University of Minnesota Athletics
Gopher Spotlight: Micaella Riche
12/7/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Note: This is a feature story on freshman forward Micaëlla Riché that ran in last Thursday's Minnesota Basketball Game Program. Riché, a native of Gloucester, Ontario, had a career-high seven points in that game, a 63-58 win versus Virginia Tech in the ACC / Big Ten Challenge. She talks about her experiences as a member of the Canadian Junior National Team and her transition to NCAA Division I collegiate basketball.
By Justine Buerkle, Athletic Communications student assistant
This may be Micaëlla Riché's first year in the Big Ten, but she is not new to playing on a big stage. The Golden Gophers' 6-2 freshman forward/center out of Gloucester, Ontario, has represented both her province and her country on the basketball court.
Most recently, Riché played for the Canadian Junior National Team, helping it earn a bronze medal at the FIBA Americas U18 Championship for Women this past June. This wasn't the first hardware Riché took home. Her provincial team won bronze at the U17 Canada Games in 2009, partially due to her 23-point, nine-rebound effort in the medal game. Her U15 provincial team won gold in 2007.
"My gold medal with the U15 team was like the biggest deal of my life, because it was the first time I'd been at such a high level and it was gold, too," Riché said. "My bronze medal for summer games in 2009, it was good, but it was like an upset. We were supposed to win gold, but in the semi-final game the other team showed up more than we did, so we lost that one...For FIBA, we were hoping for silver, but we lost to Brazil by one in the semis. They came back, so it was another upset, but it was still a huge deal. It was really cool."
Riché isn't the only player on her Canadian teams to play college basketball in the U.S. Names of her teammates can be found on the rosters for Duquesne (Wumi Agunbiade), Marquette (Katherine Plouffe), Utah (Michelle Plouffe), and Lehigh (Alexandra Yantzi). These and other teammates, as much as all the medals she's earned, have made Riché's time playing summer ball enjoyable.
"You spend so much time with these girls, the whole summer, training camps, and practices," she said. "So there were a lot of jokes, and I made some really good friends."
Because she was playing for the Junior National Team, Riché arrived on campus at the University of Minnesota later than her fellow freshmen. She had met her Gopher teammates on a previous visit, but only briefly, so it took time to mesh with the group.
"When I got here, it wasn't awkward, but you know how you have to warm up to people?" she said. "It was just nerves, and you don't know people's personalities, so it takes you a little bit of time to adjust. But I really clicked with Sari [Noga]. She's my roommate. [And with] Kionna [Kellogg] and Shonté [Clay], because we're all freshmen, so we're all in the same boat, and we were all like, 'What am I doing right now?' It's fun now."
At the same time as she was adjusting to her teammates, Riché also had to start getting acclimated to college basketball. Playing against other women her size or bigger has been one challenge so far.
"I have to play a lot stronger and use my body a lot more, because I'm used to being so much bigger than everyone else that it's like I can just not use my strength," she said. "And the pace (of the game) is a lot quicker, too. So it's kind of overwhelming, but it's coming."
At this point in the season, senior Kristen Dockery and sophomore Katie Loberg are the team's main options in the post. Riché has gotten in foul trouble and has averaged just 9.4 minutes per game. But as she continues to adjust, Riché will gain experience running the floor and matching up against big, strong frontcourt players. If she learns from her experience and improves her scoring ability in the paint, she could contend for more playing time as the season goes on. Riché has specific goals she wants to reach, but she is focusing on her overall improvement.
"I have stats goals," she said. "I want to score more than a certain amount of points or more rebounds and stuff, but really just developing a lot as a player and being able to look back to the beginning of the season and be like, 'Wow, I'm so much better now than I was then.'"
One thing that has helped Riché improve so far is the presence of her more experienced teammates, like Dockery and Loberg.
"They have a lot of good advice," she said. "Sometimes when you hit a wall, or sometimes when you're struggling with something, they know what to say because they've been there and they've done it."
If Riché improves enough, would she like to represent Canada in the Olympics someday?
"It's definitely on my mind, but right now my focus is kind of like, 'Get through this freshman year,'" she said. "So it's definitely on my mind and it's definitely an option for me. I want to make it an option for me, and we'll see where it goes."
Riché has good memories of Team Ontario and Team Canada, she enjoys spending time with fellow Canadians Devoe Joseph and Mo Walker of the Gopher men's team, and she will continue to have aspirations of being an Olympian for Canada. But, for now, her sights are set on helping her Golden Gopher team right here in Minnesota.
