Central Michigan University Athletics
Im-PRES-ive start for freshman guard
11/18/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - Presley Hudson knows how to make an impression.
Just ask Central Michigan women's basketball coach Sue Guevara.
Guevara, who is in her ninth year as CMU's coach, spotted Hudson in an AAU game at Morey Courts in Mount Pleasant in 2013, when Hudson was going into her junior year at Wayland High School.
As is often the case with college coaches bird-dogging players on the AAU circuit, it was another player on the court who was the initial draw.
"Just how Pres took command, her ability to score, her ability to come off a screen," Guevara says of the traits she saw in the diminutive guard. "I went to my staff and said, `Who in the heck is that down there? We have to get on her, I really like her. That kid can play.'"
She's shown that in two games in a Chippewa uniform. Hudson, who is listed at 5-foot-6, scored 21 points in CMU's season opening 85-65 win over Indiana State. Two days later, she poured in 32 in a 110-85 victory over Oakland.
On Tuesday, the 5-foot-6 Hudson was named the Mid-American Conference West Division Player of the Week. She also earned the College Madness High-Major National Player of the Week, becoming the first Chippewa to ever claim that honor.
The Chippewas, who are 2-0 for the first time since 2010, play host to Middle Tennessee State (0-1) in a non-league game on Thursday (7 p.m.).
"It's just a lot of hard work and my team helping me out," says Hudson, who made an impressive 60 percent (21-of-35) of her field goal attempts including 8-of-17 from 3-point range in the two wins.
"Last week was last week and now it's a new week and I have to keep getting better," Hudson says.
It's that kind of attitude that served Hudson well growing up in Wyoming, just south of Grand Rapids.
She is one of six children and basketball is deeply woven in the family fabric. Her dad, Mike Hudson, is the boys coach at Wayland High School and her grandfather, Harry Hudson, coached in the 1970s and `80s at Wyoming Rogers High School.
Hudson had a basketball in her hands by age 3, cutting her teeth on the court in the family yard. Presley is the second-oldest of the six Hudson children - three boys, three girls. Her older brother, Wes, graduated from NAIA Cornerstone in Grand Rapids in 2014 as the school's fifth all-time leading scorer.
"I saw how much my dad and older brother loved it and I just wanted to see what it was like and to get better at it," Hudson says. "He's (dad) helped me since I was real little. He helped me get better every day since high school so I have to take that on my own and be able to get better."
Hudson scored more than 1,000 points at Wayland - she set the school record with a 40-point effort last season -- and finished runner-up in the Miss Basketball voting as a senior in 2014-15. She verbally committed to the Chipppewas shortly after that fateful day at Morey Courts.
"Her basketball IQ is very high, I don't think there's any doubt about that," Guevara says. "When we were recruiting her, you could see a quiet, confident aura about her when she is on the floor. The kid loves to win. She's going to do anything to put her team in a position to win."
In her short time at CMU, Hudson has already displayed innate leadership abilities which go hand-in-hand with being a good teammate, Guevara says.
"Pres is the one getting the press but she understands it takes this team," she says. "(Teammates) Jewell Cotton, Tinara Moore, Cassie Breen, they're all helping her.
"It's really just blending everybody she plays with as a unit when they're out on the floor. There's only one way for her to go and that's up. Our team will continue to get better as we all get better. She's in the gym early and so are her teammates. That's the biggest thing she has brought."
Hudson's numbers and her play have brought a measure of early season attention, from fans, from the media and, most importantly, from future opponents.
"I talked to my players (at practice) and I said `Pres is probably going to get two or three people on her and you know she's going to get you the ball, so be ready,'" Guevara says.
Which is something that, quite frankly, could apply to the entire program. After graduating so much talent last season, the Chippewas entered a re-tooling process this season.
With players like Hudson, that process appears to be highly accelerated.
