You might not know it from this year’s rankings, but Georgia is one of the top 10 states for producing women’s college basketball talent.
In the 2014 rankings by ESPN, only two Georgia players crack the top 100 — Crisp County center Nasheema Oliver (signed with UGA) and Hillgrove forward Mackenzie Engram (UGA).
That’s a low number for elite prospects from Georgia, but it’s coming on the heels of one of the most star-studded classes in state history. In 2013, Georgia produced 12 of the nation’s top 100.
“I think girls basketball in the state of Georgia is outstanding,” said Dan Olson of the Collegiate Girls Basketball Report. Olson does the rankings for ESPN.
“If you took a cross-section, Georgia is among the top 10 states that produce quality prospects that go to another level. There’s a lot of talent that comes out of there.”
Texas and California produce the most major-college signees, but some of that has to do with population. Georgia is in the next pack with several other smaller states.
During the past five years, 236 players Georgia players signed with major colleges, according to Olson’s statistics. That’s an average of 47.2 per year, compared with California (72.4), Texas (71.4), the Washington D.C. area (66), Ohio (50.4) and Illinois (39.2).
What are the reasons for Georgia’s success? Olson says some of it has to do with the popularity of the sport among girls in youth leagues, which carries over to school teams. He also credits the strong AAU programs across the state, which allow the girls to play and be seen by college scouts on a year-round basis.
Fullcourt.com’s Lee Michaelson lists several factors, including the collegiate success of Georgia, Georgia Tech and nearby college powers Tennessee and North Carolina.
“One could get into a chicken-vs.-egg analysis of whether those schools became strong and grew to recruit so heavily on home turf because they were able to draw on the strong base of Georgia prep talent, or whether the opportunities presented by these well-known women’s basketball powerhouses encouraged local preps to pursue basketball and develop their talents. But at this point in time, it seems evident that the cycle of success is promoting both sides of that equation,” Michaelson said.
Blue Star’s Mike Flynn said Georgia has produced two of the more famous women in basketball history, Maya Moore and Teresa Edwards, and that also helped enormously with the sport’s popularity.
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