No Mercy: Resurgent Titans double down on Detroit identity
When Detroit Mercy head coach Kate Achter talks about her school, she often just calls it “Detroit.”
That’s obviously not an attempt to undo the 1990 merger of the University of Detroit and Mercy College that led to the institution’s current name, and it doesn’t feel like convenient shorthand. Detroit Mercy has struggled with its unwieldly branding over the years and has often simplified things to “Detroit” for clarity, but it doesn’t really feel like that, either.
With Achter, it almost seems like a deliberate attempt to reinforce the culture she’s trying to build.
“What we look for at Detroit is very representative of what our city is like,” she said. “Very blue collar, lunchpail mentality. I can’t speak to what it looks like at the other schools, but I do know that we’ve found a couple things that we really believe in here at Detroit, and so far, we’ve been able to identify a lot of kids locally, within three to four hours, that really fit that mold.”
Most coaches will claim to want a bunch of hardworking local kids on their team, but the Titans have gone well beyond platitudes. During her tenure, Achter has prioritized Detroit and Michigan ties within her coaching staff, and that’s led to a roster that’s quickly transformed from a hodgepodge of transfers and international players to one that largely grew up on Coneys and Faygo – particularly when it comes to UDM’s stars, like Flint native Aaliyah McQueen.
“Her mom was like ‘hey, we picked you because Juanita [Cochran]’s on your staff,’” Achter said. “And I’m like ‘well, I’d like to think that we all had something to do with it,’ but she’s like ‘no, I know Juanita, I know where Juanita’s from, and that gives me comfort.’”
“You want to be connected in recruiting circles where you feel like you need to be,” she continued. “But there are things – I’m not a Detroiter, I didn’t grow up there – but if I can add somebody that has and gives me that experience, great. It’s like if you were going to hire a staff anyway, you’d want someone to compliment the areas where you feel you’re deficient, same thing.”
The timing probably couldn’t be any better for Achter to double down on what she sees as her program’s identity, given that the Titans enjoyed a breakthrough 2023-24 that included 17 wins at a program that hadn’t won more than five in a season since 2016-17. That resurgence, plus a ton of available roster spots, gave a much-needed recruiting boost to a school that had previously been gated off from many of its ideal players metaphorically, as well as physically.
“I just felt like our staff was really energized to recruit, knowing what we were able to accomplish last season,” she said. “Once we hit the ground running on that, we just had a lot of momentum based on that and had a lot of positive conversations. Kids picked us that we wanted to pick us.”
Lineup
Aaliyah McQueen – It’s probably fair to call McQueen’s college career “star-crossed” to this point. Back in 2020, she was a highly-rated wing prospect who signed with Illinois and found her way into 19 games as a freshman, showing enough to tease a big future. However, she then transferred home(-ish) to Oakland and mostly languished during the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons, serving as a sparingly-used three-point specialist on the Golden Grizzlies’ bench. From there, she moved on to Madonna, an NAIA school in suburban Detroit, and seemed to re-discover herself last season, scoring 19.4 points along with 8.9 rebounds per game (including a 41-point outing against Cornerstone back in January), both tops on the Crusaders by healthy margins.
That was enough for Achter to bring McQueen back to DI, where she’s expected to play a significant role at UDM this season. Whether she meets those expectations will go a long way towards determining what sort of season the Titans have.
“She’s fully invested in us,” Achter said. “I feel like the last year she spent at Madonna; she really filled it up. She’s looking for one more chance, and I’m happy to have someone with Horizon League experience.”
Emaia O’Brien – O’Brien, an incoming transfer guard from LIU who knocked down 42.5 percent of her three-pointers last season, is arguably the Titans’ most accomplished player at the Division I level and projects as UDM’s starting point guard. In three years with the Sharks, she was a regular starter who scored 628 points and collected a handful of conference awards, including NEC Rookie of the Year honors back in 2021-22 and an NEC Player of the Week nod this past March. She’s also a visible example of what Achter is hoping to build at UDM, given that she’s a Detroiter who saw a program worth representing in her hometown.
“They’re just mature, they bring leadership, and the other thing we love about them is that they’re Michigan kids,” Achter said of O’Brien and McQueen. “So, I think that really brings in a different piece to our fanbase, that you can identify with players that you’ve seen locally. I’m really excited to see what they bring, again, just some big-time leadership and competitiveness, they’re great competitors.”
Myonna Hooper – Hooper is easily the best-known of the Titans’ returning players, given that she led the team in assists last season while also chipping in 7.1 points per game and delivering some signature moments, including a buzzer-beating jumper to down Milwaukee on January 20th. Still, Achter is hopeful that the presence of veterans O’Brien and McQueen will help the former West Bloomfield High School star settle in a little bit and possibly handle the ball a little less, given that she struggled with turnovers and internalized pressure.
“She is not entirely comfortable with being that vocal leader all the time, so I think just leading by example knowing what my expectations are, has really helped this group go forward pretty quickly,” Achter said.
“Her role might be a little bit different with us too, instead of having the ball in her hands, I think she’ll probably be more of a recipient which, at times, we’ve felt has been the best role for her, but just by necessity she had to have the ball in her hands.”
Alize Tripp – Tripp, a NAIA transfer from Spring Arbor University, is a Jackson, MI native who hit 69 of her 179 deep balls for the Cougars last year (a 38.5 percent rate). The two-time all-conference selection is hardly a one-note player though, given that only seven of her 17.4 points per game came on threes. She also led Spring Arbor in assists, with 3.0 per game and, according to Achter, is an extremely smart player with a great basketball IQ.
