Top post players from the LBI April Showers Classic
If you like low-post play, the bigs were on display at the LBI April Showers Classic last weekend. Yesterday, we looked at some of the top teams in the 17-under division at the tournament, and today we’ll look at some…
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Continue ReadingIf you like low-post play, the bigs were on display at the LBI April Showers Classic last weekend.
Yesterday, we looked at some of the top teams in the 17-under division at the tournament, and today we’ll look at some of the top post players — specifically those who thrive on the blocks and in the paint.
There were some intriguing youngsters, like MBA National’s 6-foot-5 Natalie Foster (Mattawan) in the 2020 class, as well as 1Nation’s Alanna Micheaux (Wayne Memorial) and Michigan Premier’s Mya Hiram (Onsted) in the 2021 class, but the very best of the bigs were in the top division of play. This list — which doesn’t take into account players like Adrian Folks (Detroit Country Day/Michigan Crossover EBYL Brown), Alexis Johnson (Southfield A&T, Michigan Crossover EBYL Brown), Jayah Hicks (Wayne Memorial/1Nation Elite) or Julia Ayrault (Grosse Pointe North/
Michigan Mystics
Dream Team), who would all be better categorized as big wings — only touches on those who dominated down low, giving their teams a half-court punch in the post.
Sydnee Roby, 6-foot-4, Milwaukee Rufus King/Michigan Crossover EBYL Brown (2019)
Power. Pure, unadulterated power. ESPNW ranked the solidly built Roby as the 40th-best player in the 2019 class, and the ninth-best post. Broad shouldered and with a strong, wide base, she’s hard to move off the block once she’s established position, and she’s hard to block out when the ball’s in the air. She commands multiple defenders, and even then — as when the Mystics Dream Team sent two and three top-notch defenders at her — she’s hard to stop, as she can bull people over. Defensively, she just needs to stand her ground to make life difficult for ball-handlers penetrating the lane — just ask MI Triple Threat Platinum’s Allie Sherrer, who bounced off like a ping-pong ball, without making a dent, on one trip down the lane during Sunday’s bracket play.
Jasmine Clerkley, 5-11, Okemos/MI Triple Threat Platinum (2020)
MI Triple Threat’s Jasmine Clerkley (23) puts up a shot in the LBI April Showers Classic. (Photo by Matthew B. Mowery)Depending on where you look at her listed height — either 5-foot-11 or 6-foot — Clerkley doesn’t have the superlative head-to-toes length that you’d normally associate with a high-level post player, but that certainly doesn’t impact the way she plays. Long arms, broad shoulders and a powerful base counteract whatever inability Clerkley may have in looking opponents directly in the eye — and none of it seems to slow her down one whit. Like Roby, she can power through defenders, or go over them, and she was one opponent who seemed to play the Crossover squad’s five to a standstill in their bracket-play matchup on Sunday. One of the leading rebounders in the mid-Michigan area, the Michigan State commit can run the floor, defend both outside and in, and is working to take her offensive game out beyond the free-throw line, but still does her best work in the trenches, where she’s awfully, awfully hard to stop. Given her versatility, Clerkley may end up playing on the wing at the next level, but she’ll always have her low-post skills to fall back on.
Whitney Sollom, 6-4, Hartland/ Michigan Mystics Dream Team (2020)
[program_tooltip program_id='715753' first='Michigan' last='Mystics']‘ Whitney Sollom (left) dribbles around 1Nation Elite’s Mauriya Barnes at the LBI April Showers Classic. (Photo by Matthew B. Mowery)If you watch Sollom play for a five-minute stretch, you might come away with the impression that she’s an oversized wing, given that she has the ability to handle the ball in the open court, and might hoist one up from behind the arc, every now and then. But that does a disservice to her versatility, as she’s also got a true back-to-the basket game, and with hook shots from either hand, as well as the ability to face up and drive, rising up over a defender for a half hook. She’s a triple-double waiting to happen, too, with the rare ability to register double-digit blocks in a game — provided she keeps herself from resorting to the volleyball swing at shots, which got her in foul trouble a few times during the high school season. She doesn’t yet have the true bulk to bang with some of the biggest bigs, but she doesn’t often get pushed around, either, and is an electric athlete who can outjump almost anyone in the pursuit of a rebound.
Chloe Idoni, 6-0, Fenton/ Michigan Mystics Dream Team (2019)
[program_tooltip program_id='715753' first='Michigan' last='Mystics']‘ Chloe Idoni (left) powers up a shot through the defense of Wisconsin Playground Elite’s Shemera Williams at the LBI April Showers Classic. (Photo by Matthew B. Mowery)If Sollom is the flash on the Mystics’ front line, Idoni is the thump. Given that she’s usually played up a level in the spring/summer (and was making opposing defenses miserable as a freshman at Fenton, when she set the school single-game scoring record in a regional victory), it seems like Idoni’s been here for a while. A three-time honorable mention all-stater (and one-time member of the MHSAA’s student advisory council) who has eclipsed the 1,000-point mark through three years at Fenton High, Idoni’s been one of the most dominant individual forces in an underrated Flint Metro League that produced the Class A state champion (Flushing) a year ago. In fact, she scored 15 second-half points in the game that ended Flushing’s 54-game FML winning streak this February. Like Roby and Clerkley, Idoni has strong shoulders and a powerful base, and is hard to root out once she sets up shop on the blocks, or gets position for a rebound. She can guard any of the frontcourt positions (although she fouled out in her head-to-head matchup with her current Mystics teammate Sollom last December) and will use the athleticism that made her a very good volleyball player to swat shots and protect the rim.
Sophie Dziekan, 6-2, Brighton/
Michigan Mystics
Showtime (2020)
Completing the Mystics’ trifecta of trees from the US-23 corridor is Brighton’s Dziekan. A rebounding machine and solid defender, offensively Dziekan has strong moves on the low block, but can also step out, face up for a mid-range jumper or take defenders off the dribble to score. She pairs up with Dakota’s Cameron Grant and Bree Salenbien, the AP Class D Player of the Year as a freshman at Adrian Lenawee Christian, to give the Mystics’ Showtime squad a frontline that equals the Dream Team’s Sollom-Idoni-Ayrault combo.
Honorable mentions: Sophie VanDyke, Holland/West Michigan Drive-VanKempen (2019); Cameron Grant, Macomb Dakota/ Michigan Mystics Showtime (2020)