The Exclusive: Dynasty Region 17U First Team All-Tournament
This past weekend in Chicago was so much fun. The gym had coaches of every level popping in and out. There were at least 12 different scouts in the building. We had hundreds of teams and thousands of players. The…
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Continue ReadingThis past weekend in Chicago was so much fun. The gym had coaches of every level popping in and out. There were at least 12 different scouts in the building. We had hundreds of teams and thousands of players. The level of basketball was off the charts and for these players to stand out above everyone else to such an extent really speaks volumes. Take a look at the five players who made it onto the All-Tournament First Team at The Exclusive.
Cooper Hilton | 5-6 PG | Oklahoma Swift / Coweta (OK) | 2023 | @coophilton2023
As the weather warmed up over the course of the weekend in the “Windy City,” so did Cooper. She lit it up from long range in a few of the games that I saw, ending up with double-digits in almost every single game of the weekend. She plays smart basketball and does a good job of forcing turnovers by playing the passing lanes after diagnosing the play. A very, very good guard on a team loaded with them, Hilton still manages to find a way to shine through with the tremendous effort she gives all game long. Her ability to dribble drive and stop and pop make her almost impossible to stop when she wants a bucket. Cooper scores from all levels and she is a big-time prospect because of it.
Adriana Robles | 5-5 PG | Team Stay Ready / Fossil Ridge (TX) | 2025 | Hudl
As I said repeatedly over the course of the weekend, I LOVE Team Stay Ready. I love everything they stand for. Suffocating defense. Great communication. Supporting one another. Being loud and having fun. Nobody embodies everything that Stay Ready stands for more than Adrian Robles. She is a flat-out baller and according to her head coach, she is also extremely coachable. Adriana has ridiculous handles and is a very, very smart point guard. One of my favorite things about her is the ability to change speeds. She is incredibly quick, but her ability to slow down, read the play and/or get her defender off balance and blow by them is truly remarkable. Within about a half a game of seeing her play, I knew that this freshman was going to be on the All-Tournament team. When she is on the floor, things change for every other player out there. If you’re on the opposing team, good luck.
Darah Stewart | 6-0 F | Team Stay Ready / Braswell (TX) | 2023
A “six-footer” always stands out. But, not every “six-footer” is willing to get inside and bang. We’ve all seen the delicate bigs who won’t go inside and do the dirty work to secure the rebounds that their team so desperately needs from them. Well, that’s not Darah. She is tall, long, and strong. She works hard down low to box out and make the ball hers. On the defensive side, she is relentless, just like the rest of Team Stay Ready, and was involved in a lot of the full-court pressure that made them so much fun to watch. Because she is a post who can get up and down the floor extremely well, Stewart can play the hard-working defense required of her and still score big-time buckets. Speaking of buckets, Darah showed the ability to score from all levels over the course of the weekend. She hit three’s, scored inside on putbacks and in transition, and even hit some stop and pop midrange shots when the defense backed off and let her have it.
Alena San Agustin | 5-5 PG | P.L.U.T.O Prospects / Cheyenne Mountain (CO) | 2023 | @alenamariesa
Alena is a tremendous point guard. She is also not strictly limited to being a point guard in terms of distribution because she can absolutely get buckets. She had three 14-point games to start the weekend and a lot of her points came from just taking what the defense was giving her. Oh, you sniffed out our play, but left me a 20-foot jumper? No problem. Bang. When she wasn’t racking up the points, San Agustin was busy tossing beautiful passes all over the floor to grateful teammates who got plenty of buckets themselves after having the ball delivered to them at just the right time. No slouch on the defensive end, Alena not only came up with a lot of steals from her quick hands in one-on-one situations with the opposing point guard, but she also racked up the defensive rebounds by flashing into the paint at just the right time. Simply put, Alena San Agustin was everywhere this weekend and that is how you make yourself an All-Tourney player.
Reese Sellers | 5-6 CG | New Mexico D1 / Yuma Catholic (AZ) | 2023 | @reeseellenn
Sellers is a kid that just absolutely knows how to score the basketball. She can light it up from long range and had some huge double-digit games with multiple threes. Better than that, she has a really good dribble-drive and a floater that is not only accurate (considering it goes in almost every time) but is almost unstoppable. It honestly doesn’t matter how many “bigs” are between her and the rim, Reese is going to find a way to get buckets. When running the point, Sellers did not get hurried by defensive pressure and used her very good handles to maintain control no matter what was thrown at her. Even better, she refused to get hurried by the pressure and stayed composed and confident with the ball in her hands. Sellers is exactly the kind of player a college coach would want running the point for their program. She seriously can do it all.