E.P.I.C. Tournament “The Youngsters Are Coming”
In closing out my tournament coverage from my second event from the Indigenous Hoops League, the first was back in March in Oklahoma, Battle On The Plainz Day 1 and Day 2 and it left me with a smile seeing some up-and-coming…
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Continue ReadingIn closing out my tournament coverage from my second event from the Indigenous Hoops League, the first was back in March in Oklahoma, Battle On The Plainz Day 1 and Day 2 and it left me with a smile seeing some up-and-coming talent from yet another region. I have been using the hashtag #talentiseverywhere since my daughter was in high school and the National Media was covering “certain players” from certain areas which is one of the main reasons I started writing/evaluating players because, for me, it’s about the credibility and it always will be
In case you don’t know, my daughter plays in the WNBA, has been in the league for around 10 seasons, and won the WNBA Championship with the Las Vegas Aces last season to go along with a National Championship at Texas A&M in 2011. She was inducted into their Hall Of Fame and recently I had a chance to accept her award for being inducted into the HISD Hall Of Honor, the largest school district in Texas, so I also use the hashtag #ThereIsNoMe because I have gone through this stuff from every angle imaginable of RELEVANCE which is why I love to catch that new talent coming up and here are some of the players that showed plenty of potential that are not in high school whose teams played for their respective divisions CHAMPIONSHIPS
7th/8th Grade Division
Rilla Jones-5’10 (Tulalip Unity) 2028
Jones was consistent around the basket and showed good fundamentals on the offensive end. At times, she was overpowering in the paint and her finishing strongly after contact was a definite plus yet I also saw a little something different in every game I watched which tells me a lot about her potential
Jada Smith-5’3 (Tulalip Unity) 2028
Smith is strong and athletic and her powerful finishes after contact were more than solid as she used a deceptive first step to get to the basket. She also showed she could drop the “stop and pop” in transition, yet her court vision and ballhandling under pressure were also nice
Kiana Mai-5’10 (Lady Chitwins) 2028
Mai is strong and powerful and her UPSIDE is really attractive because she does things fluidly around the basket. Watching her go after the ball off the rim on both ends is a big part of it, and so was her understanding of how to get the break going with the outlet. She scored around the basket as well as facing it
Mariah Pluff (Lady Chitwins) 2028)
Pluff falls into one of those categories I love to evaluate and that’s “long and athletic” and that’s appealing to college coaches as well, they offer next-level opportunities. She applied heat on defense which helped create turnovers but her attacking the basket and finishing as well as showing she could knock down jumpers are pluses
5th/6th Grade Division
Shianna Valentine-5’3 (Tulalip Unity) 2030
Valentine has some scary upside because she goes hard on both ends, whether it’s applying heat defensively and using her quick hands to come away with steals or attacking the basket with a powerful first step to finish strongly, body control helped yet her quick release from mid to long-range was also impressive
Kaylee Martin-5’3 (Tulalip Unity) 2029
Martin handled the ball under pressure very well and her court vision both in the set as well as in transition tells me a lot about what’s coming and that’s because she also understands how to set the defender up and attack the basket to score or drop the midrange jumper with a hand in her face
Peyton Moore-5’5 (Lady AZ Newest) 2030
Moore has a lot of tools on the offensive end and I’m going to place her in that future “nightmare to defend” category. She handles the ball in transition under pressure and can see the floor from 30 feet away yet her slight HEZ both in transition as well as off the dribble are huge, and so is her jumper, while being defended and scoring while attacking the basket
Chanoah Charley-5’1 (Lady AZ Newest) 2030
Charley did a good job applying pressure defensively in fact it appeared she enjoyed frustrating the offensive player but that heat helped create turnovers. She showed she could score from outside, as well as attacking the basket and her court vision was also solid
Tianna Edision-5’9 (Lady AZ Newest) 2029
Edison had a “light bulb” go off after watching her, well go off, throughout the event, hopefully, you caught that yet she understands how to score in the flow as well as takeover offensively when needed. Her midrange is smooth, she creates her shot while being defended yet also showed the jumper in transition and she attacked and finished strongly, after contact