Alanna Neale

[Huskerpapa]

Bugs posted this on recruiting; but I thought it deserves its on thread.  Welcome N Alanna!!!

 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DDnvP4VviNO/?igsh=MWh1ajMzengweGt1Yw==

 

[huskerchode]

Plays for the top HS team in the nation!

https://www.si.com/college/nebraska/basketball/nebraska-women-basketball-lands-2025-4-star-guard-commitment-alanna-neale-cornhuskers-big-ten

 

[Tom Jones]

Thanks, Bugs et.al.  Seems like a step in the right direction - we need players!  Maybe she can bring some of her teammates with her. 

[redsteve]

2 hours ago, Tom Jones said:

Thanks, Bugs et.al.  Seems like a step in the right direction - we need players!  Maybe she can bring some of her teammates with her. 

 

There's a 6-7 big on that same team as Alanna. She'll probably get her choice of school.  

Edited Saturday at 08:27 PM by redsteve

[Fastbreaker]

If she is a four star how come we got her so late and why did no one else want her?

[All About the Corn]

Hopefully she was over shadowed being on a very good team. Also we do not know is she was holding out for another school and a offer did not come. We need players who will push Nissley and Hake. We really need a athletic 4-5, thinking 6'4" or 6'5" to replace AM.

[Huskerpapa]

26 minutes ago, Fastbreaker said:

If she is a four star how come we got her so late and why did no one else want her?

She had offers, most notable were UNLV, Cal State Northridge and Cal Poly.

 

Sort of interesting.  We were late on her and she doesn't have any major programs after her.  I have guesses; but no harden facts:

* she is a starter on the #1 team in the country.  Due to the strength of the program and talented roster, is she overlooked

* is she not able to fully display her talent

* did she play on an aau team and if not, was her talents on display in the summer

* is she the weak link on an otherwise strong talented team, and is she being carried by that other talent

* does she have grade or transcript issues

* does she have an injury history

* is she a late developer 

* was there an assumption that she was firmly locked in elsewhere

 

Fact is, she looks talented.  She looks the part.  The video I've seen shows she can play the game.  Perhaps we found a great fit to our program.  We can sure hope so!

 

 

[HUD]

After seeing her on videos  she is very long especially in the legs.  This is something we don't have outside of Britt P.  On the downside she is thin with her wt listed at 125 #.  WBB is becoming very physical in the Big Ten so that may have caused a bit of hesitancy by some teams.  I would hope she didn't take many visits because she was very picky waiting for the right team.  Look at Alexis.  She didn't have many teams after her initially either as she didn't play her sophomore year in High School due to injury and then became a late bloomer.

[Tom Jones]

HuskerPapa's possible explanations all are plausible - except maybe this one.  "is she the weak link on an otherwise strong talented team, and is she being carried by that other talent?"

I am guessing no.   Any player averaging 12.1 points, 6.8 rebounds, 2.0 assists, and 2.4 steals per game while playing the the #1 team in the entire US has talent of her own.  They may be a very unselfish team but still to some extent each player is competing for opportunities to display her skills and she apparently is earning her own opps.  Seven rebounds in 48 minute games at 5-10 and with long team mates?  I like it!  Maybe she just has the hops (which would be ok too!) but probably she is getting those with speed, quickness, agility, and sure handedness ... which is just what we need.  

 

To the extent that steals in HS translate to steals at D1, next year's Huskers might be receiving arrest warrants.  Olivia Hanlon, at maybe the 2/3rds point of her senior season, had 148 steals (!!!), and in her HS school career last i saw had 486 (and counting). In one game she was credited with 16 steals.  How is that even possible?  Presuming about 64 possessions in a 48 minute game, that figures to her having stolen one in every four of the opponent's possessions!  Perhaps that team must didn't have a good ball handler, but still. So those two coming in ... and we have seen all season that BP is a constant steal threat.  

 

We have recruiting needs ... no doubt ... but the guard position looks solid. 

 

 

[All About the Corn]

High School games are not 48 minutes. I think 32 minutes would be a fairly standard game length.