We are profiling each member of the 2013-14 Creighton Bluejays women’s basketball team. Check in daily leading up to Creighton’s regular season opener at Drake on Nov. 8 for an introduction to this season’s Bluejays, from newcomers to seniors.
MC McGrory joins sophomore point guard Marissa Janning as the only two members of Creighton women’s basketball that hail from the state of Minnesota as head coach Jim Flanery and his staff continue to tap that growing Minnesota pipeline. While McGrory isn’t as prolific a scorer as Janning was coming into her freshman season, MC is physically a step ahead of most people her age. In her short time on campus she has already made an impression on her head coach who believes she will be ready to contribute to Creighton’s back court this season.
“She’s strong and she picks things up well,” said Flanery. “She wants to be a good player. She’s solid. She doesn’t wow you in any phase, but she’s really solid and she’s going to contribute.”
MC, which stands for Mary Claire, scored over 1,200 points in her career at Edina High School in Edina, Minnesota. She was rated a three-star prospect by ESPN, and was a standout performer during the 2011 North Tartan AAU Summer Jam. Her new coach talks about her balance when it comes to her skill. That all-around game received similar praise when she impressed evaluators with not just her ability to create opportunities for herself and her teammates, but also for her ability to knock down the perimeter jumper and her fearlessness in attacking the basket during the three-day event.
When McGrory committed to play at Creighton the idea of Bluejays taking on the Big East had not even begun to pick up any momentum. The announcement and new challenge has not intimidated her.
“It’s really cool to see the program grow. It was a really cool surprise, and very exciting,” she said. “To go out east all of the time will be cool. It’s exciting to be a part of the first year, and be a part of bringing Creighton into the national spotlight. I love Chicago, so I’m really excited to go there and play DePaul since they were picked number one. I’m also excited for those other games that are on Fox. That will be cool.”
With another daunting non-conference schedule, plus the challenge of joining a new conference and facing new opponents no player, especially a newcomer can come in unprepared and expect immediate success on the court. In order to be ready McGrory basically did it all this summer to ensure she could give a positive contribution to a team with high expectations when given the opportunity.
“I started lifting with a trainer. I shot a lot, ran on the track, did a bunch of stairs. I just tried to get in shape,” she said.
That off-season work has proved to pay off so far for McGrory as she was physically ready from the very first organized workouts. Still, there are some adjustments and things she notices that differentiate the college game from high school or AAU.
“It’s a little confusing at first because you’re playing with new people and new coaches. Everything is new and you’re trying to adjust to the speed,” she said. “The last couple weeks I’ve started to feel more comfortable and my teammates are really helpful. They’ll tell you what to do and keep you positive. It hasn’t been too difficult.”