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Games to watch tomorrow at Girls State?


Norm Peterson

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Damn, I really wanted to watch the Tvrdy kid on tv.  I guess now I'll just have to wait till the first exhibition game next year.

 

Brace yourself when you do.

 

I went to the game last night.  I sincerely hope I am wrong, but I honestly have no idea what Yori was thinking on this one.  Tvrdy does not look like an upper D1 player.  Just  have to think politics was part of this.   She is a nice high school player, but I can't see how she projects to the Big 10 level.  She is an average shooter with mid range.  Not very quick.  Average handles, although she is pretty strong in taking it to the rack.   Point guard size with maybe, maybe a 2-3 guard game.  Good tenacity and steadiness, but her athleticism and skills are not currently going to work at the level she'll be attempting to play.

 

Row 6, for whom I have great respect, disagrees with me on Hannah.  Let's hope he has lots of scoreboard the next few years.

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Shepard has great size and skill.  Fantastic player.  But I question her quicks a bit.  Her fabulous skill and size allow her to dominate the HS game but I do wonder about her quicks once she gets to college. 

 

Oh, and if the Southeast girls spend as much time studying as they obviously spend tanning, I'll bet they're all 4.0 students.

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Shepard has great size and skill.  Fantastic player.  But I question her quicks a bit.  Her fabulous skill and size allow her to dominate the HS game but I do wonder about her quicks once she gets to college. 

 

Oh, and if the Southeast girls spend as much time studying as they obviously spend tanning, I'll bet they're all 4.0 students.

Can you say Ashley Adams On this one.

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Jess Shepard projects to be a way better player than Ashley Adams.

 

She just broke Maurtice Ivy's 25-year old tournament scoring record for Class A as a sophomore (81 points in 3 games)! And thats after having already broken the season scoring record at a high school that has dominated girls basketball in Nebraska since the 80's.

 

She's the best sophomore I've ever seen in Class A, and I think she's ahead of where Jordan Hooper and Katie Robinette were at this point in their careers.

 

It's true she doesn't have blazing foot speed, but how many 6'3" 16-year olds are going to look fast playing on the perimeter in the Class A title game? The fact that she's the primary ballhandler at her size is incredible! Outside of Kastanek, Southeast's team was VERY limited in talent this year, and the fact that they won is a testament to how good Shepard is.

 

She's their primary ballhandler, protects the paint, played all 32 minutes, and scored 26 points, 19 rebounds, probably 6-8 blocks, and 3-4 assists. That's probably the most dominant overall game I've seen in Class A, and Nebraska has produced some excellent girl's basketball players since I've been watching.

 

She's a top 25 prospect in the class of 2015 and should go a long way towards easing the loss of Jordan Hooper in two years. Comparing her to Ashley Adams is a bit of a joke.

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And I agree on Chloe Akin-Otiko! She's definitely a player to keep an eye on. Maybe Connie can finally break Creighton's pipeline with Bellevue West?

 

I didn't get to see Tvrdy play this year, but last year she seemed like she might grow into a Kaitlyn Burke "glue" type of player. Doesn't seem to have the high end potential of recruits like Moore, Laudermill, and Theriot, but I bet she'll contribute during her career.

 

This is an exciting time for Nebraska Women's Basketball. We have some excellent, high-character players in our program and some great prospects in the queue with Allie Havers and Jess Shepard.

 

If Connie can sign Shelby's Chatrice White (the best junior in the state) this spring, that will be a huge step towards staying at the top of the Big Ten.

 

Then the class of 2015 could be a program changer with Shepard already inked and several other in-state players that project to be BCS caliber players. Namely, Maddie Simon at Pius, Jaycee Bradley at Norfolk, Kianna Ibis at Benson, and Allison Ahrens from Crofton.

 

Things are looking good for the women's program!

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Jess Shepard projects to be a way better player than Ashley Adams.

 

She just broke Maurtice Ivy's 25-year old tournament scoring record for Class A as a sophomore (81 points in 3 games)! And thats after having already broken the season scoring record at a high school that has dominated girls basketball in Nebraska since the 80's.

 

She's the best sophomore I've ever seen in Class A, and I think she's ahead of where Jordan Hooper and Katie Robinette were at this point in their careers.

 

It's true she doesn't have blazing foot speed, but how many 6'3" 16-year olds are going to look fast playing on the perimeter in the Class A title game? The fact that she's the primary ballhandler at her size is incredible! Outside of Kastanek, Southeast's team was VERY limited in talent this year, and the fact that they won is a testament to how good Shepard is.

