Kennedy High School's (Burien, Wash.) sophomore point guard, Yasmin Fuller, is one of the state's most promising young talents. She ran into a team with a ton of experienced guards in the championship game and saw double teams and lots of help shading towards her. The players guarding her were experienced at guarding elite players as Riverside (Auburn, Wash.) won the state championship a year ago and played in the black bracket of the Nike TOC this year. A lot was on the line as Kennedy hoped to overcome their two previous losses to Riverside in the biggest game of the year.
Yasmine Fuller battles Mercedes Wetmore
for a loose ball.
Fuller showed that even with defenders focused on her she has the ability to create space off the dribble. She has a lot of shake in her handle and when she takes her first step she does it as quick as anyone. She has the full repertoire of crossover, kick-out dribble, hesitation, studder-step, the full package. She does a great job on her step-back move of threatening the defender's position and springing back ready to shoot the ball. Because of her quickness she actually freezes the defense. In this game she probably could have been more aggressive getting her shot and leading her team when Riverside was making their run but that is a lesson young players learn through experience. There were several times she beat the defense and simply didn't shoot the ball, although many of those instances were on step-backs behind the three-point arc. Riverside played good, if not great, defense on her for most of the game.
Fuller can knock down the three-ball as well. In this game she did so off the catch-and-shoot but never tried it off the dribble. Her shots off the dribble came in the mid-range. Going to the basket she has a nice hesitation move to the right and going to her strong hand she will pull-up from around 15-feet as well. Going to the left she tends to go all the way to the cup or pass off, a bit of an anomaly for a right handed player which generally attacks hard right and pulls up on the left side. With experience she will need to develop that 'floor general' mentality of directing her teammates on the court whether she sees the spacing is inadequate or a player out of position for the set called or any number of things. That is simply the next step in her development but in terms of the tools to play this game, she's got them. This game was incredibly physical and she got knocked to the deck and forced into turnovers on more than one occasion where most would expect a whistle. This game should be a jumping board into club ball where the whistles are fewer and further between.
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Chris Hansen is the National Director of Scouting for Women’s Basketball at HoopGurlz.com. He leads the panel that evaluates and ranks girl's basketball prospects nationally for HoopGurlz. Chris has been involved in the women’s basketball community since 1998 as a coach, trainer, evaluator and reporter. He can be reached at chris@hoopgurlz.com [2].