Today, I want to celebrate the sheer excellence of her game. To be completely honest, I was completely surprised by what I saw from Tip on the court. She confidently knocked down three-point shots, hit step-back threes, pulled up from the midrange, and consistently handled defensive pressure as a primary ball-handler. Tip even broke her defender down on a couple of drives to the basket. I was shocked and thinking, what in the world?

Her offensive game has expanded tremendously, and she has officially cemented herself as a legitimate, three-level scorer. It’s exactly what makes her dangerous on the court—her superpower is combining that perimeter shooting and ball-handling with dominant, aggressive post play.

Tip has come a long way from the back-to-basket post player that she started out as. Now, don’t get me wrong, she can still control and dominate the paint on offense and defense. She can still crash the glass and clear out rebounds on both ends of the court. Defensively, I saw way more aggression from her, and she didn’t mind banging with her opponent down low for position or fighting for boards.

I normally assess collegiate-level potential right at the beginning of the article if I believe a player has that kind of ability and talent. However, I didn’t even have to do that with Tip because everybody already knows she has received a Division I offer, along with three official invites from D1 and D2 schools. But I will say it anyway: Akira “Tipper” Whitmore is absolutely going to play collegiate-level basketball somewhere in the United States.  Tip, I am so very PROUD OF YOU!

Whitmore sold me the first time I saw her because I’m always looking at what the future will bring, see evaluations here, and watching her show that she was more than just a back-to-the-basket player who rebounded strongly and played solid defense has been nice. Here’s the deal: she has gotten even stronger and doesn’t mind battling for everything off the rim, in the air, as well as on the floor, yet her defense outside the paint looked good, and she faced the basket to score

Whitmore, also known as “Tipper,” gave me several tips when I caught her early, as seen in these evaluations. However, talking about taking your game to another level had me beaming at Class Of The Clubs. She has gone from a back to the basket player who rebounded on both ends to being able to drop the midrange as well as score off the dribble consistently

Whitmore opened my eyes at the All Eyez On Me Showcase a couple of seasons ago, and I haven’t stopped looking as Tipper keeps giving me TIPS on what she’s becoming. Yeah, she’s one of those “you won’t outwork me” type of players, and her relentlessly going after rebounds on both ends, scoring around the basket, and dropping the short jumper are coming together, so is her defense

Whitmore falls into that “you won’t outwork me” group and watching her go AFTA everything off the rim is always a oy for me to see. She BATTLES for loose balls, does a good job defensively but her scoring around the basket after contact speaks volumes about her strength, and she also scored off the dribble

Whitmore and her “never takes a play off” mindset caught my eye at my All Eyez On Me Showcase last June see evaluation here and watching her give me yet another look at the Next Up Individual Showcase but what I really enjoy about her is she steps up for whatever challenge is thrown at her and her rebounding, defense as wwell as scoring around the basket is looking good on her high school team

Whitmore showed me back in June that she did things from another era which I love to see and her All Eyez On Me Individual Showcase performance gave me several #THROWBACK things I love see evaluation here that continued when I caught her again at the Next Up Individual Showcase see evaluation here so her consistently showing me she brings it will have her in the mix