HANOVER, Mass. — The first major grassroots girls showcase of the season is in the books, and we have a lot to unpack.
Starland Sportsplex hosted the New England Spring Showdown this past weekend. Though not a live period event, the showcase provided a rare chance to see most of the region's top AAU programs go head-to-head under one roof. I roamed the facility from about 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. each day and was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of basketball and big names on display.
The 2026 class has the spotlight for its final travel season. Given we're only in mid-April, and players are still learning how to work with each other on new teams, we shouldn't overreact to one two-day stretch. But several 2026 stars caught my eye immediately.
With this being my first AAU tournament of the spring, I'd like to lay out my viewing approach for transparency. I typically try to watch full games as often as possible unless it's a real blowout. Yes, this means I sacrifice quantity of teams and players, but it allows me to more fairly and completely understand the talent I'm evaluating. For this showcase in particular, I wanted to see the top New England circuit squads in competitive action because many won't play locally again this year. And I'm not going to pretend I saw every highlight performance. For example, iBelieve Elite's top squad went 3-1 — unfortunately, I happened to only catch their one loss.
Below is a list of results from full games I watched, followed by my ten 2026 standouts, listed alphabetically by team.
