STORY & PHOTOS BY GLENN NELSON
Italee Lucas of Las Vegas |
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Those foretelling gloom and doom at the point-guard position for USA Basketball were in for a bit of a shock when someone named Italee Lucas reported for the U18 trials on Saturday. She looked very much like the prospect out of Las Vegas whom many consider one of the top players in the entire Class of 2007. But she didn't play like the Italee Lucas some consider too trigger happy or erratic for a lead guard.
In fact, in two scintillating workouts at the U.S. Olympic Training Center, during which she demonstrated quickness, vision, and the ability to push, create and deliver, Italee Lucas looked like the very embodiment of the solution to one of coach Doug Bruno's main problem areas coming into these trials - the point-guard position.
After all, Bruno cannot even choose from some of the best guards in the country, including Dymond Simon of Phoenix, who is the No. 1 point guard in the Class of 2006, according to HoopGurlz.com and Full Court Press. The older ones, in particular, were too banged up to even attend.
Which left the Class of 2007 to carry the freight.
So far, so very good.
"There are a lot of talented players here, especially point guards," said one of the better ones, Khadijah Rushdan of Wilmington, Del. "There is a lot of competition at that position."
Italee Lucas has impressed with her
playmaking at USA Basketball trials |
That would be mainly because of the best and brightest of '07 - Lucas, Rushdan and Jasmine Thomas, of Vienna, Va. Nikita Gartrell, the teeth-chatteringly quick North Carolina State signee, has been the best of the 2006 lead guards.
The 2007 points came in as big questions marks, mainly because many wondered if they could step up to the level of competition (which, incidentally, will lead them to FIBA Junior Americas World Championship qualifier next week). The biggest if may have been Lucas. While she is considered by many to be the most athletically gifted - and skilled - point guard in 2007, Lucas also is considered a hybrid of lead and shooting guards.
Ask Lucas what position she plays or, even, prefers and her likely answer will be, "Either."
What happened on Saturday for Lucas happened out of necessity.
"Playing with better players, I don't have to do as much," said the North Carolina commit. "In high school, I play either. In AAU ball, I mainly play the two (shooting guard). But I will do whatever my team needs me to do to win. Here, they need point guards and it's just a matter of knowing my limits."
That being?
"I can't just jack up shots every time down court," Lucas responded with a smile.
Besides perception, utilizing her extreme quickness more effectively has been another battle for Lucas. There are a lot of speed merchants who don't make very good basketball players. Those who learn to use their quickness to allow them to play slowly at critical times (for example, finishing a shot) are the ones who become elite players.
"I'm too fast for my body sometimes," Lucas said.
Rushdan comes closest in quickness, but is stronger. She excels in getting through the tiniest cracks to attack the basket and is strong enough to finish consistently when she gets there. Rushdan also has shown a nice stroke from three-point range. Thomas is not as explosive, but jumps better and has a nice, quick, short crossover that she combos with other moves to claim space. She has the smoothest and most reliable stroke, either off the catch or dribble.
Which of the three is the best of the 2007 class?
"I'll let others answer that question," Thomas said.
Lucas said, "I'm not going to answer that question."
Her green eyes gleaming, Rushdan said, "Me (smile). If I'm not the very best, then I think I'm up there with the best."
Fortunately for Team USA, the best of '07 is in Colorado Springs - in triplicate.
Jasmine Thomas of Vienna, Va. | 
Khadijah Rushdan of Wilmington, Del. |
Glenn Nelson is the publisher of HoopGurlz.com and the editor-in-chief of Scout Media (www.Scout.com), an online sports network and magazine-publishing company and subsidiary of Fox Interactive Media. Glenn also founded and coached
the Dragons and Northwest HoopGurlz select girls basketball teams. He previously was a longtime, national-award-winning basketball columnist and writer for The Seattle
Times. His work also has appeared in several national magazines and books. He is co-author of "Rising Stars: The Ten Best Players in the NBA" (Rosen Publishing, 2002).
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