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WBB: Updates on the high school seasons for current signees/verbals

I caught the second half of the Bishop Garrigan semi, which they won 74-57. Crooks had 25 points (10-15 fg, 5-6 ft) and 16 rebounds. They will be facing the above-mentioned MMCRU in the final tomorrow night.

This was my first time seeing Crooks (other than highlight videos) and I had a few observations:

Positives
  • She has very good hands. Some of the passes to her were less than ideal, but she hauls them in like she's Charlie Kolar.
  • She avoids bad fouls. For the season, she averages two fouls per game.
  • She never left the court, playing all 32 minutes in the game.
  • She does a good job of keeping the ball high. She did forget this a couple times but corrected herself on future possessions.
  • She is smart with the ball and is good at knowing when to kick it out vs when to try to score.
  • She appears to have nice shooting touch around the basket.
Negatives
  • She always looks like she's conserving energy -- slow getting up and down the court except when absolutely necessary, not particularly active on offense or defense, etc. This is possibly related to the note above regarding her never leaving the court.
  • She played almost entirely right by the basket offensively and defensively. I'm not sure I saw her attempt a shot outside maybe 8 feet (other than FT), and her defense was mostly right around the paint.
It's really hard to judge her in a game like this. She's much taller than the opposition, but they double/triple teamed her whenever they could.
 
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mred said:
I caught the second half of the Bishop Garrigan semi, which they won 74-57. Crooks had 25 points (10-15 fg, 5-6 ft) and 16 rebounds. They will be facing the above-mentioned MMCRU in the final tomorrow night.

This was my first time seeing Crooks (other than highlight videos) and I had a few observations:

Positives
  • She has very good hands. Some of the passes to her were less than ideal, but she hauls them in like she's Charlie Kolar.
  • She avoids bad fouls. For the season, she averages two fouls per game.
  • She never left the court, playing all 32 minutes in the game.
  • She does a good job of keeping the ball high. She did forget this a couple times but corrected herself on future possessions.
  • She is smart with the ball and is good at knowing when to kick it out vs when to try to score.
  • She appears to have nice shooting touch around the basket.
Negatives
  • She always looks like she's conserving energy -- slow getting up and down the court except when absolutely necessary, not particularly active on offense or defense, etc. This is possibly related to the note above regarding her never leaving the court.
  • She played almost entirely right by the basket offensively and defensively. I'm not sure I saw her attempt a shot outside maybe 8 feet (other than FT), and her defense was mostly right around the paint.
It's really hard to judge her in a game like this. She's much taller than the opposition, but they double/triple teamed her whenever they could.
Click to expand...
I thought for her, having transferred to a much larger school would have helped her to showcase. She rarely got anybody her size to compete with (at least close to her size). Even had she jumped to Algona High she would have bumped to 3A. Problem with that is her teammate, joyce, may not have been able to go with her. She is/was from Emmetsburg and openly admitted to going to Garrigan for athletics. So I’m unsure if her parents have moved to Algona or not.
 
Good recap
mred said:
I caught the second half of the Bishop Garrigan semi, which they won 74-57. Crooks had 25 points (10-15 fg, 5-6 ft) and 16 rebounds. They will be facing the above-mentioned MMCRU in the final tomorrow night.

This was my first time seeing Crooks (other than highlight videos) and I had a few observations:

Positives
  • She has very good hands. Some of the passes to her were less than ideal, but she hauls them in like she's Charlie Kolar.
  • She avoids bad fouls. For the season, she averages two fouls per game.
  • She never left the court, playing all 32 minutes in the game.
  • She does a good job of keeping the ball high. She did forget this a couple times but corrected herself on future possessions.
  • She is smart with the ball and is good at knowing when to kick it out vs when to try to score.
  • She appears to have nice shooting touch around the basket.
Negatives
  • She always looks like she's conserving energy -- slow getting up and down the court except when absolutely necessary, not particularly active on offense or defense, etc. This is possibly related to the note above regarding her never leaving the court.
  • She played almost entirely right by the basket offensively and defensively. I'm not sure I saw her attempt a shot outside maybe 8 feet (other than FT), and her defense was mostly right around the paint.
It's really hard to judge her in a game like this. She's much taller than the opposition, but they double/triple teamed her whenever they could.
Click to expand...
Interesting, informative recap. I have watched some of Crooks in videos. I get the impression you cover a lot of her game.

