DISTRICT HEIGHTS, Md. – Midwest Elite Platinum head coach Ralph Gesualdo isn’t the type of guy to beat around the bush or mince words. He knows his AAU team, even with a high-major recruit at shooting guard and another high-major prospect down low, probably didn’t have any business winning the Gold Division at U.S. Junior Nationals last summer.
Even more to the point of knowing what his team is and isn’t, Gesualdo is fully aware that after that win as the hunter, it’s his group that is now the hunted this weekend as it takes on all comers in the USJN Platinum Division, which has replaced Gold as the event’s top grouping
“We had been a club with full practice for a while, but no one was paying attention to us,” said Gesualdo after his team opened Pool I play with a 40-point win over Team Maryland on Friday morning. “We caught team after team after team by surprise. This year, it ain’t gonna happen, we’re gonna have to play hard.”
Yes, Gesualdo’s team is definitely going to have to play hard. That’s what happens when you roll through USJN before narrowly defeating the Gauchos in the Gold Division final before a packed set of stands at the Capital Sports Complex’s Court 1. Many of the key names and faces are gone from that squad. However, several other key names and faces remain.
Notre Dame recruit Jewell Loyd, a member of the USA Under 17 team that won gold in France at the FIBA World Championships last summer, helped open Midwest Elite’s title defense by getting and hitting any shot she wanted in the win over Team Maryland.
Loyd will certainly continue to score as she has done all spring and summer. But add to her the presence of another USA Basketball team member in athletic and polished 6-foot-3 forward Taya Reimer, and Midwest Elite is going to be scary in D.C. moving forward. Reimer, who holds a scholarship offer from UConn among many other suitors, competed with the USA Under 16 team that won gold at the FIBA Americas U16 Championship in Mexico in June. The top-three finish in Mexico qualified the United States for the 2012 U17 World Championships.
“We’ve got two USA players on the team and a third that almost made the final cut in Jacqui Grant,” Gesualdo said. “A lot of these girls have been with me now for a couple years. They know what they have to do to win and if they play hard defensively, they’ll be fine.”
A separate storyline for Loyd in D.C. will be the fact that one team in Midwest Elite’s Pool I has a girl that also verballed to the Fighting Irish and will be part of Loyd’s freshman class in 2012. Michaela Mabrey plays for the New Jersey Demons as the two will square off on Saturday afternoon at 5 p.m.
Hannah Huffman, another Notre Dame commit is also in D.C. and playing for the East Bay Xplosion. With Loyd and Mabrey getting to play each other and maybe even Huffman as well in a potential playoff matchup, it should make for some interesting trash talking situations in South Bend once all three get on campus.
“It’ll be my first time playing them and meeting them as well. Hopefully we win and everybody plays well,” Loyd said. “I’m just interested to see who I’m going in there with and I’m excited to play against them.”
