Sporting News....high school scene

[Blakeon18]

Preseason AA's...5 on a team...a few interesting names.

First team: A'ja Wilson....preseason POY
Asia Durr...junior...UConn target

Second team: Gabby Williams....UConn verbal.
Kathryn Westbeld...still a UConn target?
Katie Samuelson...junior...UConn target

Third team: Courtney Ekmark...UConn verbal. No mention of her doing the home school thing.
Lauren Cox...6'4" soph....only soph on the first three teams...Flower Mound Texas....does MoJeff know her?

Honorable mention: in past years they listed a lot of kids...including underclassmen. This year only about 25 per region....no class designations so I assume they are all seniors.

east: Sadie Edwards....UConn verbal. They list her at Mercy High in Middleton. Unless she has transferred back there she is at Blair Academy in Jersey. Don't they know that?

midwest: interesting name...Haley Lorenzen...6'3"...Iowa City. I bet she is the younger sis
of former UConn QB Tyler Lorenzen.

Top 25 teams in the USA:

1: Mater Dei....Katie. BTW: on Friday January 17 they play at Springfield College...hope to see some Boneyarders there.

5: Incarnate Word...St. Louis...UConn target Napheesa Collier...over 24 a game...they call her a 'sensational junior'.

16: Riverdale Baptist...Maryland....that is Boykins' school...no?

25: New England breaks into the top 25! McAuley High...Portland Maine. I have forgotten her name but that school had a very talented player a few years back who went to Stanford. Her Dad passed away during her time there and I heard Tara was simply wonderful in allowing the daughter to do what she felt best regarding going home to be with Dad at times.

 

[meyers7]

Kathryn Westbeld...still a UConn target?

No, she is not.

 

[Wonkster]

.
Does this list have any credibility? Seems like shoddy work with little effort invested in it.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Boykin transferred out of Riverdale to Flowers, a public school, I believe.

 

[CBus13]

Boykin transferred out of Riverdale to Flowers, a public school, I believe.

Yes she did. She transferred because her little brother, who is blind, is about to be a freshmen at the public school because her family couldn't afford to send both to private and he asked her to transfer schools because he was nervous and wanted to know someone in the halls at this new school. There was a news story about it posted on her recently I believe.



Here is the link..
http://espn.go.com/espnw/news-comme...s-powerhouse-help-navigate-public-high-school

 

[DaddyChoc]

25: New England breaks into the top 25! McAuley High...Portland Maine. I have forgotten her name but that school had a very talented player a few years back who went to Stanford. Her Dad passed away during her time there and I heard Tara was simply wonderful in allowing the daughter to do what she felt best regarding going home to be with Dad at times.

Ashley Cimino

 

[Blakeon18]

DC...correct you are...thanks. I had the opportunity to chat with her Dad on a couple of occasions at AAU events...just a wonderful guy by all accounts.

Say...I wonder if Courtney is eligible for those 2 all-star games in late March? I remember MoJeff being in at least one of them...maybe both...and she was homeschooled. Perhaps Courtney will not be eligible for the Mickey D high school game but will be able to be nominated for the WBCA game? Does anyone recall whether MoJeff played in both?

BTW: Sadie Edwards played in the NYS Federation final game for Nazareth [Apache's school....he passed away earlier that year].
They ran into a buzz saw named Breanna Stewart....I think she had about 42/24 that game....just about what she had a week earlier in the NYS championships against Saniya and Ossining. I was fortunate enough to be at that one....one of the best 3 high school performances I have seen in person. Prince going for 38 against CTK with soph Tina Charles getting 16/16...Prince's team winning by 5 or 6 in Glens Falls. And...back in the day...Amherst High's Jamilla Wideman leading her team to the Ma. state D1 title in Worcester getting about 28 points and 10 boards, 10 assists, 10 steals...and probably 10 in any other good category you can think of. Jamilla wound up at Stanford....was a darn good starting point for them.

 

[ochoopsfan]

Say...I wonder if Courtney is eligible for those 2 all-star games in late March? I remember MoJeff being in at least one of them...maybe both...and she was homeschooled. Perhaps Courtney will not be eligible for the Mickey D high school game but will be able to be nominated for the WBCA game? Does anyone recall whether MoJeff played in both?

Moriah was on both McDonalds and WBCA teams.
However, Moriah played on a HS team for home schooled players. Courtney has chosen to be home schooled but is supposed to be playing against boys or in open gyms. Not sure if this qualifies her for either game, or disqualifies her.

Moriahs team McDonalds Roster, per ESPN/Hoopgurlz
http://espn.go.com/high-school/girl...d/7559664/mcdonald-all-american-girls-rosters

Moriahs WBCA roster
scroll down to 2012 roster
http://www.wbca.org/education/wbca-events/wbca-high-school-all-america-game/box-scores/

 

[ochoopsfan]

Top 25 teams in the USA:

1: Mater Dei....Katie. BTW: on Friday January 17 they play at Springfield College...hope to see some Boneyarders there.

5: Incarnate Word...St. Louis...UConn target Napheesa Collier...over 24 a game...they call her a 'sensational junior'.

16: Riverdale Baptist...Maryland....that is Boykins' school...no?

25: New England breaks into the top 25! McAuley High...Portland Maine. I have forgotten her name but that school had a very talented player a few years back who went to Stanford. Her Dad passed away during her time there and I heard Tara was simply wonderful in allowing the daughter to do what she felt best regarding going home to be with Dad at times.

If Mater Dei is the top team in the nation then the other teams have taken a step down in talent. Mater Dei couldnt win its sectional championship(The CIF Southern Section) nor the qualifier for the State Finals(lost the Southern half of the state final game last season). They lost only one player who was a regular, KLS sister Karlie, who is a major loss. They may not be the best team in So Cal as some of the other teams have suddenly had top girls transfer in for this season. However, they still have the best player over 6' in KLS, which is all that I care about.

 

[willtalk]

A lot depends on when teams get hot. The open division in Cali last year was really tough and will continue to be so in the future. Bishop O Dowd usually sucks early but comes on strong towards the end of the year. They were easily the best team in the Nation at the end of the season although it was not reflected by the polls due to their early losses. Mater Dei was undefeated and #1 until they had to go through the Open gauntlet. It was a lot easier for a team from Cali. to win the National title before they instituted the Open division playoffs. There are just too many good teams to get past. Teams have to play their best just to advance through their region. There are no locks anymore.

Don't know if you were aware of this in Southern Cal. But Nor-cal had one of it's strongest field of teams last year, however they placed them all in the Open bracket regardless of what division they were actually supposed to play in. They put in the previous years D 5 winner in open where they had to play O Dowd in the opening round. O Dowd's a team that started a front court that was 6'2" , 6'4" and 6'5" all of them D1 players going to major conferences programs. They also had three D caliber guards. The North which has half as may teams put 8 teams in their Open Division playoffs whereas the South only placed 6. I suppose Long Beach Poly ( with 10 times the enrollment of the northern D 5 team I mentioned ) and who ended up high in the National rankings wasn't good enough to be put in open. The CIF fear of law suits as a result of them previously pushing their own personal individual agenda's seems now to have lost any semblance of fairness or control over girls high school basketball in the State of California. Now we have a virtual policy of open enrollment with players jumping school at will.