With the historic success of the Little League World Series on the ESPN networks, the NBA and FOX worked together on a youth basketball tournament with a similar format, bringing in players from around the world to compete at an age where they were generally too young to play on the youth national teams of their countries. The league successfully operated two tournaments in Orlando in 2018 and 2019, but the pandemic canceled the 2020 edition and it has not returned since. Even with just a couple of cohorts being involved, the success of some of the players there have had in their young careers have shown that there is value in bringing those age groups together and should be an opportunity explored for the future.
United States
Club teams around the United States were invited to compete in regional tournaments with the eight winners making their way to the main event. Plenty of the players involved continued to develop their games and are now making an impact on the college level. The championship team came from Kansas in the Central region and S’mya Nichols opted to stay in state, having an excellent freshman season with the Jayhawks. She will be reunited with Sania Copeland, who just transferred from Wisconsin. Brooklyn Rhodes was an unexpected addition to the college list from this squad after earning a scholarship at Arizona after trying out as they were running out of healthy players. Tasia Johnson will add to the DI count from the team as she heads to UNC Greensboro after time at the junior college level with Daytona State. Cierra Smith plays for Central Missouri, Tiyani Rollins plays for NAIA school Ottawa, and Saniya Simmons has just transferred from Lincoln to Nebraska-Kearney.
South Carolina had just won their first national championship the year before and a team from there qualified in the Southeast region, including two players who just contributed to the most recent national championship team in Milaysia Fulwiley and Ashlyn Watkins. Also on the team, was Laila Acox, who is finishing her college career at Radford after time at East Carolina and North Carolina A&T, Temple’s Drew Alexander, North Carolina A&T’s Keona Curtis, UNC Wilmington’s McCall King, Stetson’s Tyra Myers, Austin Peay’s Anala Nelson, and Campbell’s Peris Smith.
Plenty of other teams had a lot of players who are now active in college, like the team from Texas that won the South region. Oklahoma’s Kiersten Johnson, UNLV’s Jasmyn Lott, Denver’s Laila McLeod, Rice’s Jazzy Owens-Barnett, Ole Miss’s Ayanna Thompson, and Iowa State’s Alissa Williams were on that team. Madison Cockrell, who just transferred from UTSA to Incarnate Word, and Kyla Deck, who just transferred from Stephen F. Austin to North Texas were also on the squad. There will another DI player this season with Lillian Jackson’s success at Tyler at the junior college level leading to her commitment to Grambling. Abbie Barr plays for Southeastern Oklahoma State.
Tied with the South, is the West region team from California with ten players playing in college. The headliners are the Washington teammates Chloe Briggs and Hannah Stines. Erica Collins of UNLV and Ashlyn Zhang of Rice add to the DI count along with Valentina Saric, who has transferred from Morehead State to Jacksonville State. That number will increase as Rylei Waugh is heading to San Jose State after a strong junior college career at Pima. Quianna Brown also played at that level with Southern Nevada. The other college players are Aliyah Gonzalez of Hope International, Isabella Pearson of Westmont, and Halle Sii of Vanguard.
The Midwest team out of Indiana also sent their share of players to the college ranks including the Purdue duo of Rashunda Jones and Amiyah Reynolds as well as Olivia Smith. Nevaeh Foster has transferred from Western Kentucky to IU Indianapolis and Kyla Oldacre has transferred from Miami to Texas. Jaelynne Murray has also played at the DI level with Alabama A&M, but later headed to junior college at Wabash Valley. Karina Scott started her career at that level at Vincennes and is now headed to Winston Salem State. Amaya Asher plays at Illinois-Springfield.
One of the big names among all of the rosters was from the Mid-Atlantic team, which featured UCLA’s Kiki Rice. Holy Cross’s Simone Foreman, Towson’s Gabby Scott, and Arizona State’s Kadidia Toure add to their tally. Natalie Johnson has transferred from Robert Morris to St. Francis while Nailah McBeth plays at Washington University.
The Northeast team out of New York also had six future collegians with Binghamton’s Meghan Casey, Marist’s Ciara Croker, and Virginia Tech’s Mackenzie Nelson as headliners. Below the DI level, Alanis Diaz plays for Saint Leo, Julie Lyden plays for St. Michael’s, and Dana Phelan plays for Staten Island.
The last region to mention is the Northwest, featuring a team from Washington. Jada Wynn, who was in the area because her mother was coaching there, is at Texas Tech. Jenna Villa plays at Washington State, Catelyn Deaver plays at Utah Tech, and Kaimyla Nolan plays at Webster.
International
There were also eight international teams, but they were put together in different ways. For the Asia Pacific region, Australia has a club system that is arguably even more developed than the United States so they were able to send their club champion at that age level, the Bulleen Boomers, to the tournament where they were led by Tess Heal, who has transferred to Stanford after starting her college career at Santa Clara. The team also had Holly Griffiths, who has just transferred from Pepperdine to Fresno State, and Tabitha Betson, who is about to start her college career at Colorado. Canada also sent an established club team with a number of players who are at American colleges now in Duke’s Emma Koabel, Colgate’s Lara Cook, and Montana State’s Natalie Picton.
Some of the regions sent players nominated by coaches in those countries that tried out together and ended up picking a roster. Europe was one of those regions and two of the players on their roster continue to be prospects these days in Juste Jocyte and Raina Tomasicka. Laura Di Stefano’s American basketball experience did not end there as she returned for a season of junior college at Salt Lake, a path followed by Tinu Fakunle for the last two years and one that Juliana Hadad is taking this year at Eastern Florida State. The top European prospect did not actually play for the team as Dominique Malonga plays for France now, but represented her birth country of Cameroon on the Africa and Middle East team. Melissa Mwanza moved from her native Zimbabwe for high school and is now at Louisiana Tech after starting her college career at Richmond. Amar Mansour, representing Lebanon, is playing at Missouri Baptist. The South America team was also built with players from different countries.
As the NBA was working on building out their academy system to try to provide coaching and structure to countries with less of a developed basketball history, they also brought in teams of the best prospects from China, India, and Mexico to expose them to a high level of basketball. Mexico’s Maria Mejia went to high school in the United States and is now committed to Seattle, a path followed by Frida Cadena Hernandez before a commitment to Cypress. Sunishka Kartik of India also went to high school in the United States and has played at the junior college level with Independence.
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