one offensive
drill. It was a repeat of the events from
three years before — the same ACL and
right before the first game of a postseason
tournament.
“You never really know how important
it is until it’s gone,” Goree said. “I just
wanted to walk stairs, and couldn’t.”
To rehab the injury, Goree had to be
more disciplined and work even harder
than she had years earlier. But with the
tear occurring in the same leg, it meant
playing time was, once again, far away.
***
In April 2012, Borseth left Michigan,
and former St. John’s coach Kim Barnes
Arico quickly filled his position.
When she arrived, Goree always
told Barnes Arico how much she loved
basketball. But it didn’t mean she would
play.
“You’re rehabbing right now,” Barnes
Arico told her. “You talk a lot, but I need
you to show me how much you love
basketball.”
Goree accepted the challenge.
Before her sophomore season, she
stayed for spring and summer term to
undergo a rigorous physical therapy
schedule: class, rehab, class and back to
rehab in the evening. For three to four
hours a day, she and assistant coach Joy
McCorvey worked to strengthen Goree’s
mobility and basic motions.
When the season approached, Goree
didn’t participate much in practice, and
instead spent her time on the sidelines
doing rehab exercises. Goree wanted
nothing more than to play, and tried
convincing McCorvey she could.
“It was hard for her to sit out and not
be part of stuff on the court,” Arnold said.
“Having people tell her ‘no, no’ was hard
for her to hear, but something that had to
be done.”
Added Goree: “It was all mental for me.
You can easily work hard to get back in
shape, but if your mental game is not set
and where it needs to be at that time, it
can really hurt you.”
Once again, Goree was spending her
time at Crisler like she had in high school:
waiting on the outside while looking in.
***
As Goree continued to adjust to the
college intensity, Barnes Arico still
wasn’t convinced she loved basketball.
Barnes Arico never gave Goree breaks
or free compliments, afraid it would only
make her slack. Barnes Arico didn’t want
her making any excuses, either.
“There’s always roadblocks, whether
that’s in the course of a basketball game,
getting a second foul, missing five shots in
a row, not getting a rebound she wants,”
Barnes Arico said. “Or whether it’s
struggling in a class, or having to do an
extra workout. I always would say to her,
‘you have to find a way to get it done.’ ”
Twenty-five games into the season,
she started winning more and more
battles in practice against that year’s
veterans — Arnold and Sheffer, plus
fellow seniors Jenny Ryan, Nya Jordan
and Kate Thompson. Barnes Arico
couldn’t believe it.
Goree’s progress earned her four
minutes of playing time in the first game
of the 2013 Big Ten Tournament against
Indiana. In that time, she scored four
points and collected two rebounds.
That night, after the win, Barnes
Arico’s husband, Larry, asked why
Goree didn’t play more, saying she was
a valuable asset and even predicting that
she’d make All-Big Ten the next year.
“Sure she will,” Barnes Arico replied
lightheartedly, thinking there was no
way he’d be right.
***
Entering the second half of her career
at Michigan, Goree got her chance to
shine.
This was the new Cyesha Goree — the
one who shed 20 pounds in the offseason
and built the strength she needed to have
in the post. She wasn’t the Goree who had
spent years watching from the bleachers,
or the one lingering in the shadows while
battling a second ACL tear.
Barnes Arico continued to test her
while
establishing
a
new,
scrappy
standard that Goree and the team needed
adjust to. Michigan women’s basketball
was evolving once again, but this time,
Goree was at the center of it.
Goree wasn’t alone in ushering the
change, and she had help in the form
of then-junior guard Shannon Smith, a
transfer from North Carolina.
Both Goree and Smith clicked right
away, with Smith taking on the role of an
instructor, even as a newcomer.
“I haven’t really met someone like
Shannon before,” Goree said. “I think
Shannon brings out the best in me. I
want to say other people on the team are
scared to tell me when I do something
wrong or when I need to fix something.
Shannon’s not.”
Added Smith: “You want what’s best
for your friends. If you see something
that’s not what you think (it) should be,
you call them out on it. Even if you call
them out, you let them know you care.”
