2013's Saniya Chong: Impressions
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
The Magic Bus hasn’t traveled as much this season due punishing gas prices and obscene tolls in the greater NYC area. However, I have been modestly following, filming and interviewing certain target players as Breanna Stewart of Cicero-North Syracuse (“CNS”), Sierra Calhoun of Christ the King, Mei-Lyn Bautista of Mary Louis, and Bianca Cuevas of Nazareth.
Saniya Chong, a junior guard at Ossining High School, recently came onto my radar screen when I read that local UConn seems to be recruiting her. I had seen Chong play as a freshman in the 2010 Boro’s vs. Burb’s Metro Classic, the greater NYC area’s most prestigious all star game, and she had made no impression on me at all. Not a bad impression. Nor good. Just zero.
This was in contrast to the blow-me-away impression Bria Hartley had made on me in the 2009 Metro Classic—with 24 points in 16 highly productive minutes—after which I nicknamed her the Raptor for her super aggressive play on offense and defense.
Highly productive? Well, blow me away with Chong’s current stats! Unbeknownst to the stalled Magic Bus, Chong this season has been averaging 33.8 ppg, which is sixth in the country, along with 9.8 apg, 5.2 rpg and 5.2 spg. The Ossining team is averaging 88 ppg, supposedly tops in the country, and is ranked first in some New York State public high school polls, over Stewart’s CNS.
On February 22 the team was playing Horace Greeley in the second round of the NYS Section I playoffs. That’s only 49.1 miles away according to my new Garmin 78sc GPS, and with no tolls.
So, it was time to pack the Domke camera bag and Manfrotto tripod with fluid head into my trusty, rust-colored Mountain Hardwear backpack—you must use a true fluid head to film basketball games—and then fire up the Magic Bus after clearing the mouse nest out the air filter.
Ossining, NY, plunges precipitously down to the Hudson River, so the backpack is very necessary for an old guy to trudge up the hills. The town lights didn’t flicker on and off as they allegedly do when the switch is pulled on the Sing Sing electric chair, and I found the high school conveniently across the street from Lucy’s Pizza.
I love high school gyms. The intimate size. The wooden bleachers. The enthusiastic cheerleaders. And fans who are not all on Medicare.
Okay, Chong. She had 22 points and 15 assists, and Ossining won easily, 82-47.
Impatient UConn fans will want to know whether she is good enough to play for their team. Yes, but I’m not yet sure she could be a starter.
The key word in that last sentence is “yet”. Chong is the kind of very intriguing player I need to see more of, against better competition, before I can venture an informed opinion, which was so easy with Hartley.
Saniya (Sah-nigh-ah) Chong is a lanky 5-8 or 5-9. Her father is Chinese and her mother is African American. She plays point guard but could just as easily play shooting guard. I’ll just tick off the positives and negatives I jotted down during the game.
Positives.
-- Sees the floor and her teammates very well. She may even have predictive court awareness, like Diana Taurasi or Courtney Vandersloot, but I’m not yet sure her eye-brain is that good.
-- Looks to pass before shooting.
-- Excellent in all forms of passing: long ball fast break passes, perimeter reverse passes, bullet passes into the post, shovel passes off a penetrating drive, dime drop passes in traffic. Better than Hartley.
-- Never took a forced or even bad shot, even though her coach was literally bellowing at times: “Shoot, Saniya, Shoot!” “I can’t BELIEVE you didn’t shoot it, Saniya.”
-- Penetrates the paint very smoothly on slick drives, though not as fast or explosively as Hartley or Tiffany Hayes. She has an instantaneous computer in her brain that tells her when a lane is open enough for her drive without charging.
-- Very good pull-up jumper and two-point jump shot.
-- I’m not sure from this one game what the quality of her 3pt shot is, especially under defensive pressure, but she has logged 88 arc balls on the season so she must have something good there.
-- Can finish with her right or left (off) hand easily.
-- Plays aggressive on-ball defense on her man.
Negatives, all of which are fixable by coaching.
-- When she doesn’t have the ball or is not playing on-ball defense, she stands around and watches a lot.
