Bulldogs' Morrill will sign with ASU

Notre Dame's Jame Morrill puts up a shot over St. Vincent's Lacey Siegmund and Courtney Besand during a game Feb. 6, 2008. (Southeast Missourian file) [Click to enlarge]

The Notre Dame senior will play college basketball at Arkansas State

Notre Dame senior Jane Morrill ended the suspense early.

The 6-foot-1 post player plans to sign a national letter of intent to play basketball at Arkansas State of the Sun Belt Conference.

"In the end, it ended up being the best," she said. "It's decently close and they're a great conference to play in. It also has an athletic training program and that's what I'm looking to go into. It was kind of all that together."

Morrill plans to sign her letter Nov. 11, the first day of the weeklong early signing period.

Morrill said she started garnering more interest from colleges over the summer as she played in more and more tournaments.

"It was a little overwhelming at times," she said. "Everybody told me it was a good problem to have."

Morrill narrowed down her choices to Drake University, Murray State and Arkansas State before deciding on Arkansas State.

"It was a pretty busy recruiting summer," Notre Dame coach Renee Peters said. "We had probably at least 10 Division I schools look at her."

Morrill led the Bulldogs in points and rebounding as a junior, averaging 15.7 points and nine rebounds per game.

"She has a lot of natural ability and her height and size," Peters said. "But she's more than just a 6-foot player. She's our leading scorer and leading rebounder. She sees the floor very well and is an incredible passer."

But Peters said that colleges were drawn to Morrill's ball-handling skills.

"What makes her kind of a gift is her ability to handle the ball and shoot," Peters said. "I think she's probably going to be playing a little bit of perimeter because of her ability to shoot the 3-pointer and drive one-on-one. She's a guard in a post body."

Morrill said she always remembers being the tallest student in school, but that didn't mean she hung out under the basket in grade school.

"Ever since grade school, I was a shooter," she said. "Then I got to high school and they made me a post."

Peters has challenged Morrill to work on her post play this season. The coach would like to see her leading scorer bully her way to the basket more often this season.

"She's going to be double-teamed all the time and triple-teamed at some points," Peters said. "So I think what we need to improve upon is just the low-block play, post moves, be able to power up."

In addition to her basketball skills, Morrill was the starting shortstop and No. 3 hitter for the Bulldogs softball team that won the Class 3 state title this season. She said she doesn't plan to play softball at Arkansas State.

And with her college decision made and one state title in hand, she can enjoy the remainder of her senior year as she tries to help lead the basketball team to success similar to the softball team.

"It's a big relief and I can just have fun my senior year," she said. "It's going to be awesome. It's great to have that figured out."