Special to Greensborosports.com from our girl’s basketball scouting services:
Preseason Top Ten Girls in Basketball
1. Zena Lovett: Jr. Southwest Guilford
2. Megan Buckland: Sr. Bishop McGuinness
3. Desire Drayton: Sr. Dudley
4. Ayshia Mcneil: Sr. Southeast Guilford: Cedrica Gibson: Jr. Oak Ridge Academy
5. Brittany Clancy: Jr. Western Guilford
6. Shannon Buchanan: Sr. Southwest Guilford
7. Samantha Cofer: Sr. Northern Guilford
8. Camille Horne: Sr. Southern Guilford
9. Brittany Price: Sr. Southeast Guilford
10. Kierra McIvor: Sr. Dudley
lets start the season off on a good note…How can there be any list without Miranda Jenkins?..Eastern won 24 games last year…She already has close to 1200 points in 3 seasons…She has made all conference each of her 3 yrs. Correct me if I’m wrong, but the only person on the list with 1,000 pts is Samantha Coffer…I think they beat Northern twice, and have won the conference at least 2 out of the last 3 years, maybe all 3 years..Signing with Stonybrook tommorrow..(and no, I am not her father ! ! !)
She has contacts that help us with the scouting and coming up with the lists, so in all fairness to the other girls, she removes herself from consideration on these lists and wishes all the other girls the best season that they can possibly have in 2010/2011…..
Miranda has done well and she will continue to perform at the highest possible level for the Eastern Guilford Wildcats and for Coach Gunn this upcoming season…..
Best of luck to all the players as we get set to toss it up…..
noone care about girls HS bball…
Obviously you don’t, but a lot of people do.
Yes, I agree with “i know ball” …this list without Miranda is a farce! Miranda has proved she is among the elite, but like most instances, if you don’t play at NWG, NG, Page, Grimsley or Dudley, you do not get the recognition you deserve. The ‘Cats have been slighted by the News and Record for years while Coach Gunn has been either conference champs, tournament champs, or both for the past 9 years. Can anyone else in the county boast that record?
I am a male coach that hasn’t ever coached Miranda but has had the pleasure of being around her to know that she is a very special girl on and off the court. This young lady could run for president in 17 years.
So what was the criteria for the basis of selection of these young ladies..
Im usually right there with Andy on these lists (both boys and girls) but this one I simply cannot agree with.
To start off with Zena Lovette over Megan Buckland is proposterous. Buckland is a 6’1″ PG that has played for the USA national team and has signed with UNC. Lovette is good but not nearly good enough for this spot. She is a talented offensive player but her stats are hugely inflated. She scores 8-10pts per game leaking out for uncontested layups after her teammates have forced turnovers.
Shannon Buchanan is good but no where near as good as Samantha Coffer. They play on the same AAU team and Coffer starts and is a tremendous threat from both inside and out, Buchanan is third string off the bench. She is an undersized PF and does not quite have the ball handling skills to be a true wing player.
Kamille Horn and Brittany Price are both good kids and pretty good players but the im not sure about top ten. They are both coming off acl tears and no one is sure how they will play this season (hopefully well). Horn was a decent player on a 2A team that played next to no one and featured no other scoring threats. Price might be good enough for this list provided she can bounce back from her acl injury.
Kierra at #10 might be ok considering that she’s inked a Div-1 scholarship to Radford but I think there may be a few other players that should challenge for this top ten honor.
Just to put things into perspective this may be a more accurate list. These ladies were were selected off of talent, potential, position played, accurate scouting reports, AAU and High School previous accomplishments, and previous head to head matchups. [I included ORMA and GDS because Andy included Bishop McGuiness.]
