Insiders Black have promising players in #Hoopfest tune-up

I had a chance to catch one of the Houston Insiders HS squads over the weekend, the Insiders is a team I started coaching with back in 2001 and when my schedule permits I love to go an check out the players in game situation, The Insiders Black is a group primarily of freshmen and sophomores and the ones I already knew have definitely progressed while the new faces definitely show potential as they captured their first 2015 tournament title on Saturday

6'2 Ariel Elzie is commanding attention around the basket and with her size and frame, college coaches will be definitely noticing and after watching her prior to her freshman season in HS, I already see a dramatic amount of improvement in her game and during the event, she must have had close to 15 blocks in the three game but finishing and rebounding are a couple of things that will keep the folks at the next level interested. Sydney West and Kayla Mayes are a couple of returning players that also showed improvement, West has better footwork and hands while Mayes is strong and can defend on the perimeter and I'm looking forward to keeping an eye on them as well. Isabella Rathgeb is another inside player, she wasn't available for Saturday, but from what I've caught in practice......

Offensive star of the day was Sierra Fuller who was definitely on a roll from long range. She dropped five threes in the first half of the  final game, that says a lot in itself because three games in five hours divided  by minutes played equals no legs formula simply didn't compute and the killing part of it is she would have had a couple of more in that half had her foot not been on the line. I already knew she could shoot it, I saw that last season but the aggressiveness is picking up as well as her ability to attack off the dribble

Scrappy guards are always a plus and to be honest with you I see a lot of upside from that spot and I try and instill over and over that it's not how you start, it's how you finish and that applies to a number of things but this group definitely has something going. Dymond Taylor became more aggressive as the games progressed, knocked down some shots and finished with contact but when you talk about finishing with contact, Lymbria Jackson simply took some licks, hard licks and had a four point opportunity. She already shows mental toughness and fight, both huge pluses to have

The athleticism shown from Nakayla Scott was also a bright spot, she's long which adds to the package and showed signs of being able to create some problems on both ends but she also possesses the ability to score off the dribble as well as midrange so that's the plan in the making. Clara Golden also didn't tarnish and her comprehension of the game spoke solidly on the court. Golden simply gets after it on both ends and plays within herself but she also showed she could put the ball in the basket