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Late on Saturday night, the Wisconsin Badgers women’s basketball team received some good news on the recruiting trail. 2023 wing Tessa Grady (Dublin, Ohio) out of Dublin Coffman High School announced that she has verbally committed to UW.
Grady took a visit to Madison back at the end of January and received an offer from Marisa Moseley on Jan. 22. The 6-foot-2 junior didn’t waste too much time in deciding that playing for the Badgers was the right move for her future.
Extremely excited to announce my commitment to further my academic and athletic career at The University of Wisconsin. Thank you @marisamoseley for this opportunity, GO BADGERS !!! ❤️❤️❤️ pic.twitter.com/XPKEIs7cw5
— Tessa Grady (@tessagrady34) February 12, 2022
Grady held other offers from Northern Kentucky, Bowling Green, Nebraska Omaha, IUPUI, Cleveland State, Valparaiso, Canisius, Akron and had been receiving some interest from Michigan.
Her high school team, who went 20-1 this season, won their seventh straight Ohio Capital Conference Central division title this year and have also won 65 straight games in the Central division. During her sophomore campaign she averaged 10.9 points and 4.1 rebounds per game while this past season she upped her scoring to 14.1 ppg and added 3.2 rpg, 1.3 blocks per game and 1.1 steals per game. She also averaged 2.3 three pointers made per game this season.
Dublin Coffman’s (@coffmanrocks) Tessa Grady (@tessagrady34) picked up 18 points in their 49-48 win against Centerville. #StateChampsW X @LTUAthletics pic.twitter.com/yV9txBvnff
— State Champs! W (@StateChampsW) January 30, 2022
Grady, based on multiple accounts, grew a bunch heading into her sophomore season and shows some potential as a player who could help protect the rim. She’ll definitely need to add some strength in order to bang down low in the Big Ten, but she projects to be able to guard multiple positions.
She has a nice jumper and shows a good ability to get to the rim. Zach Fleer of 270Sports has glowing things to say about Grady’s game:
Grady is one of the most versatile athletes in the area. She offers a great deal of versatility due to her length, foot speed, athleticism and dexterity. Grady is a very good finisher going to her left, can stretch the floor with her three point shot and is a stout rim deterrent that can switch onto guards while shutting down bigs. You need two way studs like Grady to win big and Coffman is fortunate to have one of the best in the area.
Some brief internet sleuthing from our very own Owen Riese leads us to believe that Tessa is the younger sister of former Wisconsin linebacker Griffin Grady, which may have put the Badgers on her radar from a young age.
This could be an underrated commitment for Moseley and the Badgers. If Grady can keep some of her guard quickness now that she’s taller, she could be a problem for opposing teams in the Big Ten.