Redmon transfers to Gonzaga
Home is where the heart is.
That seems to be the bottom line for Katelan Redmon, who made her transfer from Washington official by turning in her enrollment papers to Gonzaga on Wednesday and will join the basketball team at the end of the semester.
“It’s a good place for me,” the former Greater Spokane League standout said. “It’s close to home, coach (Kelly) Graves is an awesome coach and I know the girls like no others because I played tons of open gym with them. It’s just a good fit for me.”
Redmon, a 6-foot-1 forward, tried to leave UW before her career started after head coach June Daugherty was fired last summer. The school blocked her attempts to transfer and she honored her letter of intent.
“I was tired of everything and wanted to go play basketball,” Redmon said. “I decided after all that other stuff happened, I would go to the University of Washington and try it. I was going to try to make it last so I’d be there for years. In the end, it just wasn’t the right place to me.”
She started all 31 games as a freshman for the 13-18 Huskies and averaged 31.4 minutes and a team-leading 11.8 points a game.
“I definitely grew as a basketball player,” she said. “I never expected to be getting as much playing time as I did, didn’t expect to be scoring leader, especially as a freshman. I just wanted to go out there and contribute. That happened to be a lot more than I expected.”
She left UW after winter quarter but attended summer school last year.
“A complete year is 36 credits and I had 38,” she said. “I’m planning on being a business major. I should be fine.”
Redmon will have to sit out a year at Gonzaga, which has won four straight West Coast Conference championships. The Bulldogs were 25-9 this past season, including an early 91-72 win over the Huskies.
“It’s going to be hard not playing in games, but I still get to practice,” she said. “I think I’ll fit in very well with the team and how they play.
“I need to keep working on my 3, obviously I need to get stronger. When I get stronger, get more meat on my bones, I’ll be able to battle more.”
She described her one season at Washington as a great learning experience.
“It’s physical,” she said. “I’m tall, but I’m skinny. For half the season I had to play the four spot. I had to go up against some big girls. It was brutal. Getting to play against players like Candice Wiggins (of Stanford), playing against Brianne January again, it was fun. It was a great thing.”
January, a junior who just completed an All-Pac-10 season at Arizona State, is also an LC graduate.
Redmon, who made the Pac-10 All-Freshman team, went to Mt. Spokane for two years before transferring to LC.
Redmon, who played one season at LC with Gonzaga’s WCC MVP Heather Bowman, finished her high school career with 1,243 points, fifth in league history.