-- She was credited with 5 rebounds but that’s only because the gods dropped the ball into her hands. She does not follow her shot and does not compete for rebounds—very unlike the high school Hartley. She just watches her teammates do that job, even though she is the second or third tallest player on the team.
-- Doesn’t rotate to play help defense on someone who’s not her man.
-- Doesn’t pursue a player who gets by her, again very unlike Hartley.
-- Just gives up when she is screened. Doesn’t try to fight over or through the pick or screen.
-- Doesn’t cut much or move without the ball once she passes it off. She should be in constant motion to receive passes as well as delivering them.
-- She did overpass and force a few, but this was far outweighed by her terrific passing success.
Some of Chong’s “lazy play” may have been due to the weak opponent. Perhaps she didn’t feel the need to exert herself more. This is one of the reasons I need to see her in more games.
The Ossining team is quite good, having some other decent outside shooters and a couple of 6-0 bigs who can finish in the paint. Even a precocious 7th grader. Chong is fortunate to have these good passing targets, which Hartley, on a weaker team, didn’t.
At half time, the official time keeper walked up into the stands to ask me whether I was scout filming (i.e., spying) for CNS. I asked why he would think that. He said he had seen me 10 days earlier talking to Breanna Stewart and her parents, and filming the CNS game, at the Mecca Tournament in the Bronx. I said, of course I’m not a spy; I’m just an ace correspond . . . uh . . . an old guy with a camera and time on my hands. His name was Pat. So, I say, what were you doing at the Mecca Tournament, Pat? He says, spying on and filming CNS for Ossining.
(The world of high school basketball coverage is so much like a James Bond film. And I saw the most beautiful “Bond girl” at the Mecca Tournament. Supermodel figure and looks. Assistant coach Mallorie Winn of Pitt.)
The Magic Bus will be at the Westchester County Center to follow Chong-Ossining through the Sectional playoffs. If they win their Section, they will probably end up facing CNS in the semifinals or finals of the State tournament.
Saniya vs. Breanna. Wow! Saniya has the stronger supporting cast, but Breanna has seven more inches of height and literally a world more of experience.
[I don't see a way to edit the OP in this beta software (publishers please take note), so I will add on additional thoughts about Chong by separate posts, which was my plan anyway.]
Although I am not yet prepared to predict with specificity how good Chong can be on the college level, I can say she is good enough to play for a top 25 program. It also is clear to me that she belongs in a program that historically has featured an offense that can take advantage of her sophisticated passing skills.
There are many candidates, but some programs that come to my mind include Notre Dame, Stanford, Green Bay, Gonzaga, UConn, Marist, Maryland, Duke, DePaul and Vanderbilt.
Its my personal opinion that if UCONN offers a scholarship to Saniya she will take it. UCONN is a pass first team which makes Saniya a perfect fit since that is one of her strength's. Glenn, as you said her negatives are fixable and there is no better teacher then Geno. Saniya is an offensive machine and I truly hope that she signs with UCONN.
Connboy, I deliberately called this "first impressions" because I've been fooled before by one game. And I've been more easily fooled by bad play than good play. In other words, a bad player is very unlikely to make a bunch of great plays in a game, but even a very good player could have a game where she makes a lot of bad plays or do nothing.
I'll update my impressions here as I watch Chong in more games.
SECOND IMPRESSION
I spent March 1 at the NYS Section 1 playoffs getting my second look at Saniya Chong at the Westchester County Center, which seats about 5,000. The arena was more packed than for most college games.
Ossining crushed John Jay in the Section 1 semifinals, 106-66.
Chong had 33 points, 15 assists, 7 rebounds and 6 steals in 26 minutes. Chong's 33 pts were on six 2's, five 3's, and 6-7 FT's.
My overall impression of her has increased since the first game, mainly because I saw a very good 3pt shot in the John Jay game. I still don't have a completely firm impression because of the level of competition, but I’ll continue to use UConn guards as reference points because those players are well known. I'd say that if the H.S. Hartley was a 10, Chong was an 8 after the first game I saw, and is a 9 after the second game. Much of the difference is consistent hustle, intensity and aggression.
