Who are the best UC women's basketball players to wear the Bearcat uniform?
When five-star recruit Dee Alexander of state-champion Purcell Marian High School joins the UC women's basketball team, she will join a program historically rich in talent.
These 20 women are among the best UC women's basketball players and staff to wear the Bearcat uniform, per information from gobearcats.com.
Cheryl Cook
Years at UC: 1982-1985
Fun facts: The only UC women's basketball player to have her number (24) retired, Cook was the nation's No. 2 scorer her senior year with a 27.5 average, earning second-team All-America, and No. 6 her junior year (27.4). She played on the U.S. gold-medal-winning team in the 1983 Pan American Games. An injury hampered her chance to play with the 1984 U.S. Olympic team.
Stats and standouts: At the end of her college basketball career, she was No. 7 on the NCAA career scoring list. She's still the top UC scorer ever with 2,367 points. She also tops the UC record books in field goals made (962) and field goals attempted (2,158). The Metro Conference Player of the Year in her junior and senior seasons, she joined the James P. Kelly University of Cincinnati Hall of Fame in 1995.
Erma Farrel
Stats and standouts: She was inducted into the James P. Kelly University of Cincinnati Hall of Fame in 1983 after playing four sports for the Bearcats, baseball (no typo), swimming and diving, women's basketball and field hockey.
Keely Feeman
Years at UC: 1982-1986
Fun fact: She led the nation in field-goal accuracy as a senior with .927, a UC record.
Stats and standouts: A three-year starter and co-captain her senior year, Feeman led the team in scoring her senior year with 18.9 points per game and earned First-Team All-Metro Conference. She closed her career with 1,728 points (14.9 points per game), good for third in school history. She's now sixth. She was inducted into the James P. Kelly University of Cincinnati Hall of Fame in 1996.
Hap Glaser
Stats and standouts: She was inducted into the James P. Kelly University of Cincinnati Hall of Fame in 1990 after playing five sports for the Bearcats: basketball, softball, archery, fencing and tennis.
Jillian Hayes
Years at UC: 2020 to present
Fun fact: The former standout at Loveland High School is ranked fourth in UC's career blocked shots list with 101. Her teammate Malea Williams has 66. They are the only two active players among the top 10 in UC's record books. She also comes from a family of athletes. Her mother, Kristi, scored over 3,400 points in high school and was the 1995 Missouri Valley Conference Women's Basketball Player of the Year at Drake. Currently the athletic director for Moeller High School, her father, Jonathan, played football for the Kansas City Chiefs and Pittsburgh Steelers before serving as an assistant coach with the Bengals. Her brother Jaxson plays for the Los Angeles Lakers after being drafted in 2019 by the Atlanta Hawks. Her other brothers are Jewett and Jonah.
Stats and standouts: She scored 20 points or more in eight games, the last one versus Louisville on Nov. 6, 2023. Recently she announced she's returning for her fifth year at UC after scoring 1,299 career points (11.4 per game) in 114 games played (110 started) for the Bearcats.
Barb Jaksa
Years at UC: 1978-1982
Fun fact: The 1980-81 team she played on made the school's first postseason tournament appearance, reaching the National Women's Invitational Tournament.
Stats and standouts: She was named to the WNIT All-tournament/All-American First Team and was named the Seifert Bennington Female Athlete of the Year in 1981.
Valerie King
Years at UC: 2001-2004
Fun fact: She played her last game in the program's most recent appearance in the NCAA tournament, a 71-57 loss to Arkansas at Fifth Third Arena in 2003. The Bearcats were 87-39 while she played for coach Laurie Pirtle.
Stats and standouts: The three-time All-Conference USA selection (two on first team) also received the Ed Steitz Award and a spot on the C-USA All-Freshman Team. She was Conference USA tournament MVP in 2001 and 2002 while making the all-tournament team in 2003 and 2004. Her 2,156 points rank second all-time and she's first in three-point field goals made (338), three-point field goals attempted (847) and 3-point field goal percentage (.399). She also ranks first in free-throw percentage with .866.
Jolinda Lewis-Miller
Years at UC: 1994-1998
Fun fact: She was named to the Great MidWest All-Newcomer team in 1995 and the CoSIDA Academic All-District First Team as a senior. She twice was an All-Conference USA selection while leading the team in scoring for three seasons and assists twice.
Stats and standouts: Lewis-Miller is still a prominent presence in the UC record books in scoring (1,523, ninth); three-point field goals made (282, second); free throw percentage (.835, third); free throws made (293, 10th); assists (327, eighth); three-point field goal percentage (.360, fifth) and minutes played (3,539, 10th). Plus, she holds multiple rankings for single-season three-point goals: made, attempted and percentage. She was inducted into the James P. Kelly Athletics Hall of Fame in 2014.
Pat Murray-Shibinski
Years at UC: 1949-1953
Fun fact: She was a standout four-sport athlete, including basketball, softball, field hockey and volleyball.
Stats and standouts: Inducted into the UC James P. Kelly Hall of Fame in 1989, the Seton High School graduate later coached and taught at Mount St. Joseph for 42 years and was the physical education department chairwoman. While at UC, she was active in the UC Women's Athletic Association, Mortar Board and National Honor Society.
Monica Nolan
Stats and standouts: She was inducted into the James P. Kelly Athletics Hall of Fame in 1979 after playing basketball, field hockey and tennis for the Bearcats.
