Looking back at last night’s Dudley girls win over Page in the Big Four, at Dudley HS:Getting frank with DHS Panthers coach Frank McNeil

The Dudley girls basketball team topped the Page Pirates last night, 62-35, to move to (2-0) on the season…Dudley at the Reidsville Rams tonight, but we caught up with the Panthers coach Frank McNeil today, and got a few frank comments from Coach McNeil, before he got out of town….

On last night’s win over Page
I thought we played pretty decent…We could have been better defensively, but we showed improvement from our game last Thursday, versus Grimsley…..I am still learning about this team, but with no Summer workouts and no real off-season training, I think we are doing OK…In many ways, this team is just starting to jell…We are learning to rely on each other…

On Quinzia Fulmore and her role
We have to push the ball to Fulmore in the post…We need to feed her and get her Early Touches…Fulmore makes good passes and you go inside to her, she will also get the ball back outside to you….Fulmore is the best center of the court three-point shooter that we have…She is still fairly new to the game of basketball…She is going to Towson for college, and Towson found a good fit/match, right there in Quinzia Fulmore…

What about Diamond Monroe???
She played well in the second half last night…She got off to cold night shooting the ball, but she got better as the night moved along…She needs to make her first basket, and then she is ready to go….Once she hits for her first bucket, she is on her way…She just needs to see the ball go through the net, and she is ready to roll….She saw the ball going through the net in the second half last night…

Tells about Mariah Frazier….
She is becoming a leader…As time goes on, she can become a big-time leader…She makes basketball suggestions and they work…She has a very high Basketball IQ…She can play inside, as well as outside…She can take the ball to the hole/basket…She has been working on her shot, and it is starting to fall from all over the court…I told her to play like me(Coach McNeil)….She studies the game and she is developing a psychological game, to go along with her physical game…

Give us your thoughts on Marissa Wooten???
Wooten is consistent…We just need her to be a little more active on offense…She has to keep taking her shot, and also learn how to play with her teammates…If she keeps playing better with teammates, she will continue to become the complete player that she needs to be, and that will make all of us successful…

Put us up close and personal with Chelsie Powe….
Powe is still trying to find herself…She is working to find her rhythm…She has all of the confidence, but the hard part for her is, that her role has changed from last year….She doesn’t have to do quite as much as she did last year….She is studying Diamond Monroe’s game, and is learning a lot from Diamond…”Powe will be ready to go this season.”

How about Zahara Howie???
She is very deceptive…She is a very heady and smart player, plus she is an excellent passer…She has grown as a player and she has become one of our top passers…She protects the ball well with her dribble and she has very good court vision…Solid #2 point guard, and she watches and learns from Frazier, at the point….

Talk to us about Amayah Underwood….
She may have the best game of all of our players last night vs. Page…I told her, “just be like Draymond Green, from Golden State”, and she has been…She has become the glue person of our team…She can give us 6-8 points per game, and that’s what we need from her…She can be the muscle, the mouthpiece, the one who can get those loose balls…She is a coach’s player and she will do anything you tell her…She can guard the big guards and she can guard the post players….

What do you see in the freshman, Morgan Smith???
It can all be overwhelming for her at times, but she is learning, and she is willing to learn….She is going to be a very good offensive basketball player…It is tough to be a freshman at Dudley, with all of the expectations and all, but as time goes on, she will be ready…She has one heck of a step-back shot…Just as good as Kyrie Irving’s….
(If you can’t tell already, Coach McNeil uses a lot of NBA references with his Panther players, and he plays against his girls in practice….If they can stop the 6’2 Frank McNeil in practice, then they should be ready for the games.)

Now give us your impressions of Sania Washington….
Her nickname is, “Small Fry”…She has really matured since last season…She is an impact player with speed and her length is deceptive…She can really run and out in the break, with Frazier and Monroe, that gives us our top-three fast break group…You put Washington, Monroe and Frazier together, and that group of three, can fly…..

**********That’s our word with Coach Frank McNeil for today, and we wish his team luck, as they head out for Reidsville this afternoon….We asked Coach McNeil about his players that were the key contributors in the Page game on Monday night….**********