I hope we're wrong because women's basketball needs slammin' Sammy Prahalis - someone who will play the role of David (Davida?) on a nightly basis against the game's Goliaths, slaying them by performing feats of magic with the basketball, capturing and bringing to life the imagination of an audience that truly wants to be coaxed out of dormancy. Players like Prahalis come along all the time on the boy's side. But, because of social pressures and pubescent female rites, rare is the girl willing to put herself out as far as Prahalis often does.

The Dix Hills, N.Y., star said she pared down her schools of interest based on style of play, personnel and how she'd fit in with both. Her final four was Ohio State, Florida, Illinois and Rutgers. Florida and Illinois, she knew off the bat were going to be relay teams with her holding down the anchor. Rutgers, she said she wasn't so sure about because the Scarlet Knights had established and talented perimeter players in a system that brought out their best.

The Buckeyes were somewhat of a question mark because they'd been a halfcourt, slug-it-out kind of a team.

"They brought it up," Prahalis says of the Ohio State coaches. "They told me, point blank, 'We are going to run. People are saying we're not, but we are.' I believe them because I looked at the type of players they've brought in, and the kind of players they are trying to bring in. They are athletic, and they can run."

Foster's freshman class includes Brittany Johnson, the most prolific scorer in Illinois history, and Alison Jackson, a do-it-all greyhound from the Chicago area. Its centerpiece, Jantel Lavender, was the most accomplished post player in the 2007 class. And, yes, she can get up and down the floor.

What the game lacks is the true improvisationalist, the player who in split seconds pulls something out of a Pistol Pete-powered past, or just makes up something up to fit the situation. That player, on the high-school level, has been Samantha Prahalis, who already is swamped by little, autograph-seeking "next Sammy's" after Commack High School home games.

"I started playing the way I play because it's more fun, and it's more fun to watch," Prahalis says. "If I throw a pass behind my back instead of just a simple chest pass, I can't help it. It just comes naturally because it's what I work on all the time. People think I don't have fundamentals, but I do. I am in the gym all the time, working on them. I think people misunderstand how I play."

When I spoke to Prahalis, she'd just returned from her second workout of the day. Denis Conroy, her coach at Commack, calls Prahalis a "workout maniac," who is stronger than she looks. He also says she has a great sense of using her wizardry to stir up a crowd, inspire teammates or deflate opponents. "She's a fearless player, yes, and she's very creative," Conroy says. "But she's always willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done." It's the same sort of thing that her club coach, Apache Paschall of Exodus NYC, said of Prahalis all last summer.

"I've been hearing that criticism, basically, forever," she says. "This summer, I made it personal that we would win. I wanted to show people I could play my style and that my team would win. The No. 1 thing for me is winning. I like that I can do some extra things that maybe will get more people to watch, but my main goal at Ohio State is to be a contender for a national championship. Even if my play opens eyes, that would be great, but I would not be satisfied."

People will pay to watch Samantha Prahalis play, even now. They'll be afraid not to look because, even in her worst games, she does something to jerk everyone out of their seats. Conroy recalls a game last season when Commack was down to Northport, a rival that had grasped the upper hand in recent years. Two minutes into the fourth quarter, Prahalis was struggling from the field, four for 20, he thinks. During the final four minutes, she scored 19 points, handed out seven assists and Commack came back to win.

Everyone who left early, who maybe didn't even go in the first place, who, mostly, did not believe, were proved wrong. I hope, in that same way, we also are wrong. That Sammy Prahalis proves us wrong. The game needs us to be because the game needs a player like her.

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