SCHAUMBURG, Ill. - In this era of hurry-up-and-take-the-scholarship, Amy Jaeschke may seem fairly old school, but actually she's pretty novel.
She's in no rush to commit.
"I know a lot of people who ended up being unhappy and transferring," said the 6-foot-5, four-star center out of Wilmette, Ill. "I want to be careful. I'm going to take my time to make up my mind."
Amy Jaeschke |
Jaeschke, the No. 29 prospect in the HoopGurlz national Hot 100 for the 2007 class, has whittled her list to a final four, however - Maryland, Michigan State, Northwestern and Stanford. She has made a visit to Maryland already and has officials scheduled for Michigan State on Oct. 13 and Northwestern the following week on Oct. 20.
Lest anyone think that Stanford is out of the picture (the Cardinal is known to covet her), Jaeschke says she intends to make an official visit, but just hasn't scheduled one. Complicating matters somewhat is the fact that she has not completed the application process ("I haven't started," Jaeschke admitted), which is a precursor to serious recruitment and scholarship offers by the Stanford coaching staff. She did have an in-home visit by Stanford, however, on Friday.
True centers are a hot commodity, nationally, and Jaeschke is the third-highest ranked uncommitted post (and No. 5 overall by HoopGurlz) behind only Jantel Lavender of Cleveland, Ohio, and Kelley Cain of Atlanta, Ga. Jaeschke is not as mobile as the aforementioned two, but is at least as physical and has a great fundamental grounding to her game, including a tried and true hook shot, as well as good passing skills and solid footwork in the post.
Academics will be a big factor for Jaeschke (and her parents, she adds), though she is undecided on an area of study. "I want to do a billion and one things," she said.
By Jaeschke's reckoning, committing by early signing period - November 8-15 - probably won't be one of those billion and one.
"I'd like to do everything by mid-November," she said. "But I doubt it."
Glenn Nelson is the publisher of HoopGurlz.com and the editor-in-chief of Scout Media (www.Scout.com), an online sports network and magazine-publishing company and subsidiary of Fox Interactive Media. Glenn also founded and coached
the Dragons and Northwest HoopGurlz select girls basketball teams. He previously was a longtime, national-award-winning basketball columnist and writer for The Seattle
Times. His work also has appeared in several national magazines and books. He is co-author of "Rising Stars: The Ten Best Players in the NBA" (Rosen Publishing, 2002). He
can be reached at hoopgurlz@comcast.net.
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