Looked at a different way, Chong is a better passer than anyone on UConn except possibly Faris, a better shooter than Banks, a better pull-up shooter than Hayes, a better handler and pusher than Hayes and Doty, and probably an equal shooter to Doty. She is not as good defensively as any of them, except Doty, but that's a mostly a coaching and learning thing.
In total, Ossining had 29 assists on 36 baskets and hit 16 3pters. If you like the style of basketball sometimes arrogantly called "UConn basketball", you're missing the best implementation of that style in the Northeast unless you stop watching boring college games and hie thee to Ossining.
Talking to one of the staff members, Saniya is being recruited by essentially everyone in the Big East and ACC. I'll be putting together a highlights video in a month or so when have at least 3 games filmed and have scheduled an interview with her.
Special note about the 12 year old 7th grader on the Ossining team, Andra Espinoza-Hunter. She hit six 3's in the game and I only remember her missing one. Very precocious shooting guard.
The Section I final game will be on Sunday, March 3, pitting Ossining against Lourdes, which was coached for a long time by Marist College’s Brian Giorgis. The Magic Bus will be there.
Humph, I just looked for at the HoopGurlz 2013 rankings, and Saniya Chong is not in their top 60. This is most definitely wrong, probably because they have never seen her. I have seen most of HG’s top 10 players on USA Basketball and other places. Chong is definitely a top 20 player, probably top 10, and may be the best PG in the class though I haven't seen all the ones on the HG list. Chong is better, in my current opinion, than 2012's Jordan Adams, Jordan Jones and Briana Butler, all of whom are in HG's top 15 for the 2012 class.
Historical note: Ossining was one of 161 schools in NYS that had Indian-related nicknames, all of which were bullied by the State Education Dept in 2001 to change. Apparently, Ossining HS has never agreed on a substitute nickname and currently has none, except for an ambiguous letter "O".
THIRD IMPRESSION
On Sunday March 4, Ossining crushed yet another opponent in their undefeated season, bringing home the coveted Section I Golden Globe with a 79-48 win over former powerhouse Lourdes.
In about 22 minutes of play, Saniya Chong had 31 points (on 6 2's, 4 3's, and 7-8 FT's), 8 assists, 5 rebounds, and 2 steals.
Chong scored her 2000th career point on a four point play, getting fouled on one of her 22' swish jumpers. She passed the 2000 point level in less than three years of play. The packed WCC arena gave a thunderous standing ovation and MSG camera men flooded the floor. (Your ace videographer had his camera accidentally turned off during this historic play.)
In contrast, Bria Hartley, to whom I have been somewhat comparing Chong in my Full Court write-ups, scored a career total of 1978 points in five years, since she began varsity play as an 8th grader. Chong began playing for Ossining as a 9th grader and will only have four varsity years.
Chong should have a shot at ending her career in the NYS top five all time scorers, the rest of whom played five or six years on their high school varsities.
Sources close to the team say Saniya isn't really focusing on recruiting until after the team's mission is complete: to take down Cicero-North Syracuse and Nazareth Academy to win the NYS Federation Title. So far, Chong has only taken one unofficial visit, and that was to local UConn.
In my opinion, the presence of Moriah Jefferson from 2012 at UConn may hinder the recruiting prospects for Chong. Too bad, perhaps, for UConn. It's a little hard for me to believe Jefferson is better than Chong. I've only seen Jefferson in all-make video highlights, which I don't really trust as an information source. Last I checked, Jefferson was averaging about 18 ppg in her Texas home school league. She's supposedly very effective in transition, but the more important question to me is how effective a PG is in early offense and half court offense. Chong is very effective with her 5-9 height, long range jumper, and Vandersloot-like passing sophistication and Diggins-like dish-offs via paint penetrations.
Apparently, the ranking scouts haven't seen Chong because neither her HS team nor club team plays in big events. She and her entire HS team play together during the off season on the Hudson Valley Breeze, which doesn't play in any high visibility shoe tournaments, where the scouts and coaches all are. But that's why their team is so good; they play together all year long. They shoot 3's better than most top 25 college teams. No joke.
Ossining will be playing the Section 9 champion on Friday, March 9 at Pace University.
Tomorrow at 4:30 at Pace University undefeated Ossining will play undefeated Binghampton in the NYS Public School quarter finals.
