BP was in New Orleans along side coaches from all across the country attending Basketball on the Bayou. Alabama girls basketball was well represented. Several Alabama travel teams were in attendance I had the opportunity to watch and evaluate a majority of them. The following players caught my attention. Listed by class. 2011 5'2" Jatori Carter Jeff Davis HS Super cat-quick PG, great handles, excellent defender 5'11" Samantha Thomas Jeff Davis HS Nice college body and good rebounder 5'7" Ester Stokely Faith Academy Good shooter scrappy defender 5'8" Micha Brooks Davidson HS Very good scorer and good defender 6'1" Allison Whitley Spanish Fort HS Runs floor well with nice touch good defender 5'4" Elissa Vandewaa Spanish Fort HS Floor general with nice 3pt range. 5'9" Taylor Sippial St. Jude College body, attacks the glass both ends, nice mid range game 2012 5'1" Jasmine Steele Midfield HS Alabama commit fearless, attacking, uses her speed and quickness to her advantage, not afraid to challenge the bigs. Nice stroke for the outside. 6'1" Chardonae Fuqua Hoover HS LSU commit Very athletic wing, loves to attack the basket good rebounder. Hugh upside. 6'3" Alexandria Lewis Ramsay HS Nice size runs floor really well good rebounder 5'9" ...

At the midway point of the July evaluation period Alabama 2011 top prospects are drawing a great deal of interest and offers from major DI's across the country. 5'8" Amara Mayers from Madison Academy has offers from several schools. Her teammate Kyera "KeKe" Fletcher has verbal to Samford. Minor's 5'6" PG Amanda Tolliver and St. Jude's 6'2" Kaseama Ashbourne both have been getting a lot of interest as well. A pair of Central Phenix City players 6'3" Kristi Mokube has offers from several major and mid majors. 6'0" Monique Jackson has offers from Ole Miss, Alabama and Boston College.

I've been receiving calls from several DI coaches attending Peach State Hoops Summer Kickoff. The 2011 trio of Phenix City's Central standouts 6'3" Kristi Mokube and 6'0" Monique Jackson along with Ozark Carroll standout 6'0" Tia Faleru all put on quite a show impressing several ACC and SEC schools. Needless to say the trio will have several offers forthcoming. Mokube playing mainly the three spot and Faleru playing multiple position. Both displayed a ton of athletism, hustle, enthusiam combined with scoring and rebounding from all angles. Jackons played superbly pounding the boards and justing beasting inside. The Blazer trio is definitely rising fast up several recruiting boards. Looking forward to seeing good things from the Blazer Big Three.

I had the pleasure of working Dawn Staley's South Carolina Camp. I had a opportunity to get a up close and personal look at three of Alabama top 2011 prospects 6'3" Kristi Mokube, 6'0" Monique Jackson both from Central of Phenix City and 5'8" Amara Mayers from Madison Academy. Mokube displayed exceptional handles for her size, she is very athletic and is a definite tweener with a nice blend of finesse and power female version on ex Bull Scottie Pippen. Jackson's has a power game, she rebounds extremely well; she has a knack for getting to where she wants on the paint and either scores on creates contact to get on the foul line. Jackson is female version of ex Jazz PF Karl Malone. Mayers has a college ready body with combo guard skill set to match. She has the knack for breaking down the defense and has the ability to finish at the rim or dish. She can also knock down the midrange jumper or 3 pointers. Mayers is a female version of ex Pistons guard Joe Dumars. BP is looking forward to following these ladies

Hoover's 2012 6'1" Wing Chardonae Fuqua has verbally committed to play for Van Chancellor's LSU Lady Tigers. Fuqua a silky smooth athletic wing was offered while attending camp. Fuqua help lead the Hoover Lady Bucs to the 6A State Championship and a national ranking. In Fuqua LSU is getting a potential 2012 Top 100 prospect. BP is really looking forward to watching her grow as a player. Fuqua has a tremendous upside.

