Freshman raises bar

Posted: March 23, 2009 |(0) Comments

It was the way she played, not an interesting comment, that enabled Cudahy freshman Taylor Gradinjan to be voted to the CNI All-Suburban Girls Basketball Team. But the comment was pretty good.

"I'd like to dunk," the 5-foot-8-inch Gradinjan said with a laugh when asked about her goals for the next three seasons. "Well, I'd like to, but I don't think I'd get there."

Then she turned more serious.

"Getting to state's probably my biggest goal," Gradinjan said.

That is a little more realistic. The Packers have made sectional semifinal trips in each of the last two seasons - their first in the history of the program - so they are only two steps away from the big stage.

Gradinjan's coach, Gordon Nikolic, remembered walking to the bus with her after the March 6 sectional semifinal defeat to Grafton. Gradinjan, the leading freshman scorer in the state at 16.2 points a game, scored only 10 points against Grafton.

"She was telling me how she thought she didn't play well," Nikolic said. "I said, 'Your time is coming.'

"I think everybody's going to be talking about her the next couple of years in the state of Wisconsin. I just think she's got great upside, and I'm thrilled that I get a chance to coach her."

Nikolic recently saw Gradinjan in the weightroom with junior point guard Kelly Wilde, who strained her left knee in the regional semifinal and was not anywhere near full strength for the final two games. Those two will give the Packers a very good one-two punch.

Nikolic saw a little dip in Gradinjan's play in February, but said it did not last long.

"She seemed to hit a wall in the middle of the year and rebounded," Nikolic said. "Right after that St. Francis game (a second straight loss), I think she took it as a challenge to put the team on her shoulders a little bit and when Kelly went down, it was even more of a challenge. She decided to pick up the slack offensively for us, and whatever she could do she would do for us.

"I think she grew up pretty up pretty fast for a young, 15-year-old kid."

Gradinjan will play on an AAU team this summer. She knows what she wants to work on.

"I normally take it all the way to the lane," Gradinjan said. "I have to make a pass before I get there and try to open my teammates up first, or learn how to get that little jump shot instead of trying to go all the way every time, like a little bank shot on the side."

The work ethic of the hard-nosed Wilde will be a given. Nikolic hopes the team takes its cue from a diligent Gradinjan as well as Wilde.

"I think the other kids are going to feed of this, and Taylor's going to be the leader off the court, and tell these kids, 'We're getting back to sectionals and we're getting to state next year,' " Nikolic said.

 

Jerry Karpowicz can be reached at (262) 446-6628. Read his blog at CudahyNOW.com.

Cudahy's finest

Packers' CNI All-Suburban Girls Basketball Team selections:

2008-09: Taylor Gradinjan

2006-07: Aimee Lockwood

2005-06: Aimee Lockwood

2004-05: Aimee Lockwood

2002-03: Tasha Greiner

2000-01: Tasha Greiner

1993-94: Dawn Sipowicz

1992-93: Chrystal Wierzchowski

1991-92: Chrystal Wierzchowski

1990-91: Becky Meyers