2028-STRONG FIRST LOOKS-THA Middle School Showcase

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>I love catching NEW FACES and with the exception of seeing clips of Airyanna Robertson on social media, I knew nothing about any of these players yet I love doing my evaluating in person and this group stood out in both the drills, as well as the game, so here ya go</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Airyanna Robertson</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Robertson is explosive off the dribble and watching her coast to coast and under control falls into that SWB group, speed with ball, and in transition, she made good decisions and hit her teammates on the money, many times in traffic yet she's also heady and understands how to control the tempo. Her crossover, as well as COP, and change of pace, are both ahead of her years. She attacks from wherever she wants and has good body control on her finishes but that midrange pull-up adds even more and will keep defenders off balance. On the flip, she did a good job defensively </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Nadine Benson</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Benson is "long and athletic" and with her size frame, she's another Benson that will be On Broadway. I love seeing players play the passing lane and she did it over and over yet she also rebounded, on both ends and showed she could handle the ball "coast to coast" and under control while being pressured to either score or dish. Her pull-up jumper was also nice and was her defensive pressure. I wrote "SCARY UPSIDE" in CAPS for reason, NO CAP</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Sofia Caro</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Caro falls into that hashtag I love and that's #sizedontmatter because she can play. Well it's one of the hashtags I love using and speaking of using, she has a variety of skills that are impressive. Let me start with her "handling the ball under pressure" because that's huge and so is her court vision as well as decision-making, yet she does a good job defending "on the ball" and plays the passing lane well. She even went coast to coast to score but in the set, her deceptive first step and body control got her basket with either hand, which includes the "FLOTA:</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='973939' first='Kamaria' last='Harris']</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Harris scored off the dribble with ease in both the drills and games, why, her first step is powerful. She's an athletic guard who uses her athleticism on both ends and watching her create contact attacking the basket using body control was nice, and so was her splitting the defender in the open court. On top of that, she did a good job playing "on the ball" defense baseline to baseline </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Liv McKinnon</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>McKinnon stands over "the magic number" which is 6'0 and she's "long and athletic" and those two things right there alone will keep her on several next-level shortlists. How high at the next level depends because I wrote UPSIDE as in "OOPS UPSIDE YOUR HEAD" as her timing is going to create some problems as she blocks, alters, and (or) deflects shots effortlessly at times. She also showed she could finish around the basket, putbacks included as she rebounds too</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Kyana LaCour</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>LaCour saw the floor both in the set as well as in the open court and her passes from distance between defenders were nice. She has a solid crossover that keeps the defender guessing and she uses it in the set as well as in transition yet her HEZ, some say HEZZIE, it's the hesitation that was smoothly shown several times. She also creates and knocks her shot down under pressure</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->