Small School Standouts: 2024’s

Leila had an injury setback during part of the time that I was on hiatus, but she is back in the gym and I’m excited to see her back on the floor with her squad this season. The last time I saw her play was in a tournament game against Turpin (which features another of our small-school stars, Abby Buller Abby Buller 5’9″ | SF Turpin | 2024 State OK ) and she was incredible. At pretty much six feet, she is all over the place, all game long. She plays inside outside and showed the ability to score from just about anywhere. What always stands out when I see Leila play is her work rate. She goes hard, all game long, and does not let up. On offense and defense, she is relentless and that is the reason she remains a high-level prospect despite the setback.

Fallon is up to 6’1″ now and her wing span is absolutely massive. Go back and watch the most recent playoff win against Preston where she had yet another double-double. Not only is she an outstanding rebounder who is very good at reading the bounce off the rim, she does a great job of getting position and rising up to meet the ball. On top of that, she shows great movement without the ball and does a tremendous job of getting open in the post. Fallon has great hands to receive the ball and finishes consistently despite contact. Coaches, if you haven’t before, you’re going to want to see Fallon play in person sometime this season.

As I mentioned above, the last time I saw Abby play was early last year and it looks like she has only gotten better and better. She was voted First Team All-Panhandle Conference for 2022-23 and put up some massive point totals at various points last season. She is a very strong athlete who has a lot of that “wants it” factor in her game. Watch her highlight film and see how many of her baskets in the paint are due to her outworking everyone. She’s a dawg… in the best way possible. She can score from just about anywhere, but better than that, she is going to defend, rebound, and do all of the little things that win basketball games.

Gracee has shown already this season in Dale’s three opening wins that she can absolutely shut down the paint. She has racked up the blocks and made it clear that if you’re gonna beat the Pirates, you’re gonna need to shoot it. That’s not to say that you are definitely gonna beat the defending champs that way either. Gracee is a shooter herself. It’s a pretty shot, with a nice, high release that more often than not hits nothing but net. Waller is an incredible prospect and deserves far more interest than she is receiving thus far.

First off, Aspen is a shooter. She can fill it up from long range. She’s got the height and length to make it hard to block when it’s released, but the quickness of her shot is the really hard part for defenders. She is good at finding space and you don’t need to give her much time at all to get her shot off. She has games where she gets double-digit rebounds due in large part to her ability to put a body on a body and then get her long arms up there to snag the ball. She is a smart player who goes hard all game long and like the other players on this list, I have no doubt that if she chooses, she will be playing at the next level.