Laura Beeman traced back to her roots to come up with a new branch of players.
The first-year Hawaii women’s basketball coach announced three signings for the 2013-14 season on Wednesday — and all three hail from Mt. San Antonio College (Calif.), where Beeman launched her head coaching career.
Forwards Ashley Burchfield (6-foot-2) and Shawlina Segovia (6-1) are joined by guard Morgan Mason (5-9). As a group, they will provide a significant size boost for the Rainbow Wahine. Each has two years of Division I eligibility.
"You know, we needed immediate impact in some spots. We need some depth," Beeman said. "And we were able to bring in three kids that are very familiar with my system, are very familiar with winning. It’s something I feel was a positive for our program to complement what we’re going to have returning."
At Mt. SAC, Beeman won four California Community College state championships while she headed the program from 1994 until 2010.
From there, she became an assistant at USC and turned the reins over to Brian Crichlow, who operates the Mounties with many of the same offensive and defensive principles. Mt. SAC won another state championship last season with the three future Wahine as freshmen.
That year, the three averaged similar numbers adding up to a combined 30 points and 16.2 rebounds per game — or about 10 points and 5.4 boards per recruit. Their numbers are moderately better five games into the 2012-13 season.
Beeman said she’d continue to work California as a primary recruiting base with Mt. SAC as a key pipeline.
"I will look at JCs some. It’s not going to be the end-all, be-all," she said. "Because I am familiar with how Brian runs his system and the tradition of winning there, when he has players, they will absolutely be recruits that we go after."
UH is losing three seniors after this season: point guards Monica DeAngelis and Janelle Nomura and center Stephanie Ricketts.