The accolades are building higher for former Konawaena standout Chanelle Molina.
The Washington State guard was selected as the Pac-12 freshman of the week today. The league made the announcement on its site and Twitter account. The three-time Honolulu Star-Advertiser all-state player of the year averaged 14 points and three rebounds in three games with 11 assists and four steals. She shot 44 percent from the field (16-for-36) and 100 percent from the free-throw line (7-for-7).
Molina tallied career-highs of 20 points and six rebounds at Oregon, a game the Cougars won 75-59. She has scored in double figures nine games in a row.
Kudos to Channelle Molina; but, she should’ve signed with the Wahine. As a member of the PAC 12, WSU will struggle to get into the NCAA Tournament. If she had signed with the Wahine, she had a chance to bring the Wahine’ basketball program to new heights…and her accomplishments would’ve been KNOWN and appreciated by an entire STATE.
At WSU she’ll always be an unknown, except for her teammates, coaches, women’s athletic department and a die-hard core of WSU’s women basketball fans. Here at Manoa she would’ve been treated like a “Rock-Star”, i.e. Wahine’ volleyball players.
What could’ve been!
Be treated like a RockStar in Hawaii and play in the WAC or make a name for yourself and play in the PAC12 against better teams. I think she made the right the choice.
She absolutely did the right thing by going to Washington State. She’ll receive more press coverage and Lia Galdeira and Dawnyelle Awa blazed the way to national and international recognition! Lia now plays in the WNBA. She’ll get a great education and will play with her sisters who are also WSU bound after they graduate from Konawaena.
Channelle ~ you go, girl!
@88, this kid had the opportunity to make it to a school like a UCLA, Cal, USC. She had the talent to play for the upper echelon West Coast Schools. Problem was Coach Awa doesn’t have the mainland connections through summer travel. WSU is towards the bottom for academics in the Pac-12 and near the bottom of the Power Conferences. If the kid went to USC, Cal, UCLA, she is pretty much writing her ticket into grad school and a very impressive degree.
@Hawaii Pono, what team does Galdeira play for? She was drafted by the Mystics but from what I heard chose to play Internationally instead of playing in the WNBA. As for great education, I think many people would choose to differ. WSU is like a tier 3-4 college. They are not known for their academics there. And after what happened with Lia which is why she had to leave early and give up her senior year, I don’t know if I would trust the coaching staff and university.
@Pun Alum 95 How would you know about WSU’s athletic program if you did not attend that university? Channelle obviously made the right decision for her and part that decision was that her two sister also get to go to WSU. It’s a family thing and if you went to WSU, you would know that “Once you’re a Coug, always a Coug!”
It doesn’t matter what college you go to, it’s what you make out of it once you’re there.
#GoCougs
@BoloBolo,
Thank you for your comments. First of all, it is commonly known that the coaching staff at WSU didn’t monitor their players well. This lead to academic problems. At most prominent universities, the head coach, assistant coaches, or graduate assistants monitor the players attendance in class in addition to making sure they are keeping up with their work. If a player is struggling there are many resources that can be utilized to make sure that player remains eligible and will graduate. This was not done. Please do your due diligence and you will find out the real reason why a very high profile player decided to skip their senior season and turn pro. If the monitoring was going on with things as simple as players showing up to class, then this would not have been a problem.
And if you have the opportunity to go to Stanford, UCLA, USC, or Cal and you choose WSU, then the advice you are getting is bad. This kid had the talent to get into the upper tier of colleges. These are the rankings for these schools. If you graduate from these schools, you can pretty much write your ticket into a graduate program after.
Stanford #5
California @ Berkeley #20
USC #23
UCLA #24
Washington State #143
Nothing wrong with a free scholarship. But when you have the opportunity to go to the ones listed above, it almost makes you scratch your head.
@Bolo Bolo, if you are comfortable with the coaches not doing their best job to assist some players with keeping up with the most simple of requirements such as going to class and doing the work, then that is your prerogative.
And I know a couple of Pac 12 Women’s Coaches. I trust and believe them. You don’t have to believe anything I wrote. Thank you.
@ Pun Alum 95 it’s entertaining to read all of your negative posts on WSU & especially when an article about Chanelle is written . It must make you really mad how much she chose WSU over the other schools . Get over it because the girl is ballin and not hurting anyone else, but making Hawaii proud. It makes me wonder how much you keep bringing up the coaches and teams she should have traveled with. If your hatred for her coaches or even Chanelle is making you feel better by writing all this negative things than maybe you need help more than you think. Take a chill pill and enjoy hearing about all the local kids doing well out there wether it be basketball , volleyball or football.
@ Pun Alum 95 here is another great article for you to complain about:
http://www.wsucougars.com/news/2017/1/11/womens-basketball-molina-named-usbwa-national-freshman-of-the-week.aspx