BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - They didn't know each other until they became teammates this year with the Syracuse Rochester SRAP club team. Now they are going to meet in their high-school senior season opener. Shenise Johnson of Henrietta, N.Y., and Tyler Ash of Liverpool, N.Y., also share the fact that they are nationally ranked prospects who still are open in their recruitment.
Fresh off what she called her worst game ever in a tournament in Atlanta this month, Johnson, No. 8 overall in the 2008 class, told HoopGurlz.com that her top four are Boston College, Georgia, LSU and Syracuse.
Tyler Ash
The physical, 5-foot-11 guard has made unofficial visits to B.C. and Syracuse and plans on taking official visits to all of her top four schools. When asked if staying close to home was a factor Johnson said, “No not really, there’s nothing going on in Rechester.”
Ash, who is 25th overall in 2008, is even more wide open with Boston College, Illinois, Indiana, Penn State, Rutgers, St. John's and Syracuse on her list. She also plans to take official visits and wants to study sports management.
The creative 6-2 guard could be a bit of a sleeper recruit because she's a legit point guard, who plays the position at Liverpool High School, but is more of a wing on her club team because of the presence of Sarah Paulus, who is a Fairfield commit and the younger sister of star Duke point guard Greg Paulus.
CLUB TEAM OF THE YEAR?
The early favorites have to be the Tennessee Flight Silver, which has won the Nike Midwest Showdown, End of the Trail and Battle in the Boro - since Memorial Day. The Flight will be gunning for its fourth straight tournament title here in Basketball on the Bayou, setting themselves as the favorites at July-ending Nike Nationals. Candace Wood, clutch-player extraordinaire is coming off an MVP performance in Murpheesboro, Tenn., while forward LaSondra Barrett is an established force with two MVP trophies before that.
This tournament will not be an uncontested, breakaway dunk for Matt Insell's team. Essence, with national No. 2 April Sykes, No. 13 Tiffany Hayes and the powerful Chelsey Lee, certainly will have something to say. As will DFW Elite with No. 14 Brooklyn Pope and No. 19 Destini Hughes. Among some of theother contenders are the Arkansas Mavericks with No. 9 Shekinna Stricklen, and All-Ohio Black, which is without Ayana Dunning, still nursing an ankle injury.
Bayou will be a great event for top-ranked guards (including fast rising Mo Bennett of Peach State Elite). However, the individual spotlight arguably will be on the dunking dynamo from Houston - 6-6 Brittney Griner, the 2009 post who already has committed to Baylor.
RIM SHOTS
- South Carolina keeps mining some of the best in the state of Georgia, its latest commitment coming from Taylor Dalrymple, most lately of national No. 1 Collins Hill in Suwanee, Ga. Dalrymple is a 6-1 forward with soft hands who finishes well around the basket with either her left or right and can step out to 18 feet to nail a jumper. She will join former Collins Hill teammate Jordan Jones and Ashley Billingslea, a guard from rival Stephenson High School.
- As we have pointed out before, we think ballhandling demon D'Frantz Smart of Whitney Young in Chicago is the best 5-1 player in the country. A player of that size is not for everyone's taste, but obviously several schools agree with our sentiments. Illinois, Northern Illinois, Ohio and Saint Louis have offered scholarships. Smart's short list includes Bowling Green, Florida State, Illinois, Rice, South Florida, Temple and Vanderbilt.
- Purdue coach Sharon Versyp probably had the most productive mid-July of any coach in America, reeling in two-thirds of a formidable front line. The first to come on was Alex Guyton of Bloominton, Ind., a 6-3 forward, with a gigantic wingspan who has the skillset to play out on the wing some. Guyton is ranked 59th in the 2008 class by HoopGurlz.com. Next was 6-4 Chelsea Jones of Fort Smith, Ark., who has great lower-body strength and balance and is coming into her own as a post prospect. Pit those two with previous verbal Brittany Rayburn, the sharp-shooting guard from Attica, Ind., ranked 38th overall by HoopGurlz, and Versyp already has the makings of a national top 10 signing class.
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Glenn Nelson is the publisher and founder of HoopGurlz.com. He also founded and coached the Dragons and Northwest HoopGurlz select girl's basketball teams. Glenn previously was the editor-in-chief at Scout.com and a longtime, national-award-winning basketball columnist and writer for The Seattle Times. His work also has appeared in several books and national magazines. He is co-author of "Rising Stars: The Ten Best Players in the NBA" (Rosen Publishing, 2002). For more on Glenn's World, click here [1]. He can be reached at glenn@hoopgurlz.com [2].
Chris Hansen is the National Director of Scouting for Women’s Basketball at HoopGurlz.com. He leads the panel that evaluates and ranks girl's basketball prospects nationally for HoopGurlz. Chris has been involved in the women’s basketball community since 1998 as a coach, trainer, evaluator and reporter. He can be reached at chris@hoopgurlz.com [3].
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