The queen of the one-on-one was Missouri’s Taber Spani. She went heads up with Flores on Saturday morning as the two highest scorers in their one-on-one work. Spani started with a step-back jumper that was all net. The shot was so pretty Academy Director Gannon Baker said to Spani she couldn’t do it again. Wrong. Spani hit another fall-away jumper.

As you would suspect from a savvy scorer she used the previous history to her advantage. She lifted Flores and got to the basket for a layin on her third possession. Flores was now fully engaged defensively getting as tight as she possibly could. Spani, a bigger and stronger player, pivoted into the quicker Flores to create space and hit another fade-away. She would hit two more, scoring going both right and left. The lefty sharpshooter made her mark on the weekend early.

While not the case at all the previous Regional Skills Academies, every player participating this weekend was a legitimate Division I basketball prospect. Most of the players are or will be recruited by major conference schools. Texas and Missouri weren’t the only state’s representing at Cypress Ridge High School either; a duo from Arkansas, Morgan Hook and Jordan Madden were on their games as well.

Talent aside most everyone in the three day event showed improvement. If the participants take their work ethic this weekend and apply it every time they are in the gym, whether in practice or working by themselves, Texas may become the new Mecca for girls’ hoops. They say everything in Texas is bigger and this weekend it was also better.

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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.