"That all was before I was born," Whitney Hand says. "But I'm sure he was really good."

The elder Hand's MLB career imprinted Whitney with a couple things - an athletic inclination and a strong sense of geography. Hand put down stakes in the Arlington-Dallas area, where he played much of his professional baseball. Whitney, her four sisters and brother grew up around the ballpark in Arlington as Rangers fans, though Whitney fell in love with basketball and never really had a hankering for softball.

Whitney Hand

Whitney Hand says "I'm a Texas girl" to explain a lot of things. She wheels it out, for example, to reconcile how she committed to Oklahoma on May 11 in spite of the allure of Stanford.

"I'm really big on family," Hand says of her decision. "I like where Oklahoma is. It's far enough to get away, but close enough to go home if I get homesick. There really was a family atmosphere there."

Hand, 6 feet 1, was one of the Dallas area's most hotly recruited players. She averaged 17 points, 9.4 rebounds, 7.1 assists and 5.4 steals a game while shooting 55 percent from the field, 45 percent from three-point range and 80 percent from the free-throw line. She helped Liberty Christian to the TAPPS 5A state championship and was an all-state and district co-MVP selection.

A four-star prospect who is ranked 47th in the 2008 class by HoopGurlz.com, Hand will rattle off a list of deficiencies in her game that are not always evident on the court. She is an extremely well-rounded offensive player from the wing, with nice touch for long distance, an ability to make plays with the pass and who takes the ball strong to the basket and finishes in traffic. Hand felt the 40-some games she played with the Texas Blazers club team last summer "broke down my body," but it playing this summer with Essence, one of the top Nike teams, where she teams with April Sykes, the No. 3 prospect in 2008, and Tiffany Hayes, who is No. 25.

"I want to work on my weaknesses," Hand says. "Creating off the dribble. Defensive quickness. Obviously, you cannot be complacent. I need to make up for not being fast and athletic."

Whitney Hand

She has masked her weaknesses well, overcoming them with a good skillset at her size and tremendous basketball IQ, but also with a willingness to take chances on the floor. Before suffering an ankle sprain, Hand even showed good burst and explosiveness at times during the Nike Midwest Showdown.

Hand plans to be a pre-med major, with an intention, for now, to become an orthopedic surgeon. That academic inclination is what made Stanford an attractive choice. She made unofficial visits to schools throughout the Big 12 and also in California - including Cal, UCLA and USC. She orginally said she visited the "West Coast," and laughed when it was pointed out that the "West Coast" included her father's hometown near Seattle, where he played baseball for the University of Puget Sound.

They had gone far enough, she reasoned.

"I'm a Texas girl," she says.

Nuff said, right?

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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. He can be reached at glenn@hoopgurlz.com.

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