Under the Radar

Jence Rhoads is probably the best point guard in the country whom you've never heard of.

STORY & PHOTOS BY GLENN NELSON
SUWANEE, Ga. - In all likelihood, you don't know this girl. Not yet. She's American Bandstand in an MTV era. She'd rather direct traffic and pass the basketball than shoot it. She doesn't pound her chest after triumphs or slam the ball after mistakes.

You don't know this girl because, shoot, you didn't even notice this girl. At the very least, you underestimated her because of her throw-back, John Stockton shorty shorts, which reveal a vast collection of bruises on her knees. You underestimated her because of her modeling school posture while she transports the ball downcourt, her herky moves, and the fact that she's from a funny sounding place called Slippery Rock, tucked in Eastern Pennsylvania, about an hour north of Pittsburgh.

Naw, you don't know Jence Rhoads. Her name looks like Jence, as in fence, but is pronounced Jen-cy. And you didn't know that, either.

That's all about to change. Jence Rhoads is, as they say, about to blow up. How can she not? Everytime you look, her team is winning. Her select team, Rock Solid, took fourth at 15U AAU Nationals in 2004. Her high school, Slippery Rock (all of 218 in her senior class), made the state playoffs last year and the district finals the year before. And, most recently, before anyone realized, Rock Solid was playing in the championship game of the adidas Tournament of Champions, where it pushed before succumbing to FBC Blue, one of the nation's elite club teams.

Jence Rhoads

"I don't think a lot of people know me because of where I'm from," Rhoads said afterward. "There's not much there."

There's enough, actually, starting with her parents, Robert and Melinda, who provide ample lineage for the 2007 point guard.

Robert Rhoads, the Rock Solid coach, played at Wake Forest and professionally in Australia and New Zealand, then coached men's basketball at Slippery Rock College and both boy's and girl's at Slippery Rock High School. Melinda Hale-Rhoads played at Slippery Rock and for the New England Gulls in the WBL, the ill-fated women's professional basketball league that folded in 1981. Hale-Rhoads adapted, however, shifted to team handball and made the 1984 U.S. Olympic Team.

"She's been in the gym since she was in a stroller," Robert Rhoads said of his daughter. "In fact, her whole life, she was never not in the gym."

Rhoads is a product of genetics and gym time. The work in progress - half-erect, reliable ballhandler who has an excellent pullup jumper in transition and great vision in the halfcourt - reminds many, including college coaches, of a certain, former Connecticut point guard who now plays for the Seattle Storm. It is no wonder since Rhoads was a huge fan of UConn's during Sue Bird's tenure there.

In addition to making very few mistakes, Rhoads also is distinguished by her unflappable demeanor on the court. "She is a total flatliner," her father says. This, according to Rhoads, comes from her mother's side. Dad, she says with a smile, "can get a little excited once in a while." Dad taught her how to shoot; Mom was a role model for defense and hustle. Rhoads likes to play defense and, at 5-feet-11, can be quite disruptive.

"I am more of a hustler and a passer," she said. "I like playing the point."

Vanderbilt is where Rhoads wants to go, but the Commodores have not yet offered her a scholarship. Wake Forest has, and the entire Mid-American Conference is hot on her trail. No offense to the MAC, but, after the week she just had (culminating with an all-star berth at the adidas Top Ten All-American Camp), it's hard to imagine that Jence Rhoads will not do better.

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