The Women's Hoops Boom from the Eyes of Who Has Next
With the momentum of women's basketball continuing to grow, the investment and excitement is trickling down into those who want next.
Every day in the world of women’s basketball it feels like new ground is being broken. Viewership. NIL deals. Investments being made.
Frankly, business is booming.
Highschool prospects on deck to enter into the world of NCAA women’s hoops see it. They feel the change the same way we do. And they are ready to keep this momentum rolling.
Keeley Parks is one of those preparing to take the baton. A junior five-star guard out of Norman, Okla. holds offers from LSU, Tennessee, and UCLA, amongst others in her current Top-15 list.
Oklahoma’s Gatorade Player of the Year is one of the elite players that has been able to benefit from the increase in investment into the high school ranks, recently returning to Norman from Breanna Stewart’s Stewie 30 Elite Basketball Camp and Team USA’s Junior National Team Minicamp.
For Parks, it was a shock to hear about Stewie’s invite.
“I was at practice and my dad pulled me aside and he was like, guess who I just got a call from? And I was like, who? And he's like, guess. And I was like, I have no clue. And then he told me and I was just kind of shocked,” said Parks.
Parks was one of 30 players that received the invite to Stewie’s collaborative camp with Puma and once she arrived she was impressed by how involved Stewart was.
“A lot of camps where people run it, like famous athletes, they don't really show up to it and contribute,” Parks said. “But she was there the whole time, went through drills and everything.”
Parks left with only one regret.
“It was cool to get to see her and work out with her. Some people got to guard her. It wasn't me.”
The immediate follow up was would she have wanted to guard the reigning WNBA MVP?
“Yeah. I would be a little nervous. But I wanted to guard her,” Parks responded.
While they didn’t get matched up on the court 1v1, Parks left with many important lessons on what goes into being one of the best hoopers in the world.
“Just how much time and effort it takes,” she said. “Because she went through her days with us, like in the WNBA, practices, workouts and all that. And it's really important. It's a lot.”
Frankie Parks, Keeley’s father and high school head coach, deemed this camp as the most “professional level” and the “best experience she has had from any camp.”
Almost immediately after Parks stepped foot back in Oklahoma from her trip to New York City, she was off to Portland for the Team USA Junior National Team Minicamp.
This would be Parks’ second time participating in this camp and she can sense how the relationships amongst all of the invitees have grown from meeting them to now returning for a second time.
“[My biggest takeaway was] socially, because I didn't really know a lot of people there,” she said. Those relationships built at the first camp, and I got to see mostly all of them back'“
Now that Parks is back in Norman and starting AAU play with Team Lex, it is about what she can take away from these camp experiences.
Frankie Parks felt she had come back with a good aura and Keeley echoed those sentiments.
“It makes me want to work a lot harder because all those people are really good,” she said. “I feel like it's a humbling experience too because playing high school and then going to playing against the best people.”
While Parks is one of many beneficiaries in the momentum seen across women’s basketball right now, she is also still taking the time to experience the game as a fan.
When asked who she sees her game in most right now, she quickly named UConn’s Paige Bueckers, citing her three level scoring, and while Parks admits she has plenty of work to do to get to Bueckers’ level, she believes she can.
The other players that have really caught her eye? The historic freshman class.
Seeing the instant impact being made brings a different perspective for her when it comes to choosing a school and how she can potentially change the game immediately.
“That could be me one day,” she said.
That it can.