Makayla Jackson – Jackson joins Hooper as one of just two returning players who logged at least ten minutes per game for the 2023-24 version of the Titans. As a freshman last year, the 5-8 guard put together a few strong performances against the likes of Green Bay (nine points), Robert Morris (ten points, three rebounds and two steals), and Dayton (12 points, two assists), and with a consistent outside shot could become one of UDM’s primary options.
Maddie Diabate – Diabate is a bit of an unknown, as she suffered a season-ending injury after just seven games last season, her first in Detroit. The 5-9 Parisian had a successful juco career before that and has been billed as an athletic guard who can defend and finish well, so there’s potential for a bounce back campaign.
Amaria Fields – The Titans raised a few eyebrows with the signing of Fields, who was, at one time, a top 150 recruit nationally before signing with Boston College in 2021. Like McQueen, she’s now searching for an appropriate conclusion to a college career that began with a ton of promise, but Achter warned against those sorts of expectations.
“[Her journey has] been unique,” she said. “She’s been hurt this whole time, she broke her foot in the summer, so we’ve not really had her for any of the basketball stuff. She can make a lot of shots, but she’s rusty. She hasn’t played in a long time, so for us right now, she’s just a specialist, and as she gets healthy, we’ll figure out how to work her in.”
Latifa Amzil – In one game early last season, Amzil went off for 16 points in just 11:40 on the floor to help UDM pull off a win over USC Upstate. That was an aberration, however, as Amzil wasn’t seen for more than ten minutes in a game for two months after that. The Finnish forward is a true three-level player at her best.
Jasmine Edwards – After a freshman year at Jackson State, Edwards spent the last three seasons at Warner University, in the NAIA. The Michigander is an athletic wing – something in relatively short supply on Detroit Mercy’s roster – whose calling card can be found wedged in a backboard. Across her three years with the Royals, Edwards averaged 10.3 rebounds per game, including 11.1 during an abbreviated 2023-24.
Katie Burton – Burton arrives via transfer from Buffalo, one of the MAC’s best programs, though she spent her first two collegiate seasons at St. John’s. The 5-9 guard – a one-time teammate of Purdue Fort Wayne’s Audra Emmerson at Fishers (IN) High School – hasn’t been on the floor a ton at either of her stops so far but has a history of being a big-time shooter.
Chanteese Craig – About 18 months ago, Craig was in the same press release as Burton, announcing the pair’s arrival at Buffalo (with Craig starting at Wabash Valley College, a juco), before the two did it again with Detroit Mercy back in July. The similarities pretty much end there though, as Craig is a 6-2 post player who fills something of an immediate need, given the departures of Emma Trawally Porta and, to an extent, Irene Murua.
Addisen Mastriano – Six-foot-three Horizon League post players don’t grow on trees, so it’s reasonable to think that Mastriano, a freshman, might see some early playing time in a position group that isn’t incredibly deep. She does a lot of classic post things well, like blocking shots and grabbing rebounds, but is also billed as a great passer.
Kailey Starks – Starks’ club team during her time at Evanston Township (IL) High School was called “Full Package.” That’s an appropriate moniker for a player who scored 20 points and pulled in 13 rebounds per game as a senior, while also earning all-defensive honors and qualifying for the honor roll. The combo guard was probably an underrated prospect and can become a difference maker in time.
Anna Lassan – The freshman from South Lyon, MI is another multidimensional player who stands a good chance of contributing quickly, as she’s already demonstrated a non-stop motor and two-way excellence that’s rare for a freshman.
“I think [Lassan’s] really going to be a good Horizon League basketball player, she fits the mold,” Achter said.
Maya Anderson – A dynamic guard with high-end potential, Anderson has the luxury of learning from a deep perimeter group during her rookie year. Nevertheless, it might prove impossible to keep the graduate of Detroit’s Cass Tech High School off the floor, particularly given her length and defensive ability.
Outlook
To a large extent, assessing where Detroit Mercy ends up in 2024-25 involves some degree of trust in what Achter is building in Calihan Hall, because there’s simply not enough familiarity with the Titans’ refreshed roster outside of those walls to feel safe making any assumptions. That roster includes 11 new players, and very few truly known quantities outside of O’Brien and Hooper. Most of the rest are freshmen, DI veterans who played sparingly in the past (whether at UDM or a different school), and NAIA transfers, a group that includes expected front-liner McQueen.
With that in mind, there’s a reasonable argument that UDM takes a step back this year, even if it’s just one of those steps back that precedes two forward as Achter attempts to build a true program identity that extends well beyond its collection of players at any given moment.
Then again, UDM hasn’t had a top end as talented as the current group in quite a while, and consistent production from the stars will make a lot of the other questions much easier to answer. The Titans’ floor is no longer identical to the conference’s floor, and their ceiling is a once-unthinkable trip to Indianapolis at the end of the year.
Either way, Achter is appreciative of the quick progress she’s made in Detroit, while also understanding that last year’s successes were never the final destination.
“Inheriting the program that we did, we knew that there was a lot of work ahead of us, but I was really steadfast in maintaining [the vision of] ‘this is what I wanted, this is what I wanted it to look like five years from now,’” she said.
“Thankfully, I had a little bit of experience in rebuilding a program prior to this [at Loyola Chicago, her previous stop], so I knew if we just stayed the course and were a little bit flexible in our methods but stubborn about the results we wanted, we’d get there. Again, I wasn’t sure we’d get there in year two, so I feel a little bit fortunate, but at the same time, [I’m] just really locked in on what the goal is for year three and beyond.”