Heartland Kickoff – All-Defensive Team

Layne is a long active defender that is more than capable guarding wings and bigs. He moves well for his size, especially laterally which allowed him to hold his own on the perimeter. His length affected both shots and passes as he got his hand on multiple passes causing deflections. Layne’s defensive versatility is what I loved most about him.

Norvell is a very good all around player that plays much older than his age. What I was impressed most about him was he let hid defense fuel his offense. He was a lock down defender all weekend, anticipating passes, getting in passing lanes and also applying lock down pressure on the ball. His defense led to a lot of fast break baskets for Team Flyght. He also has good strength which allowed him to be one of the best rebounding guards of the weekend.

Willis is an extremely high motor playing combo guard that is aggressive on both ends of the floor. He was one of the best on ball defenders all weekend utilizing his big time lateral quickness and quick hands to make it extremely difficult for opposing guards to bring the ball up the floor. He is a player you love having on your team but hate playing against with how much pressure and disruption he causes on the defensive end. He made everything hard for opposing defenses.

Turner is a small combo guard with extreme quickness. He used his size to get up under defenders and apply full court pressure. He also has quick hands which allowed him to get multiple steals. He did most of his damage defensively on the ball which made it hard for guards to get their team into offense. He was relentless defensively during the entire event.

Clark is another versatile defender with good size and length. Did a good job defending both on ball and off. Has great instincts anticipating passes. He also showcased a lot of defensive discipline being in the correct spot off ball being in good defensive help. When he wanted to turn up the defensive pressure, he did and it affected the game in a positive way. He has the potential to be an elite defender if he continues to apply constant pressure.