National
It will be interesting to see whose alliance to a shoe company or a certain travel team allows them in or keep them out of the game. Logically, if someone is a consensus top 20 player in the country, they would make both games and be done with their all-star game participation. By NCAA regulations, you are only allowed to play in two such games. As soon as we get the scoop, we will breakdown who’s in, who’s out, and possibly why! We are trying to find some regional correspondents to cover specific areas of the country for recruiting notebooks. Please email us if you are interested in becoming a correspondent.
Southeast
Usually Tampa is not a hot bed for talent but this year 21-1 Tampa Jefferson is making some waves with not only a solid team but several Division I recruits. Laurie Beaty (class of 2011), who is a strong scoring guard, leads Jefferson’s balanced offense with 12.4 points per game. Jade Givens, a 5’7’’ junior point guard, shares back court responsibilities with Beaty and is also a mid-level Division I recruit. In the post, Jefferson is young but still strong with Shayla Wilson (6’1’’ freshman) who is third on the team in scoring. Jefferson is coached by former University of Tampa Head Coach Tom Mosca, who had a great run at Brandon (Brandon, FL) before taking over for the Spartans at the University of Tampa. Full Court Recruiting is planning to attend several state championships in the south. Right now our list includes Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Florida. Marshall came to Orlando this weekend and offered two of the top players in Central Florida. The Herd offered 6'0'' Junior Guard Charo Fowler of Winter Park. Fowler is relative unknown but is a flat out talent and her recruiting is likely to heat up after she attends some of the exposure events. Marshall also offered Camille Crooks who is a 5'9'' freshman point guard from Orlando Bishop Moore.
Texas
Texas may be the deepest state as far as team talent and is definitely in the discussion as far as individual talent. In Texas, you have four monster teams (the first three in the greater Houston area) which may or may not be national caliber teams as far as rankings but someone you would definitely spend your money on to go see. Dulles (Sugarland, TX) has Kelsey Bone who is the best available unsigned senior left in the country. Bone’s talent makes Dulles a must-see this high school season. Next, Houston Nimitz is a team that you should go see if you want to see 6’6’’ Brittany Griner made a slam dunk. Nimitz has only the one loss to Bone's Dulles. Third is Cy-Fair High School (Cypress, TX) which should return to dominance with two players ranked in the top 10 nationally in Chiney Ogwumike (#1 2010) and Cassie Peoples (5’6’’ 2011 PG already verbally committed to Texas). Finally, you can go see the best back court in the country at MacArthur (Irving, TX) with Odyssey Sims, who most have as the top 2010 point guard nationally, and national top 5 freshman Alexis Jones. This back court tandem may end up being the best in high school basketball history.
West Coast
Speaking of point guards, sources say that Yasmine Fuller, a 5’7’’ point guard out of JFK High School in Burien, Washington, may be one of the best in the country at that position. Fuller can score the ball as well as distribute and had a solid weekend in a shootout last weekend. Look for Fuller to star for Baden Elite this summer. Justine Hartman of Brea Olinda was the MVP of the West Coast Jamboree earlier this month. Brea has not lost since the Nike TOC.
Northeast
Murray Bergtraum continues their winning ways and is now on a 72 game winning streak dating back to three seasons ago. A few years ago Jacksonville Ribault accumulated over a 140 game winning streak in Florida including a Nike TOC Championship. While some publications have junior guard Bria Hartley in the middle of the top 100 nationally for 2010 players, reports given to FCR say that Hartley should be a candidate for the 2010 McDonald’s All American game which would put her somewhere in the top 20. Hartley will play for Apache Paschall’s loaded NYC Exodus squad this season.
Middle Atlantic
One player few people have heard about because of her lack of involvement on a top travel team is 5’7’’ point guard Janay Brinkley, who is a great decision maker I saw at Maryland Camp last summer. She has a good mid-range pull up and is a hard nosed defender. Brinkley may not be on the same level as Hartley but still looks to be a big time recruit at the point guard position in 2010. On the high school front, Jenice Johnson, the 6’6’’ center for H.D. Woodson, has regained her eligibility to play high school basketball. Johnson was initially ruled ineligible because she was deemed to be a 5th year senior. Some may wonder what Woodson’s season may have been if they had Johnson on their active roster for the entire year.
Future Stars
I saw 5’2’’ point guard Taryn Griffey(2014) play on Thursday night in a middle school game which might have been one of the worst games I have ever seen. Besides the fact the game was painful to watch (41-3 in Griffey’s favor), it was pretty easy to see that Griffey is an excellent player and someone that will be on the national scene once she hits high school. If you have not figured it out yet, Griffey is the daughter of Major League Baseball player Ken Griffey Junior. Taryn played point guard on the Orlando Edge team which finished 5th at 12U AAU Nationals last year. They lost to another professional athlete’s team, Antonio Davis who played at UTEP and several years in the NBA. Davis’s daughter Kayla likely is the top 8th grader in the south and will be very highly recruited. Davis will be well familiar with the recruiting process because it seems like she is going through it already in trying to decide where she goes to high school. Alexis Brown who is the top 8th grade guard in Florida will be relocating with her father (Dee Brown) to Kentucky at the conclusion of the high school season (Brown has led her high school team to an 18 win season as an 8th grader). This transfer will have a big impact on Kentucky basketball’s landscape over the next 4 years.
As you can see, we are trying to do some interviews with some of the top players around the country. If you are interested in doing an interview with Full Court Recruiting, feel free to email us at Kenny@fgbhoops.com and we will be in touch with you.