DIMONDALE - While there are no more undefeated men’s team at the Moneybag Pro-Am, the Lady Navy team added to their top record of now 3-0, winning, 89-44, over Lady Green on Tuesday, July 12.
With two Michigan State University graduates as starters, Jasmine Hines (2016) and Annalise Pickrel (2014), the fluidity of plays by Lady Navy surpassed the one of Lady Green.
The chemistry between teammates showed on mid-air catches, fades and layup assists.
"It's the first year women are involved. We always came, we always watched. So it's just nice to be a part of it and not just you know be a fan anymore,” Hines said.
But it was Spartan senior Tori Jankoska who stole the show.
“I think she's come a long way,” Hines said. “You know, it's her senior year this year, she's killing it in Moneyball, she's been killing it in our summer workouts. I’m basically a graduate assistant for the team this summer so I've been seeing a lot of what they're doing and I see a lot of good things so hopefully it carries over to the season."
Raining triples in the second half, Jankoska showed she is more than just a deep threat as she flies by the Lady Green defense and finishes the layups.
"I mean some of these people have never seen us play so we got to come out here and show off a little bit, and hopefully get some more fans to come to our games and then just get better ourselves and get better as a whole team,” Jankoska said.
As the first year women are able to play at Moneyball, Jankoska said it’s an opportunity to play and have fun, without pressure or “coaches yelling at you.”
“It's really why we go out and love to play basketball, because you just go and play free, you do whatever you want, you just have fun with it. I love it, I mean it's friendly competition,” Jankoska said. “Last week we played against (teammates) Branndais (Agee) and Jenna (Allen), and it was just friendly competition. We're all out here working on our step, we're trying to get better on certain stuff that we don't get the opportunity to do over the summer because we don't get to play that much. Now we get to come out here and do some different moves that we've been working on in the gym. So I love going out and playing, and everyone is getting better on our team so it works for me."
Incoming freshmen weren’t allowed to participate in this year’s Pro-Am, but the Spartans already have Taryn McCutcheon with the team in the workout room.
“I'm excited about her, and then we have two other freshmen that are here that are doing really well too, so the sky is the limit for us this year,” Jankoska said.
Aside from McCutcheon, Mardrieka Cook from Madison Heights, MI, Taryn McCutcheon from East Lansing and Nia Hollie from Minnesota are also joining the Spartans next year.
“I think we have a great group of girls coming in, Taryn is very talented. She's been around the program awhile, we've been recruiting her for a while, so we all know her pretty well. She played in East Lansing this past season so we got to see a little bit more of her which is nice but I'm excited to see what they can do this year. I think they can do a lot of good things, they have a lot of returners but they also lost a lot,” Hines said.
Although the audience doesn’t get a preview on the women’s recruiting classes, the MSU freshmen men continue to awe the public.
Miles Bridges took the Green team to a 105-94 victory over Purple with more of his NBA All-Star-type dunks.
Josh Langford handled the ball with such ease, that with the help of the rest of the Black team - playing without University of Michigan’s Mark Donnal and Derrick Walton and Michigan State’s Gavin Schilling -, topped Volt, 99-91.
Spartan sophomore Conner George had a couple triples, but Volt was still nine points away from a victory.
George said that win or lose, the league is a great way to keep playing during off-season.
“I think it's just a good way of getting to know everyone from around the area, get a good relationship with them, and have fun playing basketball, a game we love,” George said.
Closing out the night, team Red beat team Purple, 112-92.
The Moneyball Pro-Am continues every Tuesday and Thursday until August 4, with playoffs starting July 28.