1st team
Cedrica Gibson ORMA (Major Div 1 offers)
Megan Buckland Bishop McG (UNC Committ)
Ashia McNeil SE Guilford (Div2 Committ but had Div 1 offers)
Yani ______? ORMA (Major Div 1 offers)
Jatzmin Johnson ORMA (Major Div 1 offers)
2nd Team
Zhana Lovette (Low-Midmajor Div 1 offers)
Miranda Jenkins EGHS (Div 1 Stonybrook committ)
Brittany Gwyn HPC (Div 1 UNC-A committ)
Desiree Drayton Dudley (Div 1 UNC-C committ)
Samantha Coffer NGHS (Div 1 Elon Committ)
3rd Team
Brittany Drew Page (Low Div 1-Div2 talent)
Brittney Clency W Guilford (Low to Midmajor Div 1 talent)
Kierra McKivor Dudley (Div 1 Radford committ)
Shannon Buchanan SWGuilford (Div 2 talent)
Cierra Jackson Ragsdale (Low Div 1 offers)
Honorable Mention
Khadeja Wilkerson GDS (Low-Midmajor Div 1 talent)
Quon Greer Smith (Low-Midmajor Div 1 Talent)
Shanel Lewis SW Guilford (Low-Midmajor Div 1 Talent)
Kamille Horn S Guilford(Low-Midmajor Div 1 Talent)
Katie Bryson HPC (Div2 talent)
Brittany Price SE Guilford (Low Div1 -Div2 Talent)
Tiana Bowden Grimsley (Div 2 Talent)
Chell Jackson Dudley (Div 2 Talent)
Breanna Garris Smith(Low-Midmajor Div 1 Talent)
Ebony ____? Dudley (Low Div1-Div2 Talent)
**Paris Keys**Page (Freshman Guard) (Rated right now as a High Major Div1 Talent)
Didn’t Megan Buckland have knee surgery as well? Or is her knee different because Carolina picked her?
What offers does Orma’s Cedrica Gibson have since she will re-class and not play at Highpoint Central?
What school did Jasmin Johnson play for and is she re-classing too?
Samantha is just as good or better than Buckland. Do you remember the Mcguiness Kathryn Lyons and rated very high that went to Maryland? Is she still there? What has happen to the other Bishop girl that is at Virginia?
Before we start naming freshmen whom have not played at the high-school level yet, wouldn’t it be wise to lets see what their performance looks like after their first year and then go from there?
It is obviously hard to rate 1 girl against another with the number of tournaments or information normally available compared to what is available for boys. The boys have more quality tournaments available with more teams that travel a greater distance from the region and other states. Thus, we often get a better view of who can actually play and who is just average. However, the top girls do play a lot of showcase basketball that allows them the opportunity to play against other top girls througout the region, southest and teams in this half of the US.
I will not go into the full list of “top” female basketball players that may be in the 10th, 9th, 8th or even the 7th grade but I can assure you that this region has several up and coming young ladys that will get a lot of national attention at the high D1 level. In the Raleigh/Dur area the Carolina Allstars have several girls going to the 10th and 8th grade that can play with anyone in the nation. Locally for the Greensboro/Winston Salem area the Lady Phoenix have several girls that will compete at a very high national level. Several of these girls are in grades 9th and 8th and yes one of them is Ms Paris at Page.
There is a reason that a lot of people do not like paying to see girls play basketball and it starts with the fact that most girls do not have the skill set, intensity and “entertainment” quality that many boys know how to bring to the game. People want to see a show and to feel entertained. Young players such as Ms Paris at Page and some of the other ladies (that I will not put on the spot for now because they are only in middle school) know how to put on a show and give the crowd something to cheer for.
The readers of this site would do themselves well to seek out these young ladies and go see them play. The future of young female basketball players in this area is getting much stronger. This area has been void of any real high D1 level players for a number of years but just like what you are seeing with boys (ie the Dudley kids of PJ, Richmond etc, the FCD kid going to State, the Westchester guys, all of the Oak Ridge players) you will and are starting to see the same trend with the girls (ie the Reynolds player Whitney Knight, Bishops’s Megan Buckland, several Dudley girls, the sisters at Northern, even GDS is producing future talent and multiple Oak Ridge players that will hit the radar).
