You better Belibi it

[Shades]

The latest dunk from Fran Belibi.


Poor Haley Jones will have play with her.

 

[Shades]

The video is a little more HQ in this one.

 

[DaBball]

Also a very impressive win for she and her squad. Grandview was ranked #7 by ESPN and Regis Jesuit was #19. They had a 79-52 “upset” win. Grandview also features 6’6” freshman Lauren Betts. She is on ESPN 2022 watch list

 

[IrishTiger]

Very Athletically gifted that’s for sure.

 

[jennyo70]

Stanford, help is coming. Jones and Belibi, that's quite an incoming duo. (I think they even have others, these are just the two I am most aware of). The Cardinal may pull away from the pack, in the next couple of years, and return to their dominance in the Pac.

 

[Charliebball]

impressive in that she did it with defenders in the area.....................I wonder what Tara thinks about it....................will she be OK with dunking in Stanford games?

 

[CocoHusky]

Stanford, help is coming. Jones and Belibi, that's quite an incoming duo. (I think they even have others, these are just the two I am most aware of). The Cardinal may pull away from the pack, in the next couple of years, and return to their dominance in the Pac.

Your timing is awesome. Thanks to a former @Orangutan post which called Belibi "elite" and this @Shades video I'm thinking Stanford might have the best 2019 recruiting class. Yes better than South Carolina!
Besides Jones and Belibi they also got Hannah Jump who can flat out stroke it and is potentially a better PG than Cooke. Also in the same class Stanford got Ashten Prechtel who caught my eye at USA basketball 2 years ago playing 3 X 3. Very mobile for a big and can consistently step out and stroke the three ball, handle and was a very good passer. She going to remind people of former Stanford bigs like Appel and Pederson. Here is how I would stack them:
Boston better than Prechtel
Jones much better than Beal
Jump=Cooke
Belibi better than Amihere because she's healthier.
ESPN has South Carolina ranked number 1 recruiting class but that may have been on the strength of 5 person class vs 4. Thoughts?

 

[Shades]

Also a very impressive win for she and her squad. Grandview was ranked #7 by ESPN and Regis Jesuit was #19. They had a 79-52 “upset” win. Grandview also features 6’6” freshman Lauren Betts. She is on ESPN 2022 watch list

I’m guessing that’s the player she’s defending in the video? Not only does she steal the ball by making a defensive stop while defending the tallest player, she takes the ball the length of the court for a dunk.

 

[OneTrickPony]

Ms. Belibi is also the daughter of two doctors...sky's the limit.

 

[huskies29]

Wow!! 1 more star commit and Tara may agree to play Uconn again.

 

[Dillon77]

Your timing is awesome. Thanks to a former @Orangutan post which called Belibi "elite" and this @Shades video I'm thinking Stanford might have the best 2019 recruiting class. Yes better than South Carolina!
Besides Jones and Belibi they also got Hannah Jump who can flat out stroke it and is potentially a better PG than Cooke. Also in the same class Stanford got Ashten Prechtel who caught my eye at USA basketball 2 years ago playing 3 X 3. Very mobile for a big and can consistently step out and stroke the three ball, handle and was a very good passer. She going to remind people of former Stanford bigs like Appel and Pederson. Here is how I would stack them:
Boston better than Prechtel
Jones much better than Beal
Jump=Cooke
Belibi better than Amihere because she's healthier.
ESPN has South Carolina ranked number 1 recruiting class but that may have been on the strength of 5 person class vs 4. Thoughts?

Coco:
I agree with your analysis, save for a few points:
- Belibi, could be better than Amihere based on how the Black Queen comes back from injury. Initally, I probably lean your way.
- Not so sure the Jump vs. Cooke matchup will be accurate. Most reports I've read on Jump see her as a jump-shooting savant, but also as an off guard. As such, I think the match-ups to look at might be more
-- Jump better than Olivia Thompson, who turned down a DII offer to be a preferred walk on at SC.
-- Will Cooke be better than the pair of Class of 2018 Jenna Brown or Class of 2020's Jana Van Gytenbeek?
(Amazing how Coach T hoisted three of Colorado's top prospects out of state.)

Throw in 2020's Cameron Brink to Stanford's two-year haul and how they'll fit in Tara's approach and I take the Cardinal. Put in Brown and the Hull sisters from '18 and it's a no brainer.

