The Delle Donne’s were approached at the Blue Chip Super Sunday tournament, Jan. 27, and thought the video crew was there as a part of the Blue Chip event. According to Ernie Delle Donne the camera had a Comcast sticker on the equipment and assumed it was being used for local broadcast as Elena is approached regularly by camera crews, many times by multiple crews at once. They were not aware of that the footage would be used for commercial purposes.

“(The video) wasn’t up (Thursday) at all and that was my choice,” Darrick Rizzo, the owner of the site, said. “That was my decision, no one called from the NCAA.”

Interestingly enough there may be no calls from the NCAA as a statement cited in the USA Today story by the NCAA seemed to categorize the situation as a non-issue.

Erik Christianson released a statement via email to the USA Today stating, “Our rules do recognize those high school prospects with legitimate modeling or promotional activities that predate college. Prior to enrollment in college, an individual is permitted to promote a commercial entity as long as they take steps upon becoming a student-athlete to retract permission for that commercial entity to use their name and they cease receipt of any payment for the arrangement.”

According to Rizzo there were no payments, contracts or agreements of any kind.

“Basically it was an innocent gesture and that was it,” Rizzo said.

Rizzo now hopes his actions to pull the video testimonials right now shows that the cessation of any perceived promotion was clearly ended prior to enrollment. The earliest either of these two prospects would enroll at their universities would be summer term.

Delle Donne does not have a profile or account on the site and as the No. 1 player in the country, with national recognition dating back to middle school, doesn’t need the exposure.

“And the situation is blown out of proportion with the USA Today.” Rizzo said.

A third player was cited in the story, West Virginia-bound Madina Ali, a junior college star for Dayton Beach College.

Championship Watch
Alabama has now crowned all its state champions. In the state’s largest classification, 6A, Bob Jones High School (35-2) of Madison, Ala., beat Clay-Chalkville (28-7) of Pinson, Ala., 48-42. Bob Jones’ Kellie Cook scored 22 points in helping the school to its first ever state title.

In the 5A classification Eufaula High School (Eufaula, Ala.) beat Talladega High School (Talladega, Ala.) 64-53 behind the 30-point effort of Terran Condrey. She also grabbed 11 rebounds securing a double-double. In the 4A championship Midfield High School (Midfield, Ala.) ran away from Deschler High School (Tuscumbia, Ala.) 84-52. Midfield’s Erica Baylor scored 25 points in the win, knocking down five of her seven three-point attempts.

Cy-Fair’s Nneka Ogwumike

In Arizona the 5A-Division I bracket’s No. 3 seeded team, Highland High School (Gilbert, Ariz.) knocked off No. 5 seeded Chandler High School (Chandler, Ariz.) 49-39 to take the title. Both teams played their parts in upsetting the top two seeds in the semifinals to reach the championship game.

In the state’s 5A-Division II bracket No. 4 seeded South Mountain High School (Phoenix, Ariz.) outlasted No. 3 seed Pinnacle High School (Phoenix, Ariz.) 55-50 for the championship. In class 4A-Division I Flowing Wells High School (Tucson, Ariz.) crushed Marana High School (Tucson, Ariz.) 56-24 in the title game. The No. 2 seed, Washington High School (Glendale, Ariz.) upset No. 1 seed Page High School (Page, Ariz.) in the 4A-Division II title game.

Six teams were named state champions in Texas – Cy-Fair High School (5A), Lincoln High School (4A), Canyon High School (3A), Jim Ned High School (2A), Martin’s Mill High School (A-DI), and Follett High School (A-DII).

Cy-Fair’s (Cypress, Texas) came behind a 17-point, 17-drebound performance of Stanford-bound senior, Nneka Ogwumike. She also contributed seven steals, five assists and three blocked shots in the 50-33 win over Desoto. Cy-Fair lost only two games this season, both while their best two players, Nneka and Chiney Ogwumike, were playing with the school volleyball team.

NOTES
Auburn Riverside High School (Auburn, Wash.) set a Washington state tournament record for margin of victory in their 78-21 victory over Bainbridge High School (Bainbridge Island, Wash.) Wednesday. The good times continued to roll for the Ravens in the quarterfinals as they knocked off Lakes High School (Lakewood, Wash.) 64-39. … Kelsey Assarian, the standout forward for Barron Collier High School (Naples, Fla.) was named the 5A State Player of the Year by the Florida Athletic Coaches Association. Assarian signed a letter of intent to play her college ball at Texas A&M. … Jolysa Brown of Summers County High School (Hinton, W.V.) was named the State Player of the Year by the West Virginia Sports Writer’s Association after leading her Bobcats to a second straight AA state title. Brown averaged 21 points and 12 rebounds this season.

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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.

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