versatile 6-footer<\/a> already has her life plan mapped out.<\/p>\n\u201cI think that being a basketball player, we are always very prone to injuries,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are always aware of that, so I want to be an orthopedic surgeon. I want to be a part of other athletes\u2019 recovery from basketball injuries.\u201d<\/p>\n
So Briggs considered academics in her search for a Division I program, and she committed to Furman this week.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was one of the things that attracted her to it is that academically it\u2019s very good,\u201d Kilbride said. \u201cShe had a number of schools interested in her, including several Ivy League, but Furman kind of fit what she was looking for.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey seemed to really value what she brings as a player, so I think it\u2019s going to be a great fit from that perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n
Briggs was playing with her AAU team in a tournament in Rock Hill, South Carolina, which is less than 100 miles from Furman\u2019s campus in Greenville. Furman\u2019s coaches were in attendance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was injured for most of those games, but I went on a visit right after, and they offered me on the visit,\u201d Briggs said. \u201cI had a great time on my visit, so that was definitely one of the deciding factors.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s also near where my parents are going to move when I graduate, so anywhere close to that was helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Briggs family will be relocating to Charlotte.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like two hours away,\u201d she said. \u201cSo it\u2019s close enough that they can come to home games.\u201d<\/p>\n
Briggs is the second member of Benet\u2019s senior class to commit to a Division I program, joining Richmond-bound guard Bridget Rifenburg. Both are four-year varsity players and have similar skills.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Bridget and Emma are both wings in college, but in high school they are so versatile,\u201d Kilbride said. \u201cBoth of them are like the definition of this positionless basketball you keep hearing people talk about.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey can guard multiple positions. Offensively, they can play multiple positions.\u201d<\/p>\n
That will be a key for the Redwings (29-3), who don\u2019t have a lot of size. Briggs and Rifenburg will probably be post defenders but could play anywhere on offense.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re planning to run some stuff where both of them would be initiating it, almost like the Nuggets do with (Nikola) Jokic,\u201d Kilbride said. \u201cBecause both of them are really good ball handlers, they\u2019re great going downhill. They\u2019re good passers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Briggs, who averaged 10.0 points, 7.0 rebounds and 2.5 assists last season, is coming off a third straight summer of competing for Great Britain in the FIBA EuroBasket tournament. This year, she helped Great Britain finish sixth in the B Division of the women\u2019s U18 tournament in Lithuania.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlaying for Great Britain, I think she\u2019s gotten a lot of exposure playing against different players,\u201d Rifenburg said. \u201cShe\u2019s gotten so good at playmaking, and she\u2019s a really good passer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat helps so much because being a defender, it\u2019s hard to know what she\u2019s going to do. It kind of keeps us on our toes, and I think that makes her really dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rifenburg isn\u2019t surprised that Briggs aspires to be a surgeon.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s extremely smart,\u201d Rifenburg said. \u201cShe\u2019s a critical thinker, and I think she definitely looks at basketball that way too.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s very unselfish on the court and even in the classroom. If I\u2019m ever struggling at math or need help at anything, she\u2019s always there to help me. She\u2019s a great person on and off the court.\u201d<\/p>\n
Briggs said she\u2019s excited for her final season with the Redwings, who are aiming to return to the state semifinals after losing to Waubonsie Valley<\/a> in a Class 4A sectional championship game in each of the past two seasons.<\/p>\n\u201cEspecially now that me and Bridget are seniors, we\u2019re going to put everything out,\u201d Briggs said. \u201cCoach Kilbride said that good teams are made of unselfish players and great teammates make great leaders.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I think me and Bridget have to be those leaders who are unselfish and are looking out for the team in general. We\u2019re not the type of people to be selfish on the court. I think we\u2019ll do great this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Benet\u2019s Emma Briggs begins her senior year, she still requires a ride to school every day. But…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[402,53234,4050,5629,53235,983,37764,53236,53237,398,400,401,99],"class_list":["post-84793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-basketball","tag-dupage-county","tag-high-school-sports","tag-illinois","tag-lisle","tag-local-news","tag-naperville","tag-naperville-sun","tag-naperville-sun-sports","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-basketball","tag-ncaabasketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}