On the heels of completing a big and physical front line, coach Van Chancellor landed the engine for his first LSU recruiting class when point guard Crystal Riley of Memphis, Tenn., verballed on Tuesday night.

Crystal Riley challenges Brittney Griner

Riley, a 5-foot-5 bolt of lightning, is ranked 59th in the HoopGurlz Hundred for the 2008 class. She is the fourth ranked player to commit to Chancellor in the past three weeks. Riley represents the fourth different state - Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi being the others - that Chancellor has tapped as he barnstorms through the Southeast for his recruits.

A club teammate of LaSondra Barrett, Chancellor's first major recruit out of Jackson, Miss., Riley quarterbacked a bruising front line for the Tennessee Flight Silver, one of the nation's most successful select teams this year. She is ultra-quick and fearless, and virtually held down the point-guard spot on her own during a competitive Basketball on the Bayou tournament in Birmingham, Ala., last July, as her young understudy, Lauren Avant, was playing at AAU Nationals.

"Riley is incredibly quick and poised as a point guard," said Chris Hansen, National Director of Scouting for HoopGurlz.com. "She has the athleticism to play at a high level and the skills to be a lead guard in the SEC. She is great at breaking people down off the dribble and this summer showed great vision, finding shooters and cutters when defenses collapsed. She is a tough competitor as well and I really liked how she played defense with passion. She was not afraid to get up into ballhandlers and challenge them."

Crystal Riley

Maybe the question of this recruiting season is whether Chancellor now can convert this momentum into landing April Sykes, the No. 2 overall player and No. 1 guard in 2008, according to HoopGurlz. Sykes has a WNBA-ready body and is the type of dynamic, explosive offensive performer who can help make the other four in this class a special group. Sykes long has been considered an LSU lean, but did not commit while visiting Baton Rouge last month with Barrett, her friend and fellow Mississippian.

Riley's commitment came a day after Chancellor received a pledge from Courtney Jones, who, like Barrett, is a powerfully built and explosive forward. Jones, who hails from Midfield, Ala., is ranked 69th in the HoopGurlz Hundred. Taylor Turnbow, a long, 6-2 defensive specialist from Clarkston, Ga., who committed a week ago, is No. 55.

Inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in August, Chancellor, 63, was the women's coach at Mississippi from 1978-97 before leading the WNBA Houston Comets to four straight championships. He also coached the U.S. team to a gold medal at the 2004 Olympics. He succeeded Pokey Chatman, who resigned March 7.

Chancellor's homespun but disciplined approach, as well as his recent WNBA success, obviously has made an immediate splash among recruits.

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Glenn Nelson is the founder and publisher of HoopGurlz.com. He is a member of the McDonald's All-American Selection Committee and SportsShooter.com (Click for Porfolio), Asian American Journalists Association, National Association of Photoshop Professionals, National Press Photographers Association and Online News Association. Glenn also founded and coached the Dragons and Northwest HoopGurlz select girl's basketball teams and 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 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. Glenn can be reached at glenn@hoopgurlz.com.