LSU had Shaq the Man of Steel. The SEC can look forward to another Steele in Midfield's 2012 5'0" PG Jasmine Steele. Steele recently verbally comitted to Wendell Hudson's Alabama Crimson Tide. Steele may be small in stature but she more than makes up for her size with unlimited energy and effort. I like to call her Mighty Steele after the cartoon character Mighty Mouse. Midfield Coach Reggie Ware calls her "Little Giant" mainly because Steele "doesn't use her size as an excuse she sees it as a positive attacking bigger players and basically playing big herself." Steele help lead Midfield to back to back 4A State Championships while being named Final Four MVP. Coach Hudson and the Crimson Tide Staff, in Steele, land a potential 2012 Top 100 prospect.

Former Leflore standout and current LSU Lady Tiger Shanence McKinney was gracious enough to blog in from USA 18U Trials being held in Colorado Springs June 8-11 . Here is her daily Blog. Day 1 Tryouts were nice today... competition is definitely here and im all for it! ready for day 2! saw lots of familiar faces! Me and Kane here to rep Bama! very excited to be here :-) and of course I mean the state of Alabama lol.. Geaux Tigers! lol Day 2 First session over! Naptime!!!! 2nd and 3rd session were nice... the intensity was very high today and it showed in scrimmages and drills...I'm definitely ready for tomorrow to scrimmage 17U team... Day 3 4th session was fun.. we scrimmaged the 17U team basically the whole time...we have last session today at 4:30 where we'll pretty much be doing the same thing...

John Wooden was and will always be considered the greatest coach of all time but Coach Wooden was much more than a basketball coach. His coaching style transcends all sports. He was a perfectionist, disciplinary Christian with an unwavering will to help everyone around him succeed and excellence. Coach Wooden was a Coach of LIfe he used basketball as a tool to communicate not only to his teams but to the world the right way to achieve their goals. Not only did the coaching profession lose an icon the world has lost a piece of humanity. Coach Wooden will be missed but not forgotten. A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment. John Wooden Ability is a poor man's wealth. John Wooden Adversity is the state in which man mostly easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially free of admirers then. John Wooden Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are. John Wooden Be prepared and be honest. John Wooden Consider the rights of others before your own feelings, and the feelings of others before your own ...

BP was in attendance at the 2010 Alabama AAU State Championship Tournaments. The tournament showcased a boat load of talent of all ages. I observed players in the following classses 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015. The Top players to watch listed by class: 2011 Kaseama Ashbourne 6'2" St. Jude Meredith Botes 6'2" Briarwood Christian Amber Cardwell 5'9" Montevallo Alganese Gatson 5'9" Pinson Valley Chelsa Graham 5'6" Clay Chalkville Kyra Holiday 5'5" Hoover Ashley Southern 6'0" Deshler Amanda Toliver 5'2" Minor Kyera Fletcher 5'10" Madison Academy Amara Mayers 5'8" Madison Academy Alicia Williams 5'10" Ft. Payne Abby Isom 5'7" Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa Natasha West 5'9" Russellville Dominique Henley 5'7" Sparkman Ashley Nance 5'10" Danville 2012 Kayla Anderson 6'2" Hoover Ashley Beverly 5'6" Minor Chelsee Black 5'5" Jess Lanier Raggotta Craig 5'11" Hoover Jasmine Jones 6'1" Sparkman Chelsea Mason 5'7" Huntsville Hayden Hamby 5'7" West Morgan Jordan Johnson 5'11" Hatton Lydia ...

Bama PrepGirls ventured outside the norm and into the world of women's professional basketball. I had the pleasure of catching a exciting game between the Montgomery Dream and the Mobile Hoopers both members of Women's Blue Chip Basketball League. The Dream jumped out to early lead and withstood two furious Mobile comebacks, the Dream led by as many as 18 points. The last Mobile run cut the Dream lead down to 85-81. But the Dream finished with a pair of runs themselves. The last run 15-3 came late in the fourth quarter which enabled them to hold on to a 100-84 victory. The game had a decent crowd held at Jeff Davis HS. The Montgomery Dream has a pretty good team and should compete for league supremacy. If you get a chance you should really try and catch a game it was definitely a fun brand of basketball. The players play hard for 40 minutes. The Dream is represented by several players that played in Montomery-Selma area players Yaleshia "Boo" Barnes who led Carver HS to the 1993 6A AHSAA state championship, Santana Seay led Selma HS to a 6A Final Four appearance, and Marquita Greene help lead ...