Trpcic Commits To America East Conference School for 2016

Mackenzie Trpcic (3.5-star, 5’8″, PG, St Mary’s/Transway) from Hamilton, ON has given her verbal commitment to play with the University at Albany Great Danes of the America East Conference, in the Fall of 2016.

“It’s a lot of pressure taken off especially making it before the summer [travel season] started,” said Trpcic about the timing and benefit of making the decision she made prior to Nike Invitational Tournament, which her Canada Drive team was participating in between July 10-12.

“I get to enjoy my senior year now and get to focus now on school,” continued Trpcic.

“I’m really glad. It’s a really good school.”

With either her father, mother, sister and brother or a combination of the four usually in attendance at her games, it is obvious that she places a high regard on family. And with the Albany, NY campus only a 3-4 hours away, her ability to try to maintain that family bond and have them attend games is still doable.

With that in mind, one of the key reasons why she opted for Albany was the new family that she will be forging with the coaching staff and her new teammates.

“The main thing about Albany was the coaching staff. They’re very family oriented,” she reflected. “They say: Family, school, then basketball.”

Trpcic then went on to describe the high esteem she has for the Great Dane coaching staff.

“They’re four very influential women. So, I’m going to look to them as role models, not only in my four years there, but in my years after school.”

Intrigued with the ability to join a program that has had a great deal of success in winning the America East Conference Championship the past four years, Trpcic has her mind set on continuing to her fine herself in order to be as immediate a contributor to the line up as she can.

A lot of that will start with her workouts, both in the weight room, and on the court.

“I’m definitely going to be working out this year”, said Trpcic as she revealed some of the Senior year checklist items she will be working on.

“I’ll be looking to put on a little weight, and a little bit more size, because that is definitely what I’m going to need. I’ll be working on my jump shot…I’ll always be working on that, floaters and finishing with contact.”

On the court, there appears to be some synergies in the way that Trpcic’s teams have been grooming her, that lend themselves quite nicely with the Great Dane style of play, making it that much more of a match for both player and new team.

“For the past few years with the Transway teams and Bluestar [Ontario], we run of on-ball screens and off-ball screens too. And that is a big part of their offense as well.”

“They like to run the ball. They like to move the ball. And, that’s kind of my game!”

Prior to selecting Albany as her final choice, Mack, as is affectionately known to many, also considered other NCAA schools such as Mount St Mary’s, Radford, Stony Brook, Bryant, American, Lehigh, Yale and Princeton,

With a couple of Ivy League school on the short list, it should come as no surprise that Trpcic is no slacker when it comes to the books. And after finishing her last school year with a 4.0 GPA, its not hard to tell that her ability to think the game, is matched her ability to think in the classroom as well.

“I finished Grade 11 with a 94% average. I mean, I’m looking to go pre-med. I know that it’s going to be tough”, she said getting right down to the point. “But you know, it’s what I want to do, and I take school very seriously. And, that’s a big part of Albany which really attracted me.”