This is a revenge death match from last year, when Binghampton beat Ossining, 77-65, despite Saniya Chong's 43 points. Her teammates Destini Walker and Jalay Knowles were both 8th graders then, and Chong of course was a soph. There are no seniors on the Ossining team.
If Ossining beats Binghamton tomorrow and Cicero-North Syracuse beats Colonie the following day, Saniya Chong will meet Naismith winner Breanna Stewart in the state Public School League semi-finals.
Meanwhile, in the NY Catholic League, super PG Bianca Cuevas and her powerful Nazareth team are laying in wait -- if they win their league -- for the public school girls. Cuevas vs. Chong would be a battle of two of the best PG's in the country.
Chong is the most wrongly ranked HS player I have ever seen. She's not in HoopGurlz top 60, but has moved up to 25 by Blue Star.
If the prep ranking services are unaware of Ossining and Chong, the national media are getting the message.
The Wall Street Journal has an article this week on Ossining, "The Powerhouse on the Hudson":
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204603004577269833040453516.html?mod=wsj_share_tweet
Sports Illustrated has a "Faces in the Crowd" feature on Saniya Chong:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/scorecard/faces/2012/03/12/index.html
And, of course, MagicBusBasketball has been on top of the story for over a year.
Saniya Drops 39 on Geno
With Geno Auriemma et ux sitting in a remote corner of the Pace University gym, Saniya Chong scored 39 points along with 10 assists and six steals to lead undefeated Ossining to victory today in the NYS Public School quarter finals against previously unbeaten Binghamton, 90-76.
Ossining is the highest scoring high school in the country, and Chong is the fifth highest scorer.
Chong could have scored 50-60 if more of her shots had fallen, which included everything from off-hand circus slashes to 22' jumpers. She got to the FTL numerous times -- I'll have the exact stats tomorrow -- and fouled out two of the Patriot players guarding her.
Ossining's two freshman paint players, Jalay Knowles and Destini Walker, scored 22 and 15 to give Chong great scoring and rebounding support as she drove and dished.
In other NY high school action, defending NYS Federation champion Nazareth beat Christ the King and Moore beat Molloy in the semifinals of the Catholic League. Nazareth will play Moore tomorrow, Saturday March 10, at 7 pm at CTK to determine the NYS Catholic League Champion. The Magic Bus will be there.
As I was watching Saniya Chong for the 4th time yesterday, a player comparison finally came to me. But it won't mean much to anyone unless they were fans of men's basketball 50 years ago.
Lenny Wilkens ... of Boys High, Providence College, and then many years in the NBA.
I remember him in 1960 in MSG -- either the Holiday Festival or NIT -- smoothly slicing through defenders, dishing, and hitting from the outside with a push shot. Not explosive, not a speed demon, not a hot dog. Just a quick, clever and smooth operator, who ended up among the NBA assist leaders when he finally retired.
Wilkens is only person inducted three times into the NHOF. Also the only person to be named to the 50 Greatest Players and 10 Greatest Coaches lists for the NBA's 50th anniversary.
Obviously, I'm not claiming Chong will be that successful, but just that her movement and shot selections remind me of Wilkens. Once she starts to penetrate, if she doesn't dish off, she will not necessarily go all the way to the rim. She may pop up a float shot from about 8 feet out, or angle her course a bit and take a running hook shot either righty or lefty. Or she may go all the way to the rim.
Breanna Stewart Drops 42 on Saniya Chong
Cicero-North Syracuse HS beat Ossining HS in the semifinals of the NYS Public School championship tonight, 79-51. Breanna Stewart had 42 points and 23 rebounds, while Saniya Chong was "held" to 21 points.
C-NS jumped out to a 9-0 lead on the highest scoring team in the country and kept pulling away.
C-NS will play for the championship tomorrow against Penfield HS, and should win easily.
The Magic Bus was asleep in the garage. I had the game marked on my calendar for tomorrow instead of today, and hence missed this classic match-up. The lopsided result surprises me, but CN-S has a defense that has been very underrated and overlooked.
I may go to the final game tomorrow night, as I'd like to get one more game of video highlights of Breanna for the piece on her I will be publishing. There must have been a lot of highlights tonight.