The lastest catch by the highly regarded UAA women's basketball team isn't merely a case of the rich getting richer. It's a matter of the rich getting richer, and bigger.
Coach Ryan McCarthy landed his second Division I transfer of the recruiting season, a 6-foot-4 senior center from Penn State who will be one of the tallest players to ever suit up for the Seawolves.
Dominique Brooks will join UAA after getting limited playing time in one season at Penn State. As a junior college player, she helped Trinity Valley Community College to a two-year 72-1 record and a pair of national championships, and as a high school player in Lansing, Illinois, she was ranked 11th in the nation among post players.
"She's long, she's athletic and she can really run the floor," McCarthy said.
Getting up and down the floor is key, considering the Seawolves, who spent a couple of weeks last season as the No. 1 team in Division II, play at breakneck speed and create much of their offense in transition.
"That's a prerequisite for our program," McCarthy said.
The only other players in UAA history listed at 6-4 are Renee Miller, a three-year backup center from 1994-97, and Viki Wohlers, who played two seasons from 2008-2010.
McCarthy said Brooks is a legit 6-4.
"I always go to the airport (when recruits come to town) and one of the most exciting parts is when they walk through security and you can see if they were lying to you or not" about their height, he said. "She was telling the truth."
Brooks will be part of a team that was 29-2 last season and returns a solid core of returners, including six who earned starts throughout the season.
She will add depth to a frontcourt that includes 6-1 senior Megan Mullings, 6-0 junior Alysha Devine, 5-9 sophomore Sierra Afoa, 6-1 redshirt freshman Hannah Wandersee and 6-0 true freshman Rohyn Huss.
Brooks appeared in 11 games last season at Penn State, averaging 3.1 minutes and 1.2 points per game. She's the second Division I transfer to join this Seawolves during the offseason. Keiahnna Engel, a Dimond High graduate who spent three seasons at Boise State, will also spend her senior season at UAA.
McCarthy thinks UAA is an attractive alternative for Division I players for a couple of reasons.
"I think the success of our program has helped," he said. "We have the Shootout, our exhibition game is usually against a mid-or high-level Division I team, and we're sending kids on professionally."
In McCarthy's three seasons at UAA, a handful of players -- Alysa Horn, Kylie Burns, Keke Wright -- have gone on to play professionally in Europe or Australia.
As for exhibition games against Division I teams, the Seawolves will play a Nov. 9 exhibition game against UNLV in Las Vegas.
The 2015-16 schedule was announced Wednesday and includes several nonconference games against quality Division II teams, including three that made it to the NCAA tournament last year -- Hawaii Pacific, Cal State-Dominquez Hills and Cedarville of Ohio. Two other nonconference opponents, Cal-San Diego and Academy of Art, just missed making the tournament.
Division I teams Pepperdine, Western Kentucky and George Mason will join UAA at the Great Alaska Shootout, and once Great Northwest Athletic Conference play begins, the Seawolves will face always-tough Seattle Pacific and Western Washington as well as other strong squads.
McCarthy, who enters his fourth season with a 65-21 record, said the schedule is the most challenging he's had at UAA.
Reach Beth Bragg at 257-4335 or bbragg@alaskadispatch.com.