Needles, Moss highlight deep group of young players Gators women will rely on next season
Wednesday, March 21, 2012 | Women's Basketball, Men's Golf, Scott Carter
(Photo: Carlie Needles, middle, will join Jennifer George, left, and Jaterra Bonds on court next season.)
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – At the conclusion of Tuesday night's loss to Baylor, the five seniors on the Gators women's basketball team formed a group hug before walking off the court the final time together in a Gators uniform.
Two of the players expected to play significant roles next season in place of some of those departing seniors watched courtside.
Freshman point guard Carlie Needles has spent all season with the Gators, sidelined by a torn ACL she suffered during preseason camp. Needles was expected to contribute in her first season but the injury forced her to redshirt.
An all-state selection at ThunderRidge High School in Highlands Ranch, Colo., Needles is a student of the game. She is also a playmaker in the mold of another former ThunderRidge star guard: Abby Waner.
Waner, a former star at Duke who later played in the WNBA, was at Tuesday's second-round game in the NCAA Tournament working as an analyst for ESPN. Waner has known Needles since the latter was in seventh grade – Needles even once dated Waner's brother, Alex.
Waner sees a Florida team that Needles can impact immediately with the loss of three senior guards – Lanita Bartley, Jordan Jones and Deanna Allen.
“They have had a lot of times when there hasn't truly been a game-closer, a specific player,'' Waner said. “Lanita is very talented. Jaterra [Bonds] is very talented. Jordan is a great shooter, but I think they are missing someone like almost as that dagger.
“Carlie is the most competitive young player I have ever met. Somebody who can go get the ball and make a play.”
Meanwhile, sitting a few rows up from Florida's bench Tuesday was Sydney Moss, considered perhaps the jewel of Florida's 2012 recruiting class. Moss was named Gatorade Player of the Year in Kentucky as a multi-talented guard/forward.
At 5-foot-11, Moss can play down low but has the ball-handling skills to play point guard and slash to the basket as a scorer.
(Photo: Gators signee Sydney Moss, Kentucky's Gatorade Player of Year, on video board Tuesday night during Florida's loss to Baylor in NCAA Tournament).
The daughter of NFL receiver Randy Moss, Moss is looking forward to an opportunity to join Coach Amanda Butler's program and potentially become a go-to threat from the start.
“I'm really excited. I know it's going to be a lot different than high school ball,” Moss said. “I'm going to be playing with better players and bigger girls. I just want to fit in and get used to it as much as possible. Their guards are pretty much all seniors except [Bonds]. We have a good group of girls coming in.”
Chandler Cooper and January Miller are other backcourt players in the incoming class. In the front court incoming freshman Christin Mercer, and two players redshirted this season, center Viktorija Dimaite and forward Kayla Lewis, hope to fill the void left by senior center Azania Stewart and forward Ndidi Madu.
In Waner's view, Needles could be the player that makes all the pieces fit the puzzle.
“After losses in high school, Carlie would be in the gym shooting,'' Waner said. “I was that same exact way. I think she loves basketball the way I loved basketball. I don't think that is something you can teach. She will work on things until she hurts herself and can't work on them any more.”
Part of Waner's confidence in Needles' ability is their shared past. They both played for head coach Bill Bradley at ThunderRidge and he expected their best every day.
“He is a great, great coach who is really demanding, and not a lot of girls high school coaches are demanding,” Waner said. “What he did was that he saw the talent that I had, he saw the talent that Carlie had, and he wouldn't just let it sit. He did a great job of really exposing both of us to the rigors of a demanding coach.
“That will help her out next year, too.”