 

[Shades]

Wow!! 1 more star commit and Tara may agree to play Uconn again.

They already have a commitment from Cameron Brink for 2020, and wouldn’t be surprised if Bueckers has Stanford in her Final Five.

cameron-brink

 

[Kaizen]

And her rank is #23 in ESPN HoopGulz?

 

[Shades]

And her rank is #23 in ESPN HoopGulz?

She’s relatively new to basketball, so I’m guessing her play was considered raw, at least at the time of that evaluation.

 

[Dillon77]

And her rank is #23 in ESPN HoopGulz?

She’s relatively new to basketball, so I’m guessing her play was considered raw, at least at the time of that evaluation.

Agree, Shades. The U.S. National Team Committees saw that potential and chose her for two straight appearances. Thought her improvement from u16 to u17 was palpable. She'll only get better.

As stated: Belibi, Jones, Brink, Brown, Hull sisters, Prechtel, Jump.Whew. The Cardinal will be more than PAC presence....

 

[Shades]

Here’s Bueckers tossing up an alley-oop to Belibi in Team USA practice.

 

[bballnut90]

That was a heck of a dunk. Impressive too with a defender right next to her. Not sure how her basketball skills are developed compared to her athletic ability but props to her. Excited to see her at Stanford.

 

[Shades]

This version from Hudl has the same play without a cutaway, gives a slo-mo replay of the dunk, and then adds another play from the game where she does sort of a eurostep. I guess she ended up scoring 32 pts in this game, although I haven’t confirmed that.

 

[shiverz45]

Your timing is awesome. Thanks to a former @Orangutan post which called Belibi "elite" and this @Shades video I'm thinking Stanford might have the best 2019 recruiting class. Yes better than South Carolina!
Besides Jones and Belibi they also got Hannah Jump who can flat out stroke it and is potentially a better PG than Cooke. Also in the same class Stanford got Ashten Prechtel who caught my eye at USA basketball 2 years ago playing 3 X 3. Very mobile for a big and can consistently step out and stroke the three ball, handle and was a very good passer. She going to remind people of former Stanford bigs like Appel and Pederson. Here is how I would stack them:
Boston better than Prechtel
Jones much better than Beal
Jump=Cooke
Belibi better than Amihere because she's healthier.
ESPN has South Carolina ranked number 1 recruiting class but that may have been on the strength of 5 person class vs 4. Thoughts?

Don't see how you can say Jump = Cooke, when every recruiting service has Cooke as a consensus top 10. Amihere potentially could be the best in the class when it is all said and done. If SC only had a 4 person class it would still be rated higher, because you got 3 top 10 compared to 1.

 

[shiverz45]

Coco:
I agree with your analysis, save for a few points:
- Belibi, could be better than Amihere based on how the Black Queen comes back from injury. Initally, I probably lean your way.
- Not so sure the Jump vs. Cooke matchup will be accurate. Most reports I've read on Jump see her as a jump-shooting savant, but also as an off guard. As such, I think the match-ups to look at might be more
-- Jump better than Olivia Thompson, who turned down a DII offer to be a preferred walk on at SC.
-- Will Cooke be better than the pair of Class of 2018 Jenna Brown or Class of 2020's Jana Van Gytenbeek?
(Amazing how Coach T hoisted three of Colorado's top prospects out of state.)

Throw in 2020's Cameron Brink to Stanford's two-year haul and how they'll fit in Tara's approach and I take the Cardinal. Put in Brown and the Hull sisters from '18 and it's a no brainer.

SC also has the #1 point guard in 2018 (Destanni Henderson) rated higher than Jenna Brown to go along with Cooke.

 

[Dillon77]

SC also has the #1 point guard in 2018 (Destanni Henderson) rated higher than Jenna Brown to go along with Cooke.

Fair enough...both teams can "go back" to 2018 to make a point. Once a player is in the collegiate ranks, I tend to look at performance rather than the rankings which were largely based on HS and AAU performances. In any case, Henderson and Brown seem to have relatively comparable numbers in terms of minutes, with Henderson having a nudge more minutes and points. (Basically, they're getting limited minutes.)

Without Wilson, Coach Staley has redone her offensive strategy to be more upbeat. It will be interesting to see what she'll do when Boston and Amihere hit the floor with her returning players, as well as highly rated guards like Henderson and Cooke. Will it go back to the post attack? Or be a combination thereof?

