New Faces-The Legends Tournament pt 1

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>I remember taking my daughter to watch <strong>Cynthia Cooper </strong>and <strong>Sherryl Swoopes </strong>play for the <strong>Houston Comets </strong>when the <strong>WNBA</strong> first started and I'll be forever grateful for the knowledge they gave me over the years on what to and what not to watch out for so when I found out they were throwing an event, I jumped at the chance to catch some action. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Although I missed Swoopes who was announcing a <strong>Dallas Wings</strong> game on Saturday, it was great catching up with Coach Cooper. Another thing that was great was my seeing some brand new faces and even though I had to do that extra legwork to find out some of their names, I thought enough of their games to ask parents in the stands</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Steam Ahead (14U) 8th Grade Division</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Laura Salton</strong> is long and athletic and if you follow me, you know I call that the base so she did a number of things I liked, off the top, she defended in and outside the paint plus she rebounded on both ends of the court. Her timing is going to create some problems because she blocks, alters, and (or) deflected shots with ease, she played the passing lane ad she also did a good job attacking the basket from the wing and scored after contact </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Hailey Richards</strong> used her frame wisely and when you're heady and "think the game" that will always be a big plus but watching her score off the dribble and finish after contact was nice but her understanding of positioning around the basket enabled her to rebound on both ends of the court as well as score around the basket, putbacks included. Her blue-collar mindset had her going after loose balls, in the air as well as on the floor and she did a good job defensively </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Amanda Smith</strong> is also long and athletic with good timing to go along with playing the passing lane. She rebounded on both ends and she also ran the floor, on both ends while also showing she could apply defensive pressure "on the ball"</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Sylvia Graham</strong> falls into the "size don't matter" category I love to hashtag because she showed she could play and you won't outwork her. Her deceptive first step was solid, it enabled her to attack the basket and her court vision was nice</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Lauryn Jeffries</strong> was yet another "long and athletic" player on this talented squad of up-and-comers and speaking of up, she has UPS with a high upside. She rebounded, on both ends, scored around the basket, did a good job defending, and ran the floor</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Michelle Square</strong> does a good job playing within herself and understands how to get hers on the floor. She played solid defense, her shot selection was nice and she saw the floor and made good passes but she also did a good job of handling the ball under pressure</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->