 

She's their primary ballhandler, protects the paint, played all 32 minutes, and scored 26 points, 19 rebounds, probably 6-8 blocks, and 3-4 assists. That's probably the most dominant overall game I've seen in Class A, and Nebraska has produced some excellent girl's basketball players since I've been watching.

 

She's a top 25 prospect in the class of 2015 and should go a long way towards easing the loss of Jordan Hooper in two years. Comparing her to Ashley Adams is a bit of a joke.

Did you read the quote in which i replied to. And maybe she won't be that way. I was just asking if she was Adams like in her speed.

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Shepard has great size and skill.  Fantastic player.  But I question her quicks a bit.  Her fabulous skill and size allow her to dominate the HS game but I do wonder about her quicks once she gets to college. 

 

Oh, and if the Southeast girls spend as much time studying as they obviously spend tanning, I'll bet they're all 4.0 students.

Can you say Ashley Adams On this one.

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Yeah, I gotcha. From what I've seen, I think she'll end up head and shoulders above Ashley Adams when she reaches that stage in her career.

 

It's true that Shepard isn't super fast, but her mobility for a 16 year old with that much size and strength is pretty impressive in my opinion (as opposed to being a reason for concern). She'll probably never move as fast as Emily Cady, but I think she already plays at a faster, more athletic pace than Ashley Adams :)

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Great to see you make it over here HF86! Good analysis as always! I'm really starting to like (soph) Kianna Ibis out of Benson. Have you seen her play yet? I went and watched her play against Bellevue West the opening round and had she not gotten into foul trouble Bensen may have beaten BW. In that game she wound up with 14 points and grabbed 11 rebounds despite sitting for a number of minutes. She's going to be another great player in a few years that Yori better keep an eye on. I read where Creighton has already offered her. I think the White girl will announce where she'll go within a month or so.

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Yeah, I gotcha. From what I've seen, I think she'll end up head and shoulders above Ashley Adams when she reaches that stage in her career.

 

It's true that Shepard isn't super fast, but her mobility for a 16 year old with that much size and strength is pretty impressive in my opinion (as opposed to being a reason for concern). She'll probably never move as fast as Emily Cady, but I think she already plays at a faster, more athletic pace than A

 

Yeah, I gotcha. From what I've seen, I think she'll end up head and shoulders above Ashley Adams when she reaches that stage in her career.

 

It's true that Shepard isn't super fast, but her mobility for a 16 year old with that much size and strength is pretty impressive in my opinion (as opposed to being a reason for concern). She'll probably never move as fast as Emily Cady, but I think she already plays at a faster, more athletic pace than Ashley Adams :)

 

How would you compare Sheppard to Diamant from Northwestern ? They would be comparable in size with Sheppard being two inches shorter.

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I think that's a better comparison, although to be honest, I haven't seen Diamant play enough to know that much about her game. Seems like they have similar size, mobility, and polished skill set though.

 

It's hard to compare Sheppard to past Huskers and project what position she will play in college. She's too skilled to be strictly a back-to-the-basket post on offense, but I think she'll have the strength to guard the opponent's 5 and get rebounds on defense. I think the comparison to Katie Robinette when she played for South Sioux City is pretty accurate, although Sheppard has put up better numbers against better competition. And Robinette was never the point guard for SSC.

 

I think Jess is versatile enough that her position/role on offense can change based on who else we have playing with her. If we have Allie Havers and Chatrice White helping her inside, then I think she could almost be a point forward, distributing the ball, attacking opposing 4's with the dribble, and hitting outside shots. If she were on this year's team, I think she'd be playing the 5 to allow Jordan and Emily to spend more time on the perimeter.

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I watched the Sheppard kid play today on tv for the first time.  I was super impressed, for a sophomore at 6'3" to do handle the ball the way she does.  I really didn't think she looked that slow.  I was wishing we had her playing on NU's team right now.  She'd be an asset down low.  I can only think she will improve in the next 2 years. 

 

I watched Jordan Hooper in high school for 4 years.  Jordan was always fast and could jump.  Jess Sheppard will probably never be as fast as Jordan.  Jordan was always a pretty good shooter from the outside but never had any good moves around the basket.  She would just get the ball low and turn around and shoot over shorter girls.  I always hoped when she went to college she would learn some low post moves (other than the turn around fall away shot) but sadly she never has and I doubt she will for her senior year.  Jess already has some good looking drop stepping or pivoting moves around the bucket that Jordan has never had. 