Go harder. Run faster. Catch the ball.
They’re the critiques Smith wasn’t afraid
to make, even if she was a newcomer, and
they were the ones that helped Goree
complete her transformation. For her
help, Goree calls Smith her “ace.”
Goree started all but one game last
season en route to a team-best 13 double-
doubles and setting the single-season
rebound record at 317. She also beat the
Michigan NIT scoring record (24) by two
and tied the rebounding record (11), both
set four years earlier by one of her role
models, Krista Phillips.
More importantly, Goree was named
to the All-Big Ten Second Team, just as
Larry Arico had predicted.
“I used to tease her all the time,”
Barnes Arico said. “I used to challenge
her all the time and say, ‘You’re never
gonna get there,’ or ‘You don’t have the
work ethic and the heart to really be
the player that you’re saying that you’re
going to be.’
“The greatest thing about Cyesha is
she has proven me wrong.”
***
Now in her senior year, Goree is the
biggest target on every team’s scouting
report. Even the coach of No. 5 Maryland,
Brenda Frese, said Goree was a “major
concern” before the Jan. 29 matchup.
“Junior year, nobody knew about me,
as a lot of people say, so I wasn’t first
on their (scouting report),” Goree said.
“Now, what am I gonna do when I’m the
first thing on their (scouting report)?
“That can’t stop me.”
It hasn’t. Goree has averaged 14.5
points and 10.6 rebounds while recording
15 double-doubles this season. And
her team can’t afford to have her stop
anytime soon, with Michigan four days
from the Big Ten Tournament and still
looking to make the NCAA Tournament
— a dream still alive thanks to Goree.
“I never knew she would have that
drive, that incredible motor and love for
the game,” Barnes Arico said. “She had
told me about it, but I’ve had millions of
kids through the years tell me they have
it. Not only did she tell me, she showed
me. There have not been very many kids
that have done that through my 20-year
coaching career.
“She’s a story of all stories.”
Tuesday, Michigan earned a blowout
win over Purdue with Goree collecting
team-high 11 rebounds on her Senior
Night. When the game was over, Goree
stood at midcourt, waving to the crowd
with classmates Smith and Nicole
Elmblad by her side.
This was what she had waited for:
to be with her teammates, to play in
Crisler and to inspire those around her.
According to Barnes Arico, it felt like
Goree brought “half of Grand Rapids.”
She brought even more remnants from
her childhood: the nickname “Big Byrd,”
written on a sign held by one of the team’s
male practice players.
As Goree walked back into the tunnel
one last time, leaving Crisler cheering
behind her, she high-fived a few kids
leaning over the railing.
She could finally give back to a younger
generation of women’s basketball players,
the younger Cyesha Gorees.
Big Byrd had waited her turn.
The road to stardom has
been difficult for
Cyesha Goree
By BRAD WHIPPLE
Daily Sports Writer
When Cyesha Goree first stepped onto
a basketball court, it wasn’t to compete
with the girls.
There were fewer opportunities for
a girl to play basketball back then, and
Goree’s best chance would be to sign
up for the girls’ little league at her local
YMCA. But Goree wanted more than that.
Little league wasn’t enough.
So she played with the boys.
Still a few years away from playing
on her middle school girls’ team, Goree
joined the local boys’ league to satisfy
her competitive drive, even if that meant
playing tougher opponents.
More than a decade later, the 6-foot-3
Goree is now the starting center for the
Michigan women’s basketball team, but
the journey has been far from easy —
injuries and personal and physical growth
always tested her patience and grit.
When she started playing in elementary
school, she didn’t have the luxury of the
size advantages she now exploits for
Michigan. Her head was bigger than her
body, so her aunt nicknamed her “Byrd,”
like Tweety Bird, to be exact, which was
later adopted by her teammates. She was
short and really just waiting to grow taller.
Once she was on a girls’ team, Goree
8 — Friday, February 27, 2015
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
THE
GAME
Rita Morris/Daily