Girls basketball in the state of Arizona is on the rise again in the state, as many more opportunities have recently developed for top girl's prospects in the state to gain maximum recruiting exposure to college programs across the country. One of the state's elite overall prospects and the top overall girls prospect in Arizona's 2022 Class is Pinnacle High School's lengthy and talented 6-foot-7 rising junior post Kennedy Basham. Basham is currently rated among the nation's elite prospects in America's 2022 Class, and she is absolutely blowing up as a result.
Basham is a unicorn for the state of Arizona, as girl's prospects absolutely do not look and play like her nationally. While standing 6-7 in height, Basham is a superb young talent that has college programs hunting her down currently, in an attempt to land the gifted post prospect.
Basham has seen her college recruitment absolutely take off during the COVID-19 layoff months, while coaches have looked to position themselves early in her college recruitment. On Friday, Basham received another big offer for herself from UCLA. The skilled post prospect also recently received offers from Oregon, Colorado, Kansas, Pennsylvania, Georgetown and Loyola Marymount, to go with her existing offers from Utah and Vanderbilt. She is also receiving strong interest from such programs as Arizona State, USC, Oregon State, Washington, Ole Miss, North Carolina, Kansas State, Louisville, Baylor and Princeton, just to name a few and with many more college programs emerging.
The list of college programs will simply continue to grow for Basham, as well as her long list of scholarship offers. Basham is currently rated among the nation's Top 30 overall prospects in the 2022 Class by ESPN.
The younger sister of Sunnyslope High School's talented 6-foot-11 rising senior post Carson Basham (Pepperdine commit), the Basham basketball family is tremendous and quickly has helped take the state's recruitment of basketball prospects to another level. Carson is also one of the nation's top post prospects, and held a long list of scholarship offers for himself, before deciding to end his college recruitment early - giving a verbal pledge to Pepperdine University.
Last season as a sophomore, Kennedy averaged very impressive overall numbers on the season - 17.6 points, 9.9 rebounds and an amazing 4.6 blocks per game, while helping lead her Pinnacle program to a 23-7 overall record on the season. Pinnacle would eventually fall to Hamilton HS (70-50) in the 6A State Semi-Finals. Pinnacle is very young and loaded with future talent though, and will return the majority of last year's team this season, in what should be a breakout season for the program, whenever Arizona high school basketball does return to action. Look for Basham to lead the way and have a huge junior season for herself.
It is still unclear where the young Basham is leaning in her college recruitment, it will become even more difficult as many more scholarship offers begin to pour in for this amazing prospect.
Basham is a rare find nationally, not just locally, as she is a long, rangy post prospect with very good low-post footwork and an advanced overall feel for the game. She has excellent low post footwork for her young age already, and a nice jump hook that is very difficult to defend. She is patient in the low post and makes strong offensive moves in the paint, or looks for cutters and the open player on the floor for her team - making her team's offense very efficient as a result. She also has a soft touch from the perimeter, and has a nice ability to make shots from mid-range, or step out even further if needed. She will really develop this aspect of her game over the next two years of high school.
Basham is an amazing defender, as she is among the elite shot-blockers in America, and blocks or alters almost every shot in or even outside of her area. She has excellent timing as a shot-blocker and rarely leaves her feet to block shots. She is an imposing force in the middle of the paint, and makes it very difficult for opposing low-post players to be successful around the basket area. After she blocks shots, she keeps the ball in play and advances the basketball to her teammates for fast-break opportunities, while being able to push the basketball herself when needed and finish strong on the other end. Basham runs the floor like a guard and runs the floor hard. Also an active rebounder that rebounds outside of her area. Basham is terrific on both ends of the floor, and simply changes the game for her team and, of course, her opponents.
Our Arizona Preps' staff will look forward to following the recruitment and continued development of Basham over the next two years, as she was already selected as an All-State First Team selection by AZ Central as a mere sophomore. There are no limits for this young prospect, as she has WNBA pro potential for the future.
