Rockford-area basketball star's unique skillset catching eyes of major college programs

Whitney Sullivan is not like other Big Ten basketball recruits.

Players of that caliber are supposed to be easy to spot with one glance. Especially in Rockford, where there are so few.

Belvidere's Amanda Levens (Arizona State), Harlem's Aminata Yanni (Illinois), Freeport Aquin's Sophie Brunner (Arizona State) and Hononegah's Jordan King (Marquette) — the area's most recent recruits for a major conference NCAA Division I team — combined to score more than 9,000 points in high school.

Sullivan is not like that. She won’t put a team on her back and carry them to victory all by herself. She wasn't even conference MVP this year, losing out to Pecatonica sophomore Elaina Rager.

More:How 9 Rockford-area basketball teams can make a state title run next season

“I can’t do everything,” Sullivan said. “And I won’t do everything. I will do the things that I have to do and get my teammates to do things, too. I’ve got my team. I have to support them.”

She has supported Orangeville well. The smallest public school within 40 miles of Rockford hadn’t had a winning girls basketball season in 20 years before Sullivan led the Broncos to back-to-back NUIC North titles and a 55-10 record the last two years. But when the 6-foot-3 junior couldn’t stop a rout by No. 1-ranked Galena in the Class 1A sectional semifinals, Galena fans constantly taunted her with chants of “over-rated.”

“With all the chants they did, I use them as motivation, but sometimes games don’t go the way you want,” said Sullivan, who fouled out late in the third quarter with only six points. “I got (those chants) last year, too. It’s something you get used to.”

Sullivan hears those chants because she is an unusual 6-3 player. She does not dominate in the paint. She facilitates from outside.

Sullivan averaged 14 points this year. That didn’t even lead her own team. Her cousin Laney Cahoon averaged 16. It’s Sullivan’s other numbers that stand out: the 11 rebounds, 4 blocked shots, 3 assists and 3 steals.

“It helps when your best player doesn’t listen to the noise and listens to the team mentality,” Orangeville coach Jay Doyle said. “Everybody is geared for points, but Whitney is the proof you don’t have to score 30 to get yourself noticed. You have to do your job well.

Brunner, a three-time All-Pac-12 player at Arizona State, was the last small-town 6-footer who could play like a guard in the open court.

“She is far ahead of where I was at her age as far as guard skills,” said Brunner, who is friends with Sullivan and has given her a few coaching tips. “She is a unique player. And she’s going to develop even more. She will be fun to watch.”

Sullivan was the NUIC North player of the year as a sophomore and is also one of the stars on the Rockford Heat AAU team. But she was shocked when Wisconsin coach Kate Barnosky pulled her aside at a team camp in June and offered her a scholarship.

“I was in tears,” Sullivan said. “I was not expecting it. Especially being my first offer.”

But that doesn’t mean she is overrated. Sullivan, who also has an offer from Tulsa, will be asked to do different things in college than fans expect her to do in high school. Major colleges see her as a 6-3 wing, a guard/forward with long arms who can defend the perimeter and handle the ball. Skills that make all her teammates better.

“It’s nice to have someone help you out,” Cahoon, a 5-7 sophomore, said. “If I have someone get by me, she will be there waiting. She can play great defense on them and get blocks. She can do it all."

But she can’t play center well enough yet to get past a Galena team that has reached state the last two years and should be every bit as good again next year.

“She has some work to do,” Doyle said. “She has always played guard, but sometimes in basketball around here, you’ve got to post her up. We’ve got to get her down in the block.”

Sullivan agrees.

“I can’t just keep what I’m doing now,” Sullivan said. “I have to improve a lot. A whole lot. But I appreciate my coaches letting me play guard and playing in the areas that the colleges have talked about me most.”

Contact: mtrowbridge@rrstar.com, @matttrowbridge or 815-987-1383. Matt Trowbridge has covered sports for the Rockford Register Star for over 30 years, after previous stints in North Dakota, Delaware, Vermont and Iowa City.

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: What makes Orangeville's Whitney Sullivan a Big Ten basketball recruit