Ashia McNeil over Clency or Jenkins on first team? Maybe I have too much information about both of these young ladies, but please correct me on this one…Clency is the leading scorer in the 2012 class..Yes she goes to WG, but you still have to play to put up numbers nite and and nite on on a consistent basis…Jenkins has close to 1200 points in 3 seasons, second only to Samantha Coffer for the class of 2011..Dont give me this bull about scoring doesnt matter, and besides, Eastern has won the conference the last 3 years.
The top 5 players in the NBA Lebron, Kobe, D Wade, Durant and Carmelo(in no certain order for the sake of this discussion) all put up numbers every nite…It’s no different in girls..Get your emotions out of the way, and make your decision based on what your eyes see and the information you have on the players, and not what you feel..
My favorite player during the last 3-4 years was A.I., but I am not going to sit here and say that he was deserving of starting in the all star game two yrs ago…So if you’re going to post something about players, or even attempt to rank players, make sure you have your facts because if you don’t, you’re basing your list solely on how you feel about players and the school they attend…Please know this….Stats and Production do Matter ! ! !
All of our girls should be on the first team!
Congrats to all of the girls basketball players I wish them all the best! NW FAN let’s get our infortmation right, Cedrica Gibson did not reclass she is a junior and a honor roll student therefore it wouldn’t be any need for her to reclass.
You forgot one player who I think should be not in the top 10 but the top 5. Her name is Miranda Jenkins. This girl can do everything, shoot,pass,defend, she is a coaches dream. Out of all these players she is the best.Miranda keep doing your thing.
OK. Here we go, First of all I would like to say thanks to Andy for posting and reporting the athletic news in our area, and giving us all something to do while we are bored at work.
Now lets get into it, I think the list that Andy composed had a lot of the great players in our area but like some others I dont exactly agree with the order. If we are gonna make a list its only right to go by the positions that the girls play and each postition details different attributes about what makes you good Ill give you my first team and explain why and I wont include players that are not from guilford county because alot of theese players may attend a private school and play in gulford county and may not have been here a whole year. All of theese players wiil be ranked based on what they have done in there prep basketball careers up untill this point. NOT WHAT THEY WILL DO OR WHAT WE EXPECT.
FIRST TEAM.
PG: Cedrica Gibson (ORMA):
(Even though she plays at ORMA she is still from guilford county which makes her eligible) Ced Gibson is the best point guard in this area HANDS DOWN!!! Anybody who thinks different has never seen her play or you thinks this blog post is talking about field hockey!! Ced Gibson has a rare combination of skill and toughness. She attacks the basket and also can shoot the from mid range all the way out to 3 point range. She stays poised under pressure setting her teamates up and running whatever offense she commands. At the same time she has the ability and killer instinct to put her team on her back offensively without shooting them out of the game. She is just to SKILLED!!
2 Guard: Ayshia McNeil (NE Guilford):
I know that alot of people will ask the question, what makes Ayshia McNeil a higher pick than someone else? Trust me this is probably the most talent filled position in our area and thus made this a hard choice. McNeil is a hard nosed tough basketball player with the ability to handle the ball shoot and defend on and off the ball very well. The reason McNeil gets the nod in this spot over others is she was the key cog on an over acheiving Southeast Guilford team. Before you SE fans get all tight in the chest I mean nobody picked SE Guilford to do as well as they did in there conference last year by beating more talented Page and Smith teams twice and beating power house Dudley. She was the big component in that effort. Also I saw Ms. McNeil play this summer with the Phoenix(she played for the real loud and crazy coach. I dont know his name)with far superior talent than her highschool team and was just as dominant.
3 Guard/Small forward: Miranda Jenkins (Eastern Gulford):
About a year ago I would have been a little skeptical about putting Ms. Jenkins on the first team, but after seeing her play several times this summer. I change my thoughts. Miranda is what i would call a very cerebral player. Basketball is a thinking persons game and that is exactly what she does. I saw her play all three different guard spots this summer and played them effectively. It often appears that she is not making much of a contribution then you look at the stat line after the game and she has lead in most statistical categories. She shoots well, finds open teamates and defends. My only knock on Ms. Jenkins is that she has the ability to dominate games but I guess her calm laid back dimeanor does not allow her to do so.
