Great final game. I didn't realize that the two teams met up in last years u17 final. Seems like there's a generation of players who will be battling for years to come. In any event, a really fun tournament to watch. A lot of competitive games, and a lot of good young talent. Probably should've posted more on how many players from other teams stood out. Spain's guards were studs! And it was cool to see Brito (USF) playing with her national team, in front of her home crowd. She always plays with fire, but she was kinda on another level throughout the tournament. On the team USA end, maybe it's always like this because the team is always deep, but I really thought basically everyone played well and that player's respective fanbases should be really excited. I was happy to see Grace Van Slooten play well. She looked amazing to start the season at Oregon and then injuries kinda put her off track. But a few months later she looked great, even as she was basically playing out of position as the team's starting center.
I thought Hannah Hildago looked pretty great all tournament. She hit outside shots, she was pretty pestering on the defensive end, and she played with a ton of energy. She had some wild takes and a couple of forced shots/turnovers but nonetheless she was impressive. I thought Breya Cunningham and Madison Booker looked really good whenever they got minutes. I'll be interested to see if they both play major minutes as freshman at their respective schools. Once again, maybe it's because it was u19, but Booker looked about as physically gifted as any wing in the tournament. I was surprised to see her listed at 6'0. As she joins a team that kinda struggled with scoring the ball, I think she can make a huge impact.
I'm pretty high on Chloe Kitts, I thought she played well this tournament. It was interesting to see her play exclusively at the 4. She finished well, she rebounded well, she ran the floor well. I also feel like she got like 3+ techs/unsportmanlike fouls lol. I don't mind it to be honest.
I thought Kiki Rice had a very nice, low key tournament as well. I know the numbers don't jump out, but I thought she consistently shot the ball with confidence which was kinda the biggest whole in her game last year. She still attacked the basket well, but she had a lot of one dribble pull-ups and even hit some open threes.
I thought it was an interesting tournament for Cotie McMahon. In some ways, she was their most experienced player/or player who had the most success in college. She played her best in the biggest game, and had the go ahead bucket. Her physicality and strength is unquestioned. I thought she forced the issue a bit, and it would have been good to see her take a bit more mid-range jumpers. Nevertheless as the torunament went on I thought she did make better decisions.
Edwards may have been the team's best player and Z was pretty good off the bench shooting threes.
Once again the tourney was a great watch. Congrats to team USA!
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