STORY & PHOTOS BY GLENN NELSON
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The fall viewing period is just a quickie - just two days for nonscholastic events on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1. Many athletes are playing other sports, or their club teams are shelved until the spring. So it's become a time to double-check prospects in future classes and plant some seeds for others.
With some help, we at HoopGurlz.com are trying to spread ourselves around to maximize the scant couple days.
Our main coverage for the weekend will come from the suburbs of Chicago, where the Battle of the Programs will take place on Saturday and the adidas Fall Showcase will be on Sunday, both in Schaumberg, Ill. This will be the centerpiece of our coverage because: a.) we've wanted to check in with the Midwest, and b.) I'm the one who'll be there and I have the camera.
Chris Hansen, our National Director of Scouting, will be at the Grass Roots Sports Fall Showcase in Irvine, Calif. We also will have a presence at Breakdown Magazine's Battle for Rankings in Altamonte, Fla., the Nike Super Showcase - South in Atlanta, Ga., and Peach State Basketball's End of the Road Championships, also in Atlanta.
The Blue Star Midwest event will kick off with the Battle of the Programs, including Chicago Hoops Express, The Family (Ind.), Hoopstars Midwest (Mo.), Illinois Hustle, Illinois Warriors, Illinois Wolverines, Iowa Elite, Full Package (Ill.), Illinois Lady Lightning, Memphis Elite Lady Tigers, Missouri Valley Eclipse, South Bend Lady Soldiers, St. Louis Bulls, Tampa (Fla.) Extreme, Wisconsin Lakers, Wisconsin Lakeside Scholars, Wisconsin Playground and Wisconsin Viking Club all playing 14-minute, mini-games. Sarah Boothe, a four-star center ranked 25th in the HoopGurlz Hot 25 for 2008, will be playing with Full Package. Alex Guyton of The Family is one of the top forwards in the 2008 class and already has committed to Michigan. The adidas Fall Showcase will spotlight 200 participants the next day.
Kelsey Bone of Sugar Land, Texas, one of the very top prospects in the 2009 class, headlines a stellar group at the Grass Roots Fall Showcase. Some of the other top players include Briana Gilbreath of Katy, Texas; Monique Oliver of Las Vegas, and Caty Huntington of Bakersfield, Calif. Among those who could have breakout appearances are Aishah Sutherland of Perris, Calif., a 2008 forward who at 6-2 can jump and grab the rim with both hands, and Alyssa Shoji of Issaquah, Wash., a 2008 point guard who will play at the first-ever NFHS invitational tournament in Seattle, Wash.
The Super Showcase has a star-studded cast, including April Sykes of Crawford, Miss., No. 2 in the HoopGurlz Hot 25 for 2008; Tyra White of Kansas City, Mo., No. 17 in the HoopGurlz Hot 100 for 2007; Destini Hughes, a top 2008 guard of Waxahachie, Texas, as well as 2009 sensations Mariah Chandler of Atlanta, Ga., and Shakara Rucker of Gainesville, Ga. The event will feature 24 teams and 80 individual players from a large geographical area.
Peach State Basketball's neighboring event will feature more top players from the region. Its marquee matchup, and perhaps the biggest of the entire weekend, will have Collins Hill High School of Suwanee, Ga., and the nation's top player, Maya Moore, plus Hot 100 sharp-shooter Jordan Jones, going up against The Webb School of Knoxwille, Tenn., and Glory Johnson, No. 8 in the HoopGurlz Hot 25 for 2008.
It will be a short, but sweet weekend.
Rim Shots
Vicki Baugh, the second-highest ranked, uncommitted prospect in 2007 at No. 8, is down to five schools - Tennessee, LSU, Oklahoma, Cal and UCLA. The 6-foot-4 wing is scheduled to visit LSU on Oct. 13. She's had in-home visits from UCLA (Sept. 20), Cal (Sept. 21) and LSU (Sept. 22). ... Alexandria Carbonel of Fremont, Calif., a 5-8 guard in the 2008 class, already has offers from Arizona State, California, Harvard, Princeton, Santa Clara, UCLA and Washington. ... Suzie Davis of Pacifica High School in Garden Grove, Calif., has committed to Saint Mary's. The 5-foot-11 forward was a Golden State Heat teammate of Kali Bennett, No. 35 in the HoopGurlz Hot 100 who this week committed to the University of Washington. ... Three-star prospect Kristin Daugherty of River View High School in Warsaw, Ohio, the No. 32 forward in the 2007 class, verbaled to Dayton in June. ... Sarah Strand, a 6-1 forward out of King's High School in Seattle, Wash., has offers from Eastern Washington, Montana State, San Francisco and Seattle Pacific.
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). He
can be reached at hoopgurlz@comcast.net.
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