Joe’s Take: Thunder’s Grant ready to suit up for UNC, right now
Lanie Grant Lanie Grant 5'9" | PG James River HS | 2024 State VA is playing for the University of North Carolina. Well, not anyway. At least, not yet. And while the burden may topple other players, it certainly hasn’t…
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Continue ReadingLanie Grant Lanie Grant 5'9" | PG James River HS | 2024 State VA is playing for the University of North Carolina.
Well, not anyway.
At least, not yet.
And while the burden may topple other players, it certainly hasn’t affected Grant in any noticeable sense. It’s almost as if she’s already a Tar Heel. Her play continues to be stellar. Her reputation as a hard-nosed player gains more steam every day. By all accounts, there’s no stopping her.
Why bother trying to slow her down? She really is taking her commitment to the AAC school seriously.
Even her W.Va. Thunder coach Brian Mallory, a seasoned college basketball coach, can’t find anything wrong with her play. “If I was going to nitpick and try to find some type of fault it is that occasionally she gets down on herself. Other than that, she’s grown tremendously and we want her to continue to have that mindset,” he said. Exactly. Seems like the kind of approach you would want a player to have on the basketball court.
Who can argue with immense growth? Throw away the 40-point games or double-doubles or dominating in front of the summer coaches on a W.Va. Thunder team filled with D-I college prospects. That attitude of continued growth really drives home Grant’s great future.
And yet, her college readiness doesn’t end with her brilliant outlook on the game. Combining with her great approach are a number of other characteristics UNC head lady Courtney Banghart surely loves seeing in her future player.
“Mentally, she is ready to go to North Carolina. She’s a sweet kid, but at the end of the day she is a killer and she’s going to try and rip your heart out,” Mallory said. While she’s ripping the said heart out, she’ll dazzle with an array of on-court defensive and offensive delights. Or another aspect of her great and filled-to-the-brim game.
They say the good ones always have plenty of weapons to turn to, and Grant is no different. 3s, left-handed and right-handed lay-ups, a speedy straight-to-the-rim game, they’re all in her repertoire. The only thing that could make her that much more dangerous is if she learned how to shoot with both hands.
If she wasn’t such a smart kid in school and driven in other areas of her life, you might have to worry about ambidextrous shooting as well.
But it doesn’t appear on her radar at the moment.
Speaking of standing out, if there’s one thing that sets her farther apart it’s how she approaches what she does when no one else is watching.
“Her work ethic is off the charts and she eats and breathes basketball,” said Mallory.
Skills, drills, free throws, endless 3s, cone work, anything, and everything else receive Grant’s boundless energy and attention. There’s nothing escaping her focus or no skill deemed too small or insignificant for improvement.
“She may need to get a little stronger but she has three years of high school left. The questions about her at UNC start when she is a freshman, what is her role going to be,” Mallory said.
Perhaps, Banghart could start that conversation in Chapel Hill, right now. After all, it looks like Grant is ready to don that sweet Carolina Blue.