The one thing I will add is she seems to prefer the right side of the basket. As noted she avoids contact which seems to be clear if you view her game. That may be coached as teams attempt to foul her out...which seems smart and a successful strategy.
 
mred said:
I caught the second half of the Bishop Garrigan semi, which they won 74-57. Crooks had 25 points (10-15 fg, 5-6 ft) and 16 rebounds. They will be facing the above-mentioned MMCRU in the final tomorrow night.

It's really hard to judge her in a game like this. She's much taller than the opposition, but they double/triple teamed her whenever they could.
Click to expand...
Well done with your write-up. I also streamed the second half and came away uncertain what I'd witnessed. She doesn't appear to dominate yet ends up with an excellent stat line. I thought about it overnight...

She wasn't as slow as BCClone had suggested; she got one defensive rebound and dribbled out to half court leading the break, which was unexpected! She appears to have good court awareness but the deciding factor for me is her "hands". She snatched an offensive rebound at the end of the first half over the heads of three opposition players and put in a buzzer beater. In the second half, she flawlessly caught everything thrown her way, some from very difficult angles.

Bottom Line: You can't teach size (6'4 and possibly still growing) and she has great hands. ISU has an outstanding strength & conditioning coach and she'll learn to use her large frame in the lane. Pair her with the athletic 6'3 Jalynn Bristow and we have the size to battle Baylor & UT inside. I'm hoping to hear her announce her verbal commitment to ISU following the conclusion of the State Tournament. JMHO.
 
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BCClone said:
I thought for her, having transferred to a much larger school would have helped her to showcase. She rarely got anybody her size to compete with (at least close to her size). Even had she jumped to Algona High she would have bumped to 3A. Problem with that is her teammate, joyce, may not have been able to go with her. She is/was from Emmetsburg and openly admitted to going to Garrigan for athletics. So I’m unsure if her parents have moved to Algona or not.
Click to expand...
I'm guessing AAU makes transferring to a larger school unnecessary. So much recruiting is based on AAU anyway.

Joyce is a really solid player. I don't think she's high-major, but she'll be playing college ball somewhere. Her abilities keep opponents from completely collapsing on Crooks.
 
mred said:
I'm guessing AAU makes transferring to a larger school unnecessary. So much recruiting is based on AAU anyway.

Joyce is a really solid player. I don't think she's high-major, but she'll be playing college ball somewhere. Her abilities keep opponents from completely collapsing on Crooks.
Click to expand...
Drake
 
BCClone said:
Problem with that is her teammate, joyce, may not have been able to go with her. She is/was from Emmetsburg and openly admitted to going to Garrigan for athletics.
Click to expand...
Didn’t Emmetsburg win the 3A State Title last night? That’s an interesting twist, especially if MMCRU stays hot and deals Garrigan a third straight title game loss!
 
mred said:
I'm guessing AAU makes transferring to a larger school unnecessary. So much recruiting is based on AAU anyway.

Joyce is a really solid player. I don't think she's high-major, but she'll be playing college ball somewhere. Her abilities keep opponents from completely collapsing on Crooks.
Click to expand...
Joyce was on campus mid-February in 2021. After that time, for whatever reason, Iowa State/Joyce parted ways.
 
52-49 win for Garrigan. They led 44-32 after 3Q, but MMCRU stormed back to tie it in the 4th. Garrigan struggled after Crooks picked up foul #3 in the 3rd -- it seemed like, in an attempt to protect her from more fouls, they made her a non-participant in the game without actually sitting her on the bench. That allowed MMCRU to come back.

Crooks was all-tournament. Joyce was the captain.
 
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mred said:
52-49 win for Garrigan. They led 44-42 after 3Q, but MMCRU stormed back to tie it in the 4th. Garrigan struggled after Crooks picked up foul #3 in the 3rd -- it seemed like, in an attempt to protect her from more fouls, they made her a non-participant in the game without actually sitting her on the bench. That allowed MMCRU to come back.

Crooks was all-tournament. Joyce was the captain.
Click to expand...
I believe it was 44-32 after 3.
Thought for sure another Garrigan collapse was coming.
 
iccyfan said:
Didn’t Emmetsburg win the 3A State Title last night? That’s an interesting twist, especially if MMCRU stays hot and deals Garrigan a third straight title game loss!
Click to expand...
Midgets did get the trophy. The Stokes sisters for that team are solid.
 
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