By: Darren Cooper – Record Sports Columnist
Michelle Sidor is going to be a Michigan Woman.
The Saddle River Day girls basketball star announced her college choice Friday night, selecting the Wolverines over Harvard, Villanova, Stanford, Florida and a host of others.
“There wasn’t one bad thing about the school,” said Sidor. “It will be an adjustment going to a much bigger school, but this is really what I want. The coaches made me feel comfortable there and that was huge.”
Sidor, a junior from Upper Saddle River, helped lead the Rebels to a third straight Bergen County championship and the Tournament of Champions semifinals where they lost to eventual TOC Champion Manasquan.
She said that her decision became complicated in the last week after taking her official visit to Harvard, but she consulted with her family and made up her mind to go to Ann Arbor.
“I was stressing all week about this,” said Sidor, who plans to study business. “I thought I was going to Michigan but after my visit to Harvard I really had to think about it. Michigan has what I want, obviously great academics and top basketball and I just loved the coaches.”
Sidor will enter her senior season with 2,442 points, which is already third all-time in Bergen County. Anne Donovan remains the leader with 2,582. Sidor has a chance to be the first North Jersey player to ever surpass 3,000 points.
Michigan finished the 2017/2018 season 23-10, losing to Baylor in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Coincidentally, the Wolverines are graduating the school’s leading scorer in Katelynn Flaherty who capped her college career with 2,776 points.
“They really don’t have a scorer like Michelle coming in,” said Saddle River Day coach Danny Brown. “They want Michelle to be the type of player who has free range. I feel like a lot of the coaches opened up to me about what they thought Michelle could do for them.”
Sidor follows the recent trend of North Jersey standouts going to Michigan. Former Paramus Catholic star defensive lineman Rashan Gary is a rising junior for the Wolverines and one of the top talents in college football. Sidor said she was aware of Michigan’s connection to the area, but that it was not a factor in her decision.