4 forward: Desiree Drayton (Dudley):
Desiree Drayton is the kind of athlete that alot of grown men wish they could be! One word to describe her athletic ability FREAKY!!! I have heard alot of people say that she dosent have a real position or she cant play in the post in college. Maybe, Maybe not, but while she is still in highschool in gulford county she will continue to win and dominate. she posseses the type of game that you cant game plan for. she goes out everynight out works everybody that she plays against and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. she is gonna sky to go get rebounds then lead the break by herself while out running everybody on the court to the other end, even her teamates get a lay up and get fouled. Then do it again on the next possesion. The sure fire way to shut down Desiree Drayton is to just shoot 100% from the field. Other wise its gonna be a long night.How she develops her game after she leaves highschool… I dont know but while she is here, this is how she is gonna continue to kill you.
5 forward: Samantha Cofer(Northern Guilford):
I will go ahead and get this out of the way so that people who have a gripe about what I am about to say can go ahead and get upset. SAMANTHA COFER IS THE MOST SKILLED BASKETBALL PLAYER IN THE AREA!!!! Like it or not thats what it is. I wasnt always so high on Samantha I saw her play a time or to last school season and I wasnt really impressed.(That may have been a product of the Northern Guilford system) But I saw her play a few times this summer and I was totaly amazed. She shoots the ball extremely well. She is very solid in the post and handles the ball just as good as alot of guards in this area. She is the real deal. She can stand to get a little stronger but thats nothing that a college strength and conditioning program cant help. Its my understanding that she has given a pledge to Elon. In my opinion for Elon Christmas came early this year because if she wanted she could go to an ACC school easy!!!
And just for the sake of debate hear are my 2nd and 3rd teams.
2nd team:
1. Brittany Clancy: Western Guilford (Scoring Machine, this girl scores whenever she wants)
2. Brittany Gwynn: HP Central (2 yrs ago she maybe would have been on the first team hope she gets back on track)
3. Z…Quon Greer: Smith (Saw her play this summer along side Ayshia McNeil. She is more talented than I ever imagined. cant wait to see what she does after stepping out of the Ashley Dubose, Lakendra Wilkerson shadow)
4. Ciara Jackson: Ragsdale (She has Al Jefferson type post moves)
5. Khadija Wilkerson: GDS ( She will hook shot you with her left and right hand and there is nothing you can do about it)
3rd team:
1. Zana Lovette: SW Guilford (Has a scorers mentality and is the first option on a loaded SW Guilford team)
2. Brittany Drew: Page ( One of if not the best shooter in the area. Should put up big numbers this year with the departure of Chevena Pickard and Asley Fowler)
3. Jessica Pone: SW Guilford ( The best player in the area that nobody knows about……..yet! Also the 2nd best athlete in the area behind Desiree Drayton).
4. Brittany Price: SE Guilford ( Hard nosed, hard working power forward that simply gets the job done. Reminds me of Elton Brand or Carlos Boozer).
5. Amanda Cofer: Northern Guilford ( Younger sister of Samantha Cofer. If she has the work ethic will be better than her older sister. guarantee!!!
** Just to address something that was posted earlier. I saw the rising freshman Paris Keys play this summer also…… WOW!!!! If you have not seen her play I bet you will not be able to tell the she is a ninth grader. Im almost positive that she will be on everybody’s first team this time next year. She could end up being the best female b-ball player that we have seen in this area in some time…***
J. Johnson.Major d1 offers? Going to HBC MES.
D.Drayton chose UNCCharlotte had Major d1 offers
Yani is not local talent..
REAL DEAL..your first team ok…ur second team please re-think.
Athlecticsicm doesn’t always translate to ball player at next level.
Looking forward to seeing all teams have productive and competitive seasons.