Queensland U16 State Championships

I volunteered this week to help out at the U16 State Championships that finished yesterday. The first few days I was just helping out on the door and in the car park but yesterday I was court-side writing game summaries for the three gold medal games for each division and a bronze medal game prior.

One of the reasons I enjoy helping out is to check out the future of the game in our country. Its good to see the next generation and people always ask me who are the players to watch.

Having only watched one full division one game which was the gold medal game between the Gold Coast Waves and the Suncoast Clippers, I can really only tell you who stood out in that one. In my opinion, the player with the most potential that seemed to have the skill-set to take it to the next level was Clippers player Tom Fullarton. His outside shot wasn't falling during the game and his team didn't get the win, but he's tall, could handle the ball, find open team-mates and play almost any position. Despite being one of the tallest players out there, it seemed like they had made a conscious decision to play him at the guard or wing spots to develop his skills rather than limit his growth by just playing him inside.

The performance of the day tho was from a division 3 player, Jhalam Anson who scored 37 points and just dominated the game for his Mulgrave Magic team. In this tournament there were no stats but Jhalam would have had plenty of boards, assists and at least half a dozen steals to go with his haul of points. He's quite young and raw but if he works hard and gets the support needed, he could be one to keep an eye on in a year or two.