Top Stars of Boo (Part I)

Covering both coasts and all places inbetween, the Boo Williams Invitational this past weekend boasted a collection of many of the best girls basketball prospects in the nation. Scout.com's experts were on hand to watch games and take notes. Here are our picks for the five best players of the weekend, with scouting notes and observations.

PHOTOS BY GLENN NELSON

Maya Moore of the Georgia Metros gets a block against All-Ohio

HAMPTON, Va. - The Boo Williams Summer League squad was too much for everyone as they rolled in the championship game despite the Fairfax Stars’ best effort to pull off the upset. BWSL advanced to the finals of its own NCAA viewing tournament, fending off a feisty and comparatively undersized Tennessee Flight Silver team. Fairfax made it to the finals by coming back against perhaps the surprise team of the tournament, the Cal Swish.

This has become the largest of the short, spring viewing weekend tournaments, drawing coaches – and, for the most part, head coaches – from every major college program in the country. Even Tennessee coach Pat Summitt, just days removed from shoulder surgery, was there, to support prize commit, Angie Bjorklund of the Spokane Stars, as well as check out the wildly talented field.

All five HoopGurlz.com First Team All-BWI selections come from the 2007 recruiting class and all are phenomenal talents who had very good weekends in the first post high school season NCAA-certified tournament. All five have solid arguments for top 10 ranking nationally.

We will post the second through fourth all-tournament teams in the coming days.

2006 HOOPGURLZ.COM ALL-BWI FIRST TEAM

(CLICK ON NAMES FOR PROFILES)

Angie Bjorklund

Angie Bjorklund
6-0 guard, 2007
Spokane Stars

The Lowdown: Bjorklund had two outstanding offensive games against the Texas Lady Blazers and against her budding but friendly rival, Maya Moore. She scored 30-plus points in both games, but against the Metros she held Moore to single-digit scoring. She doesn’t get enough credit for her play on the defensive end as it is so easy to fall in love with her jumper. She, along with all of the first team selections, play both ends of the floor. Bjorklund has added quite a bit of muscle, allowing her to defend bigger players and play through contact with even more effectiveness than before. Her big game against Moore wasn’t enough to get her team past the Georgia Metros, but they fared better than anyone expected.

Stephanie Gilbreath

Stephanie Gilbreath
6-0 guard, 2007
West Coast Elite

The Lowdown: Gilbreath can be impossible to guard. She’s very quick and her handle is tight. She can stop and pop and, when she does, very few defenders can bother her shot. She elevates and finishes with a nice high release. Give her an open three and chances are it's going down. Gilbreath penetrates and finishes in traffic and in key moments you can see the killer instinct in her game. Despite her height, she stays low when handling the ball and explodes into the defender. Defensively, her length and quickness allow her to play just about anywhere on the court and in any defensive scheme. She roams the middle of the West Coast Elite zone press and shows great range and a willingness to anticipate and take risks needed to make that style of defense work. When she picks off a pass, she has the tools to start and finish the break herself.

Maya Moore

Maya Moore
6-1 wing, 2007
Georgia Metros

The Lowdown: Moore showed again why she’s the best player in her class. She led her team to a Silver Division championship (the best of the teams finishing second in their respective pools) and never shot the ball particularly well – but that’s the whole point here. She bust her butt on both end of the floor even when she’s not shooting well. She impacts the defensive end of the floor and almost every possession and, had UConn coach Geno Aureimma been in attendance, he probably would have had blood pressure problems watching her dive all over the floor for seemingly every loose ball. Some of that is natural ability but more than that it’s desire and her competitive drive. In the Metros' semifinal game on Sunday morning she pushed her team offensively by her relentlessness attacking the basket. She couldn’t seem to get her floaters and 10-foot finger rolls to drop as we’re all used to seeing, but she continued to attack and kept her team up front by knocking down free throws.

Marah Strickland

Marah Strickland
5-10 guard, 2007
Boo Williams Summer League

The Lowdown: Strickland joins a stacked Boo Williams Summer League squad and is the most exciting player on the team. From a fan's perspective she is simply fun to watch. She’s got handle and shake to play against top defensive players at the next level and she can stop on a dime and raise up with a deadly pull-up jumper. Her crossovers are not just show, they are low and quick and she explodes out of the change of direction with forward movement into the defender's hips. She also showed that her BWSL teammate Kimberly Rodgers is not the only one on the squad who can come off screen and drop the three. Her quickness also is a tool on the defensive end. She has great lateral quickness to stay in front of people and the aggressiveness to attack the ball handler. BWSL would probably have won the championship without her but with her they are at least 15 points better than just about everyone.

Jasmine Thomas

Jasmine Thomas
5-9 guard, 2007
Fairfax Stars

The Lowdown: Thomas is the best point guard in the country - period. She’s a leader on the floor, a fierce competitor and the type of player every coach wants on her or his team. When Fairfax Stars super sophomore post Chay Chegog left their quarterfinal game against the Orlando Comets Saturday night it was Thomas who put the team on her back and elevated them to vicory, literally. She blocked five shots by my count in the game, three of them on 6-foot-4 Duke-commit Krystal Thomas – and she’s 5-10 at best. The elevation on her jump shot is impressive, making her release point a good 10 inches higher than most guards. Her foot speed with the ball and without is amazing. She can stay in the hip pocket of almost anyone the length of the floor, tormenting the ball handler. She’s big time, even in the championship game against BWSL she would not go quietly. With BWSL about to open the game up before half she went on a 9-to-0 run on her own. After the first three baskets coach Boo Williams aptly inserted his defensive specialst Tierra Pratt who had done an exceptional job on her earlier in the half. It didn’t matter with Thomas in the zone. Her previous baskets where vicious pull up jumpers around the free throw line. Pratt played her tight but once bounce and up Thomas went with a 20-foot three that found the bottom of the net and kept her team in the game. She’s just a terrific athlete, player and competitor.

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For complete brackets go to www.boowilliamsbball.com and check back at www.HoopGurlz.com for the rest of our All-Tournament Team selections.

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Chris Hansen is the National Director of Scouting for Women's Basketball at HoopGurlz.com and Scout.com. Chris leads the panel that evaluates and ranks girl's basketball prospects nationally for HoopGurlz, Scout.com and Full Court Press (www.FullCourt.com). Chris has been involved in the women’s basketball community since 1998 as a coach, trainer, evaluator and reporter. He can be reached at [e-mail].

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Glenn Nelson is the publisher of HoopGurlz.com and the editor-in-chief of Scout Media (www.Scout.com), an online sports network and magazine-publishing company and subsidiary of Fox Interactive Media. Glenn also founded and coached the Dragons and Northwest HoopGurlz select girls basketball teams. He previously was a longtime, national-award-winning basketball columnist and writer for The Seattle Times. His work also has appeared in several national magazines and books. He is co-author of "Rising Stars: The Ten Best Players in the NBA" (Rosen Publishing, 2002).