PHOTOS BY GLENN NELSON
Kelsey Bone, in a contemplative moment
In recent years, an elite post prospect has been a breed so aparently close to extinction that a rare sighting is enough to provoke near-panic on the recruiting trail - courts ringed with so many college coaches they virtually are sitting on top of each other. When one highly ranked post player recently was asked how popular she'd become, she held up her cellular phone and scolled through the (mostly unread) text message for seemed like minutes. Ask a college coach during the summer what she or he is looking and the answer almost is invariably, "A big girl."
Which is to say, 2009 is the year for which we've all been waiting.
For the first time since HoopGurlz began ranking women's college-basketball prospects, we have a post player, 6-foot-5 Kelsey Bone of Stafford, Texas, at No. 1. Not only that, our No. 2, 6-7 Brittney Griner of Houston, also is a post. As are four of our top six ranked players in 2009.
Click Here for the HoopGurlz 2009 Super Sixty [0]
The HoopGurlz Super Sixty is just our first salvo for the 2009 class. It is the longest list yet that we have released in advance of a class' actual recruiting year.
Monique Oliver
Making it even more unique, nine of our top 25 in 2009 are posts. By contrast, only three of our top 25 in 2008 were posts; in fact, our HoopGurlz Hundred for 2008 had just 11 posts in all. In 2007, there were only 10.
What's going on?
For starters, there must be something in the water in Texas, where everything is bigger anyway.
The Houston area is the epicenter of the explosion in post talent. Both Bone and Griner are there, as well as Nneka Ogwumike, the No. 6 overall prospect in 2008, a 6-2 forward prospect who plays center at Cy-Fair High School in Cypress. Up I-45 in Dallas is where you'd find the No. 6 overall prospect, 6-4 powerhouse Cokie Reed, as well as her 6-5 club teammate, Nikki Green, ranked No. 23 overall by HoopGurlz.com.
Speaking of connections, Bone and 6-3 Monique Oliver of Las Vegas, Nev., who is ranked No. 5 overall, have been club teammates the past two years. So not only have college coaches been seeing post prospects for a change, they've frequently been seeing double.
Erinn Thompson
In addition to numbers, the top posts of 2009 are not just big girls who are playing near the basket. Most have accomplished, back-to-basket skills - the habit of sitting down on their postups, an understanding of balance and leverage, moves and counters, as well as the ability to pass out of double- and triple-teams. Some, such as 6-3 Erinn Thompson of Winston-Salem, N.C., add the dimension of above-average ballhandling and middle- to long-range shooting.
In fact, the main differences between many of the post prospects is encapsulated by the debate likely to rage all year over which player deserves the class' No. 1 spot, Bone or Griner. We opted for Bone in our Super Sixty because she has superior size and strength and is a force at both ends of the floor. She also is a rarity at her position because of her advanced communication skills and leadership qualities. Griner very well will help change the women's game with her fluid athleticism and dunking abilities. However, she has more of a forward's game on offense and is mostly a force at the defensive end with her shot-blocking.
In other words, we see Bone - for now - better fitting the classic requirements for a post. And we've always said - all other things being equal - we'd opt for the post over any other position.
For the first time, we've been able to make that choice at the very top.
Brittney Griner
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Glenn Nelson is the publisher 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 Womens 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 womens basketball community since 1998 as a coach, trainer, evaluator and reporter. He can be reached at chris@hoopgurlz.com [3].
Veronica Algeo coached Fencor to three straight AAU National Championship Game appearances, winning in 2004 and 2005. She served as a varsity assistant coach for nine seasons at Lansdale (Pa.) Catholic High School, which won five conference titles during that period. Veronica also coached junior-high basketball at St. Michael Indian School, on the Navajo Reservation in St. Michaels, Ariz., for two season, taking a previously winless program and helping them to an undefeated league championship in her second year. She played collegiately at Division III Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pa., where she was among the nation's assist loeaders through her senior season and finished as the school's all-time leader in assists for both career and season.