Linda Norwell
Years at UC: 1973-1977
Fun fact: She was the first women's basketball inductee into the James P. Kelly Athletics Hall of Fame in 1987.
Stats and standouts: Leading the Bearcats in scoring all four years, she ended her basketball career as UC's all-time scorer and rebounder with a 21.2 scoring average, 1,309 rebounds and a 15.4 rebound average. Her 1,799 points are now fifth on the school's all-time scoring list. In her junior year, she set a season scoring record at 701 points; she's now No. 3 behind two Cheryl Cook seasons. Still, she's maintained top season rankings in scoring average (28), rebounds (460), rebounding average (18.4) and field goal percentage (.613).
Bev Obringer
Years at UC: 1985-1989
Fun fact: She was an honorable mention All-American in 1986 from the American Women's Sports Federation and was inducted into the UC Hall of Fame in 1999. She earned First-Team All-Metro Conference and all-tournament honors in her junior and senior seasons.
Stats and standouts: The dominant post player, who averaged 17.4 points as a senior, still holds UC's record with 142 career blocked shots and sits seventh in career points with 1,700. She's also the record holder in blocked shots in a season with 58 in the 1988-1989 year.
Coach Laurie Pirtle
Years at UC: 1986-2007
Fun fact: She has the most wins of any UC women's basketball coach with 310 wins in 21 years. She was inducted into the James P. Kelly Athletics Hall of Fame in 2022.
Stats and standouts: Her teams had seven straight winning seasons starting in the 1996-1997 year, going to the NCAA tournament three times and the Women's NIT four times. The Bearcats won their first NCAA tournament game under her leadership against St. Peter's in 2002. She received the Conference USA Coach of the Year twice and her team won the C-USA tournament in 2002. Pirtle, who became a three-year starter at Ohio State University after walking on from Hilliard High School in Columbus, began coaching at Capital University. Her combined coaching record was 393-317 at her retirement in 2007.
Joy Roberts-Bachman
Years at UC: 1979-1983
Fun fact: She received the Helen Norman Smith Award as the top female senior athlete in 1983.
Stats and standouts: Team MVP in her junior and senior years, she had 1,215 career points (15th all-time), 54 blocks, 6.6 average rebounds and a .479 field goal percentage. She led the team in scoring as a junior with a 12.9 ppg average and rebounding as a senior with a 7.3 average. She's 10th in the record books for career rebounds with 674. She was inducted into the James P. Kelly Athletics Hall of Fame in 1993.
Doris Scott
Years at UC: 1996-1999
Fun fact: She's eighth in scoring all-time for UC with 1,695 career points (14.6 points per game average), third in rebounds (861), third in blocked shots (100), fourth in field goals made (691) and sixth in free throws made (313).
Stats and standouts: Inducted into the UC Hall of Fame in 2018, Scott was a two-time Second-Team All-Conference USA honoree in 1998 and 1999 and made the C-USA All-Freshman Team in 1996.
K.B. Sharp
Years at UC: 1999-2003
Fun fact: The New York Liberty drafted her in the second round, 26th overall, of the 2003 WNBA draft. In six professional years, she averaged 7.1 points and 3.6 assists per game and had a 78.6 free-throw percentage. She also played for the WNBA Select Team, leading her squad to a EuroCup Championship in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2003-2004. She played for Israel's Hapoel Tel Aviv team the next year, averaging 14.9 points per game, according to the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame.
Stats and standouts: The Bexley High School (Columbus, Ohio) alum was First-Team All-Conference USA after a senior season average of 13.6 points, 5.7 rebounds and 5.9 assists. In addition to scoring 1,164 career points, she still holds UC career records in assists (623) and minutes played (4,339).
Madinah Slaise
Years at UC: 1996-2000
Fun fact: She was the first UC women's basketball player to join the WNBA when the Detroit Shock selected her No. 28 overall in the second round of the 2000 draft.
Stats and standouts: Inducted into the UC Hall of Fame in 2016, she finished her Bearcat career with 1,849 points (21.8 points per game), good for fourth in school history. She holds UC's single-season record for free throws made (193) and attempted (242), set during the 1998-99 season. She also holds UC career marks in free throws made (503) and attempted (676). Other accolades include 1999 and 2000 First-Team All-Conference USA, Conference USA All-Freshman Team in 1997 and C-USA All-Tournament Team in 1999.
Ilmar'I Thomas
Years at UC: 2017-21
Fun fact: She played for the UCLA Bruins in graduate school (2021-2022). She had 486 points (15.7 ppg) to lead the Bruins that season. That year, she was the only Pac-12 athlete to make 15 field goals in a single game (32 points vs. San Jose State) and ranked first in the Pac-12 in offensive rebounds with 2.77 per game.
Stats and standouts: In her senior year, she was a unanimous First-Team All-AAC selection and the AAC Player of the Year after scoring 569 points. Her UC career point total was 1,925, good for third all-time. She still tops all UC players in career field goal percentage (.585) and is ranked second in career blocked shots with 131.
Bev Ventura
Years at UC: 1975-1978
Stats and standouts: She's 19th all-time in UC Bearcat with 1,166 career points scored. Her 764 rebounds place her fourth all-time. She was inducted into the UC Hall of Fame in 1997.
Olga Weil
Stats and standouts: She was inducted into the UC James P. Kelly Athletics Hall of Fame in 1982 after playing five sports for the Bearcats - track & field, swimming & diving, basketball, field hockey and rifle.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Top University of Cincinnati women's basketball players to date