 

Except for Jordan's freshman year, she never had much help.  She was basically a one-man team.  She had to do everything.  If she had had a player of the caliber of the Kastinek kid or even someone with  better than average ball handling and shooting skills playing with her, she would of won state 4 times easily. Jess has some pretty good talent surrounding her and probably will for her remaining 2 years.  In Alliance, you played with just the kids that lived in town at the time.  There was no recruiting other kids to come play on the top team in town.

 

I'm sorry to hear that HB thinks the Tvrdy isn't upper D1 material.  I only saw her play on tv last year during the state finals.  When I watched her for that single game I didn't' come away impressed.  Connie does frustrate me with some of her recruiting.  She does hit some homeruns but in my opinion she strikes out  on way too many kids. And it surprises me with the facilities we have and being in the Big 10 (and Big 12).  Oh well, I better stop before I get into trouble. 

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I watched the Sheppard kid play today on tv for the first time.  I was super impressed, for a sophomore at 6'3" to do handle the ball the way she does.  I really didn't think she looked that slow.  I was wishing we had her playing on NU's team right now.  She'd be an asset down low.  I can only think she will improve in the next 2 years. 

 

I watched Jordan Hooper in high school for 4 years.  Jordan was always fast and could jump.  Jess Sheppard will probably never be as fast as Jordan.  Jordan was always a pretty good shooter from the outside but never had any good moves around the basket.  She would just get the ball low and turn around and shoot over shorter girls.  I always hoped when she went to college she would learn some low post moves (other than the turn around fall away shot) but sadly she never has and I doubt she will for her senior year.  Jess already has some good looking drop stepping or pivoting moves around the bucket that Jordan has never had. 

 

Except for Jordan's freshman year, she never had much help.  She was basically a one-man team.  She had to do everything.  If she had had a player of the caliber of the Kastinek kid or even someone with  better than average ball handling and shooting skills playing with her, she would of won state 4 times easily. Jess has some pretty good talent surrounding her and probably will for her remaining 2 years.  In Alliance, you played with just the kids that lived in town at the time.  There was no recruiting other kids to come play on the top team in town.

 

I'm sorry to hear that HB thinks the Tvrdy isn't upper D1 material.  I only saw her play on tv last year during the state finals.  When I watched her for that single game I didn't' come away impressed.  Connie does frustrate me with some of her recruiting.  She does hit some homeruns but in my opinion she strikes out  on way too many kids. And it surprises me with the facilities we have and being in the Big 10 (and Big 12).  Oh well, I better stop before I get into trouble. 

Is Shimmy the lead recruiter for the Huskers ? And if so can she or will she upgrade the players that are brought in.

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It seems like character and chemistry sometimes count for more than raw talent when it comes to Yori's recruiting. All of our teams since she got here have been built around a core of 2-3 really good players that contribute from day one in the program: Kiera Hardy, Vonnie Turner, Kelsey Griffin, Cory Montgomery, Danielle Page, Dominique Kelly, Moore, Hooper, Cady, and Theriot. Then she surrounds them with hard-working, intelligent role players and it's worked out pretty well.

 

I think overall, the level of recruiting is trending up. The reason this year's team is so good is that Yori has strung together 4 straight classes with at least one difference-maker who starts from day one: Moore as a senior, Hooper as a junior, Cady (and to a degree Sample and Laudermill) as a sophomore, and Theriot as a freshman. If she keeps landing one high-end talent each year (and I'm hoping Havers, White, and Sheppard will be those players for the next three classes), Nebraska will stay in hunt for the NCAA's every year.

 

What will set us a part and help us win games in the tournament, is when we start building depth of talent, so excellent players like Hooper and Moore don't have to play every minute of the season and wear down in March.

 

R6: I've seen clips of Ibis but not a whole game. She seems like a good one, although I wish she was a couple inches taller!

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Another player I noticed at the state tournament was freshman Rylie Cascio-Jensen, Bellevue East head coach's daughter. Not flashy like Chloe Akin-Otiko (who was phenomenal when I saw her), but solid with a nice 3 point shot, good ball handling skills, high basketball IQ, and good D. Certainly didn't play like a freshman. She has played on the same summer club team with Jess Shepard for several years.

