the inside-outside threat has joined the Gonzaga ranks
In Tuesday’s article, I posted about the first of four incoming transfers that Coach Fortier and the Bulldogs will be introducing this coming fall. As a reminder, here are the four:
- G — Tayla Dalton — St. Mary’s
- G — Ines Bettencourt — UConn
- G — Vera Gunaydin — South Georgia Tech (JuCo)
- F — McKynnlie Dalan — Minnesota
Today, we’re going to be covering the McKynnlie Dalan.
After spending a year in the frozen tundra along the northern reaches of the Mississippi River at the University of Minnesota, McKynnlie Dalan will returning to her home state to play for the Gonzaga Bulldogs
Hailing from Montesano, which is on the west side of the state near Aberdeen, Dalan arrives with a strong high school pedigree, but limited college experience. In her single year as a Gopher, the 6’1” forward featured in 15 games, getting 45 minutes of action during which time she racked up 4 points from one three and a free throw, 11 rebounds with three coming on the offensive glass, 1 steal, 1 turnover, and 3 fouls.
Suffice to say, hard for us to really interpret much with that little playing time. So, I called on my best search engine and dove into bleak world of trying to find information about a non-top tier high school Women’s basketball player. I’ve highlighted my concern before, but there is so little coverage about this sport outside of the elite talent or programs that it’s almost like these players didn’t play at times. So what follows is my best attempt to dig up some information.
Montesano is a WIAA Class 1A team in the Evergreen region, which means that it would have played against smaller schools, generally under 500, for its sporting conference games. Dalan played both varsity volleyball and basketball, but seemed to excel more in basketball as nothing I read discussed scholarship opportunities in volleyball, unlike the former Zag, Naya Ojukwu. She suffered a back injury in her sophomore season that caused her to miss the entire campaign, but returned healthy for her junior year, which is when most of the articles I could find on her referenced. That season, she was an All-State Honoree for both volleyball and basketball where she managed to drop an average of 21 points and 16 rebounds. This would ultimately entice Minnesota and she signed her commitment to play for the school in the summer of ‘22.
Her high school team looked to have consistently made the State Championship, but I could only find information regarding the ‘21-22 season, McKynnlie’s junior year, when the team finished fifth in the 1A Class. In my research, I found this article discussing Montesano’s playing style as one of high defensive intensity and Dalan quoted as saying, “a 3 is great, but a tie-up or getting on the floor diving for a loose ball gives us that spark.”
Dalan’s senior season is a bit harder to dissect, but she looks to have been awarded the MVP of her high school district and several of the articles that I read referenced point totals of 30, 25, and 17 along with double digit rebounds. This article describes her as such: “flashes an ability to aggressively attack the paint while also burning defenses from the perimeter”. **Multiple highlight videos I watched showed the forward out on the perimeter dropping bombs**. One of the things I really liked when reading about McKynnlie comes in the form of this quote, given in her senior as the team was preparing for the playoffs: “Our motto […] has been to bury teams. You can get up on them, but actually putting them away and keeping up that intensity and not just settling in is going to be really important…”
Not only does Dalan have the high school numbers to suggest she could fill a prominent role in her remaining three years, she also comes from a strong family athletic pedigree with both her mother, Kellie O’Neill, and aunt, Kristen Philip, who both played at University of Washington around the turn of the century with the latter going on to play professionally overseas for several years.
It’s hard to project what McKynnlie will look like on this team, but I could see her as a replacement for someone like Brynna Maxwell with reports of her strong outside shooting and/or Callie Stokes with her defensive intensity mentioned multiple times in previous coverage. Let’s hope a return to her home state and a family-oriented, development first, coaching staff can bring the best out of her.