With a h/t to Peggy for the reminder: The 2010 Native American Basketball Invitational is on tap July 6-10. Drop in if you're in Phoenix.

The tourney is of particular interest in light of this q/a from Mechelle's chat:

Dale (South Dakota)

Mechelle, do you think the trends of Native Americans playing women's basketball will ever catch on? It seems like the few who have gone on, had success. Jenni Lingor, Nadia Begay, Jaci McCormack, Jenna Plumley, Tahnee Robinson, Angel Goodrich, Mystee Dale, are a few names that come to mind. With the exception of Goodrich, none of the above mentioned were nationally ranked players. With Shoni Schimmel at Louisville, I think more Division I coaches will give more than a glancing look at reservation schools. What do you think?

Mechelle Voepel (2:41 PM)

Honestly, if coaches know there is talent out there, they will usually find it. They miss sometimes, for sure, but I guess what I'm saying is that I don't think coaches are intentionally avoiding players from any certain areas ... there would just be no logic at all to that. A bigger factor may be that when Native American players are successful, they inspires others to work to be at their level. And that is something I do see happening.

The blog's had some posts on the long and interesting history between Native Americans and basketball.