17U All-Tournament Team #pghdynastyregionkickoff
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It’s only fitting that I close out the opening tournament on the PGH Circuit with a KICKOFF to the 5 players who JUST DID IT in front of me every time I caught them Dakota Howard LA #3 SF #1…
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Continue ReadingIt’s only fitting that I close out the opening tournament on the PGH Circuit with a KICKOFF to the 5 players who JUST DID IT in front of me every time I caught them
Howard was electrifying and when you have fans asking me when I walk into a gym “have you seen 24” and my responses were, yeah, that was favorite free TV series. Okay, she’s showing signs of playing on the tele, she’s long and athletic, scores off the dribble after contact yet at times she defies gravity to finish acrobatically. She goes after everything off the rim, can even go coast to coast score yet her timing is solid, so is her jumper from mid to long-range
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Willis played for the Stings last season and they were one of my MUST SEE groups because of their abundance of shooters, including her. She’s still feisty and knows how to create havoc with solid on the ball pressure yet she stays under control on the offensive end and does a good job distributing in the set, as well as in the open court. Don’t get it twisted, she can flip the switch and started draining the mid to long-range in the blink of an eye and her “catch and shoot” from deep has shot up
Highlights
Traniyah Weston
Traniyah Weston
Weston captivated me off the top because she plays with passion and let me say this, after finding out she is only a freshman and did what she did playing up, hey, all bets are off on how high she lands. Let me start with her running the 1, she’s VOCAL, which is #THROWBACK, she understand show run a team and saw the floor through a microscope. She also is explosive off the dribble and finished strongly after contact but she also dropped the jumper from inside. Her on the ball pressure was smothering, she takes charges and takes charge both on and off the court because after I kept spelling her name wrong she said, “wait, just give me the pen”
Thompson falls into that “never takes a play off” category and she was impressive in the first game as she rebounded, on both ends, scored around the basket, putbacks included and off the dribble, after contact, solid body control. She also played solid defense, inside and outside the paint, plus she showed good timing to block shots. The next time I caught her, she did all that plus drop the midrange and showed the “hands and footwork” to score inside
Jackson was EVERYWHERE on the court and her constant moving to get open on the offensive end as well as her teammates getting her the ball to operate from the wing was nice. She elevated over defenders to score off the dribble as well as around the basket yet that high flying also enabled her to rebound on both ends, she even flew by defenders to go coast to coast afterward. Her body control was nice, she sowed the pull-up jumper as well as good timing to block, alter and (or) deflect shots