The signing of Cherise Daniel was just what the doctor ordered for the Albury-Wodonga Bandits.
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The 180cm guard/forward has joined the Bandits' women's squad in high regard from the side's power forward Emilee Harmon - a former college teammate at Ohio State in the US.
Head coach Lauren Jackson had to weigh up her options and is delighted to welcome Daniel to the club.
"We’re still fairly undersized in the big area, but we decided that the three spot was more what we needed," Jackson said.
"We have Emilee (Harmon) in the four and Jessie (Edwards) in the five, but if either of them go down we could be in trouble.
"We needed that three spot to be filled and to have the opportunity to pick Cherise up is great.
"She’s played with Emilee at college and she’s very highly spoken of.
"She’s a battler, she gets out there and gets rebounds, she’s athletic, she can shoot.
"It’s hard to tell when you haven’t seen them live, but I think she’ll come out here and make a real difference for our team.
"I think it’s really important for our young locals that are up and comers to be training against players that are playing internationally and earning a living playing basketball abroad."
Jackson decided against a back-up big as cover for centre Jessie Edwards, but feels Daniel will fit in well with the talented squad - which includes WNBL star Nat Hurst at point guard.
"We’ve got some great complementary players in Molly (Rice), Casey (Ardern) and I think if Olivia (Barber) really commits herself this season, she’s someone we can see really great things from," Jackson said.
"At the moment, we’re just trying to bring that professionalism to the team and make sure we’re getting the girls at practice, getting them working hard and making them fully commit to what we’re trying to do.
"It’s about trying to get a well-rounded team together at this point and hopefully that starts to gain some momentum."
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The Opals legend hasn't put a line through making a return to the court herself, but it remains unlikely.
"I’m getting out there and trying to help the girls, but at this stage there’s no way I could step foot on a basketball court," Jackson said.
"We’ll see how it goes, it’s five weeks until the season starts and who knows how I’ll be in five weeks’ time.
"I’m co-coaching with Haydn Kirkwood and he’s giving me the opportunity to get out and train, and, if the opportunity presented itself, to play as well."
Jackson is itching to get her full squad training together as soon as possible, with Daniel set to arrive early next month.
"Nat is commuting from Canberra for the season, so she’ll be at a couple of sessions a week," she said.
"I don’t really know when Jessie is going to get here, it depends when her season finishes overseas, we’ve just got to go with the flow.
"That’s the nature of women’s sport, girls have to play year-round and we’ve got to get them when we can."
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