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I think that's a better comparison, although to be honest, I haven't seen Diamant play enough to know that much about her game. Seems like they have similar size, mobility, and polished skill set though.

 

It's hard to compare Sheppard to past Huskers and project what position she will play in college. She's too skilled to be strictly a back-to-the-basket post on offense, but I think she'll have the strength to guard the opponent's 5 and get rebounds on defense. I think the comparison to Katie Robinette when she played for South Sioux City is pretty accurate, although Sheppard has put up better numbers against better competition. And Robinette was never the point guard for SSC.

 

I think Jess is versatile enough that her position/role on offense can change based on who else we have playing with her. If we have Allie Havers and Chatrice White helping her inside, then I think she could almost be a point forward, distributing the ball, attacking opposing 4's with the dribble, and hitting outside shots. If she were on this year's team, I think she'd be playing the 5 to allow Jordan and Emily to spend more time on the perimeter.

I'm going to respectfully disagree with you here.  Totally different players.  Totally.  The main similarity is that they were/are both highly regarded recruits.  Katie Robinette was extremely athletic.  Ran like a gazelle.  Could dribble up the floor faster than most girls could run.  Totally different types of player.  KR was extremely skilled and very athletic.  JS is extremely skilled and has great size.  But they're very different types of players.  JS's game is more of a true post.  KR was more of a small forward/power forward.  And you can't really compare numbers to compare how good each player was/is because in the HS game, a dominant post is going to be able to put up huge numbers simply because there aren't many girls who can match up with her in size.  And that's what we saw in the State Title game.  They couldn't match up.  

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Read in the paper today Jess Shepard's state record for most points in a state tourney has been changed.  Someone awarded her a basket that had been scored by Kastanek and so Jess actually only scored 79 points instead of 81, and Maurtice Ivy's record is still safe for another year.  Shepard did, however, break Ivy's single-season scoring record for Class A.

 

With these 3rd place games, I have to wonder what will happen to the tourney scoring records.  In the past, those records were set only by players whose teams won their first two games at state.  Probably not fair to take that record away in the event someone scores a lot of points against the 4th place team in the consolation finals rather than the team that winds up 2nd or first.

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Connie needs to offer Chloe Akinatiko (sp?)

 

That girl is just a 9th grader?!?!  I'm impressed.  Outstanding athleticism and she just has that "it" factor about being around the ball and making plays.  I have a new favorite 9th grade girls' basketball player. 

 

heh heh. Easy now, Chester.

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Connie needs to offer Chloe Akinatiko (sp?)

 

That girl is just a 9th grader?!?!  I'm impressed.  Outstanding athleticism and she just has that "it" factor about being around the ball and making plays.  I have a new favorite 9th grade girls' basketball player. 

 

heh heh. Easy now, Chester.

OK, maaaaaaybe that didn't come off quite the way I intended it.  So, permit me to esplain.

 

Going back probably 20 years, I've always tried to watch both Girls and Boys state.  I've sat in on sessions just to watch without any particular dog in the fight just because I enjoy the games.  The atmosphere.  It's rare, but sometimes I've known someone who had a kid playing or was from that town.  Rarely go in person, but I have gone.  And it seems like every couple of years, there's a girl putting together a pretty darned impressive performance and you find out she's just a 9th grader.  And, for me, I kind of kindle this hope that she ends up being the kind of player the Huskers would pursue and, if so, that she would choose to go there.

 

And I'm going back to watching Darcy Stracke from Chambers and my all-time favorite Husker women's hoop player, Nicole Kubik from Cambridge.  There was Taryn Ninemire from Sandy Creek and Megan Neuvirth from West Point CC.  Katie Robinette from South Sioux was one of my all-time favorites, maybe most impressive as a 9th grader, whom you knew was special the first time you saw her play.  I remember watching Vonnie Turner as a freshman and hoping she'd eventually be a Husker.  A few years back it was Jordan Hooper.  Last year it was Jess Shepard.

 

And the 9th grader who stood out to me this year was Chloe Akin-Otiko.  Strictly on her merit as a player.  What impressed me the most about her was her hustle, resulting in her making plays.  She was around the ball making plays.  Coach Miles likes to say "players make plays" and she stands out in that way.  That last-second shot to end the first half where she chased down the ball, drove it to the short corner and hit a mid-range jumper off the dribble -- that was a big-time play.

 

You know who she reminds me of in terms of her style of play?  Christy Neneman.  I'd say that's pretty high praise.

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