5-star Mackenly Randolph playing ‘with a lot of confidence’
CHATSWORTH, Calif. (BVM) – Mackenly Randolph was not always focused on basketball. Randolph is now a five-star Class of 2024 recruit and a key player for the best high school team in the nation, Sierra Canyon, but that wasn’t always the case.
“I always liked soccer so soccer was my main sport until maybe like the eighth grade and then I got a little too tall for it,” Randolph said.
Her mother was a gymnast and her father is former NBA All-Star and Memphis Grizzlies great Zach Randolph. Neither of them forced her into a sport but knew that she would be great in whatever she decided to do. Mackenly made the switch to basketball and hasn’t looked back.
She’s now considered a top-20 player in the Class of 2024 with offers from Arizona, Louisville, Michigan, Oregon and USC. She helped the Sierra Canyon Trailblazers to a state title last year. This season, the Trailblazers have defended their title well.
“I’m feeling great,” Mackenly said about the season. “We got a lot of good wins this season. Coming off a state championship, we kind of came into this year with a lot of confidence.”
It’s hard not to have confidence when your team is composed of Juju Watkins, the No.1 player in the Class of 2023, Izela Arenas, Christy Reynoso, Crystal Wang as well as Mackenly herself. The Trailblazers have yet to find a team that can beat them this season but that doesn’t mean their opponents aren’t trying.
“Every team is coming out and playing their hardest against us,” Mackenly said.
That’s fine for Mackenly and the rest of Sierra Canyon; they’re up for the challenge. In fact, it’s one of the reasons she loves the sport of basketball. Mackenly loves the back and forth competition of the game, responding to an opponent making a great move with one of her own or getting the crowd involved in the game.
“When you get the crowd and other people involved and the energy in the gym is high,” Mackenly said. “I really like that.”
She gets plenty of opportunities to do just that, especially on the fast break. The 6-foot forward prides herself on her rebounding abilities and on the defensive side of the ball, a rebound can quickly turn into Mackenly leading the fastbreak. On offense, her rebounding skills mean she’s ready to put back any shots from Watkins and Arenas that don’t go in.
Mackenly Randolph lookin like her pops out there with 30 points, 15 rebounds, and 3 blocks!!🔥 pic.twitter.com/Cc3YeGIKyK
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) December 2, 2021
Her rebounding and post presence has definitely benefited from her father’s experiences. Mackenly says they would talk after games, he points out things he noticed and she can pick the brain of a man who was one of the best post players in the NBA during his career.
Along with her post presence is an outside shot and ball-handling skills that make her difficult to guard straight up. She can back you up or create her own shot from the outside, something she has been working hard to improve. It’s a nightmare for defenders but a testament to her dedication to her game.
That dedication has been there for a while and has only intensified. Once she got to eighth grade and began to take basketball more seriously, her game continued to improve. However, it was an invite to play on Kobe Bryant’s Team Mamba with his daughter Gigi that signaled to Mackenly that she was taking her basketball talents to a whole other level.
“When we got the call that Kobe Bryant wanted me to play for his team, then I felt like maybe I could actually be good at basketball or maybe I could be a Division I player,” Mackenly said.
“It was honestly amazing just learning some different stuff and taking it so serious at a young age. Practicing every day at 6 a.m., all that ‘Mamba Mentality’ installed during that time. It was amazing.”
Her time on the team also helped her with the transition of moving from Memphis to Los Angeles The lessons learned from Team Mamba, her teammates, her dad and other coaches along with her drive to be great has allowed Mackenly to thrive. After winning a state championship last year, she got the opportunity to play for Team USA’s 2022 USA Basketball Women’s U17 National Team.
“When I made the USA team I was like, ‘Oh wow I cannot believe this is actually happening,’” Mackenly said. “That was one of my goals since I really knew about the USA team.”
She helped her team win a gold medal at the 2022 FIBA U17 World Cup in Debrecen, Hungary. But now she is back to focusing on bringing home a state title and once she’s done that, the junior forward will start looking at where she will be playing basketball in college.
“I try not to let it affect me too much,” Mackenly said. “I feel like after the season is more when I like to focus on it.”
That hasn’t stopped Watkins from recruiting her to USC but there are plenty of other programs trying to recruit Mackenly. No matter where she decides to go, she will be bringing a level of leadership, talent and dedication to the game that has already brought her a lot of success in her career.
