It was so good to catch some new faces of up-and-coming talent, yes I cover 10U in fact I have dropped #D1Lock on many that wound up being just what I said they would become, Brooke McCarty who starred at Texas, Rori Harmon who stars at Texas and my own daughter Sydney Colson who plays in the WNBA just to name a few
Speaking of WNBA, The Legends Tournament was put on by a couple of legends Cynthia Cooper and Sheryl Swoopes and they led the Houston Comets to the first WNBA titles so this was an event I had to cover for a variety of reasons
I saw several standouts and players galore with potential so the main takeaway I want to leave you with is to keep working. Now that I have your names listed, I will be looking for progression, I'm not CONSERVATIVE on saying if a player is this or that like next level or even D1 potential and I'm also not LIBERAL about what I say because I am a REAL EVALUATOR so here ya go
MBA
Darley Garza is long and athletic, that will always be the base and her upside is huge. She has good timing to block shots, rebound, handle the ball, and play the passing lane. She also scored off the dribble and dropped the midrange
Sophia Cantu created her shot and dropped the jumper from midrange. She also handled the ball and attacked the basket plus she saw the floor
Brielle Montalvo I hashtag #sizedontmatter because she can play and her quick hands along with on-the-ball pressure on defense were nice
April Valle was feisty on defense, well inside the paint as well as she did a good job of not only rebounding but going after the ball
Showcase
Ah'Riyah Murphy is also long and athletic, and it's still the base. She played the passing lane very well, she rebounded on both ends of the court, and she even went after loose balls but watching her attack the basket from everywhere was nice
Madison Sims-Anyanwu already understands how to set the defender up and her deceptive first step to attack the basket was nice, she even has nice body control already and that helped her finish after contact. Her pull-up jumper was also nice
Sofia Abraham is another #sizedontmatter player that does quite a few things well right now. Her ballhandling and court vision are nice, she also created her shot under pressure from outside and dropped it
Xavia Otegbola is, you guessed it, long and athletic. I was overly impressed with her timing to block shots as well as go coast to coast after rebounding. She played the passing lane, defended in and outside the paint, and scored off the dribble
Kadance Barlow scary upside for this #sizedontmatter guard because of her long arms and being athletic, which also is the base, and ballhandling in traffic because she's showing signs of becoming explosive off the dribble, her passes are crisp and on the money and she can drop it from outside
TNBA
Makayla Craig has nice, she creates her shot under pressure and knocks it down from midrange. She also attacks the basket off the dribble and finishes strong. Her court vision is solid and so is ballhandling in the open court
Kacie Lee was very impressive with her smothering defense. She applies "on the ball" pressure baseline to baseline, dives on the floor for loose balls, plays the passing lane, and did a good job scoring off the dribble
