Nike’s ’08 Tournament of Champions Recap

Check out this great slideshow to show the highlights of Nike’s Tournament of Champions, known to many as the best high school basketball tournament in the country.

National Basketball says that the Tournament of Champions is the largest and most prestigious in-season high school girls’ basketball tournament in North America. Each year more than 100 elite teams from around the United States compete in the event, which has been called “unparalleled” by the USA Today.
The tournament routinely showcases the majority of the preseason top 25 teams in the nation, along with the most powerful teams from Arizona, California, and bordering states, and has produced seven of the last nine USA Today National Champions.

Must have been quite an event! Special thanks to ESPN HoopGurlz who provides (by far) the best coverage of the top high school female basketball players in the country.

Recruiting… what it takes to get to the next level in women’s basketball

West Chester University coach Dierdre Kane

The transition from high school to college basketball is a big one for girls basketball players across the country. So it’s important to understand what coaches are looking for, whether you’re a coach, a parent or a player.

A few days ago, Mark Lewis from ESPN’s HoopGurlz wrote a great piece called Beyond Talent: Evaluation Considerations where he discussed college recruiters, what they’re thinking, what they need, scholarship rules/limits and coaches’ approaches.

Lewis is a known expert in the women’s hoops arena for ESPN. His opinion (for sure) is worth taking note.

(Podcast) WBCA’s Shootaround with Beth & Debbie

I came across this podcast on the WBCA Web site. Beth Mowins and Debbie Antonelli were at Nike Nationals in South Carolina this summer, one of biggest AAU recruiting event of the year. This is a great overall outline of what we’re looking at for women’s basketball on multiple talent levls.

They talk about the recruiting process, how AAU influences a girls’ ability to get into college and what a high-level AAU tournament is like. They also discussed the WNBA fight and USA’s preparation for the Olympics.

On the high school level, the topic of conversation was Brittney Griener, the AAU star I wrote about earlier. Other players mentioned were Destiny and Tamika Williams. They said you can go down the list from every team there and find a girl who is going to “play major basketball.”

As I mentioned earlier, Beth and Debbie also touched on other subjects such as the WNBA fight (it was the most publicity the league has ever gotten), and preparing for the Olympics (this podcast was recorded before the Olympics) and some highlights from college basketball (top paid coaches).

They also talked to Mark Lewis, the columnist for women’s basketball at ESPN.com’s Hoopgurlz. Mark discussed how attention is drawn to younger girls who might progress to be stop stars, and “hot spots” around the country (highlight on Texas).  Mark also provided some advice on what girls should be working on, including emphasis upon skill work.

Mark was right when he said we need to “give hats off” to Nike, who sponsors multiple tournaments and camps to work on girls’ skills. Their sponsorship is certainly important for the future of women’s basketball.