Tara's teams usually have the same look and approach to what they're doing, so one has a pretty good idea of how the recruits fit in. That's probably one reason why I have a degree of comfort for what to expect (rightly or wrongly).

 

[SCspur]

Your timing is awesome. Thanks to a former @Orangutan post which called Belibi "elite" and this @Shades video I'm thinking Stanford might have the best 2019 recruiting class. Yes better than South Carolina!
Besides Jones and Belibi they also got Hannah Jump who can flat out stroke it and is potentially a better PG than Cooke. Also in the same class Stanford got Ashten Prechtel who caught my eye at USA basketball 2 years ago playing 3 X 3. Very mobile for a big and can consistently step out and stroke the three ball, handle and was a very good passer. She going to remind people of former Stanford bigs like Appel and Pederson. Here is how I would stack them:
Boston better than Prechtel
Jones much better than Beal
Jump=Cooke
Belibi better than Amihere because she's healthier.
ESPN has South Carolina ranked number 1 recruiting class but that may have been on the strength of 5 person class vs 4. Thoughts?

Well for the moment we can only compare the classes based on ranking and by most services SC’s class is ahead of Stanford. SC class is based on the strength of having 4 top 15 recruits compared to just 1 for Stanford. Olivia Thompson is a preferred walk-on who wouldn’t have impacted the class in anyway.

The first chance we will probably get to compare them court wise will likely be the McDAA game (barring injury). Stanford will most likely have Jones, Prechtel, and Belibi playing for the West while SC would have Boston, Cooke, and Beal on the East. I left off Jump based on her ranking and Amihere because she’s an international recruit.

We should get another look in the JBC game as well, and that’s an event where I could see Amihere joining her SC counterparts due to the fact that they’ve invited international prospects before (Sabally in 2017, Salvadores in 2015).

I myself would like to wait until they get to College to draw comparisons. Other than Haley Jones, I don’t think Stanford’s class will make an immediate impact due to what Tara currently has and will be bringing back. Jones is a player you can’t keep off the floor even as a freshman but the other three will likely be behind the depth of the previous classes. SC otoh will have minutes from jump for all 4 highly touted freshman. We will be losing 4 after this year and three the next so bringing them in was imperative for the programs future and I think all could make an impact from day 1.

As far as comparing them at the moment, Boston has already been regarded as a post in her own tier by Dan Olson and he stated Amihere has just as much potential. Prechtel is good but nowhere near the level of Aliyah. I think Belibi is comparable to Laeticia in terms of athleticism and dunking ability but the one who gains the ability to consistently shoot the perimeter jump shot from 15’ to the arc will end up being the better player. There is absolutely no comparison between Cooke and Jump. Zia has potential to be the best guard in the class, can the same be said for Hannah? Jump may shoot it better at the moment but Zia is clearly the better defender and shot maker. Hannah is a spot up shooter while Zia can create her own shot for herself as well as others. I would also argue that Jones isn’t “much better” than Beal. They both are extremely versatile and play their roles very well. But I think Brea can do just as much as Haley can defensively and offensively. Both can play just about any position on the floor and while I would give the edge to Jones for the moment I don’t think she’s head and shoulders better. Both are considered the elite small forwards in the class.

 

[nwhoopfan]

That's a nice dunk, has some power to it. None of this barely rolling it over the rim and calling it a "dunk" like you sometimes see. She covered some horizontal ground as well. In the first angle it looks like the defender is in the way, but other angle shows she wants no part of it and steers clear. She's tiny, is she even 5'?


I like the Euro step bucket too. She might be a raw talent still but that shows some skill. So did the dribbling coast to coast on the dunk.

 

[DefenseBB]

Here’s Bueckers tossing up an alley-oop to Belibi in Team USA practice.

I would love to see that again, except with Paige to Liv against ND....

(I put the green emoji for our Irish brethren...)

 

[DefenseBB]

They already have a commitment from Cameron Brink for 2020, and wouldn’t be surprised if Bueckers has Stanford in her Final Five.

cameron-brink

Shades brings up an interesting point here for me. Why is it no one is afraid to go to Stanford when Tara is a year older than Geno, has been coaching longer and also has to be under retirement watch? She has arguably just had 3 of the best years of recruiting in a row that she has ever had, yet no one is saying she's done.