CHICAGO, Illinois—While the focus of the women’s basketball world has shifted back to the college game and down to Tampa and the Final Four, we thought we would take one last look back at Wednesday’s McDonald’s All-American game. The interest in Florida may be in who wins but once the final buzzer sounds in an All-Star event like McDonald’s not too much thought is given to who came out on top. For the record the East did claim the win 89 – 87 holding off a furious last two minute attack from the West. Of course it’s hard to take too much geographical pride in the West rally when their two top scorers, Te’a Omari Cooper (Powder Springs, Ga. – Tennessee) and Stephanie Watts (Matthews, N.C. – North Carolina) have East coast addresses now and in their colligate futures. And in the bigger scheme, the actual outcome of the game seldom comes up when an athlete is identified as a McDonald’s All-American. The achievement says plenty all by itself.
What does come up is how did the signees of a particular program do or what impact will some of these athletes have in conference play over the next four years? As a reminder UConn, Louisville and Notre Dame each had three participants in the 2015 McDonald’s All-American game. Maryland, North Carolina and Texas each had two while Cal, Duke, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, UCLA and Washington were represented by one each. Conference bragging rights went to the ACC with nine followed by the Big 12 with four, the American, Pac-12 and SEC with three and the Big 10 with two. Since we mentioned geography earlier Texas had four native daughters in Chicago while Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Missouri and New Jersey each had two.
The signees from Louisville (Taja Cole, Asia Durr, Sam Fuehring) produced a combined 30 points on 11 of 29 shooting (38%) and together grabbed 15 rebounds. The three future Huskies of UConn (De’Janae Boykin, Napheesa Collier, Katie Lou Samuelson) totaled 24 points on the night going 10 for 24 from the floor (41%) while grabbing 17 boards. Notre Dame signees (Marina Mabrey, Arike Ogunbowale, Ali Patberg) put up 24 points as well but struggled at 9 of 28 (32%) shooting. The Irish trio grabbed 13 rebounds together.
Among the schools with two participants North Carolina (Destinee Walker, Stephanie Watts) finished with 23 points on a 9 of 21 (43%) shooting effort while adding six rebounds. Maryland signees (Brianna Fraser, Kiah Gillespie) went 7 for 15 (46%) together while finishing with 19 points and five boards. Baylor’s two Bears (Kalani Brown, Beatrice Mompremier) produced 12 points on 6 of 14 (43%) and hit double digits rebounds with 11. Two future Texas Longhorns (Lashann Higgs, Jordan Hosey) had a tough night with 1 of 10 shooting and just one point. However, they did grab nine rebounds.
To see the performances of the programs with single signees and the complete box score follow the link below.
http://www.mcdonaldsallamerican.com/aag/en/MediaCenter/2015-game-materials/2015-Results-Girls.html
If you’re interested in how the conferences were represented you have to start with the ACC who had nine representatives in the game. Together they put up 44% of the 176 total points scored and grabbed 37% of the individual rebounds. They picked off 10 steals but turned it over a combined 12 times. The Big 12 had four players in the mix that produced 14 points and 12 rebounds. The SEC had three players that came up with 17% of the game’s scoring with 30 points. They also had 11 boards but did turn it over 13 times in 53 minutes of play. The American Conference had three players who will all be attending one school, Connecticut. The trio tallied a combined 24 points and 17 rebounds. The Pac-12 had three as well who finished with 11 points and nine rebounds on the night. The Big 10, like the American, was represented by just one school, Maryland. The future Terrapins totaled 19 points and grabbed five rebounds.
The Jordan Brand Classic, April 17th, will feature 22 of the 24 McDonald’s All-Americans in action on the big stage again in the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.
