WBB Recruiting: 2025 wing Lena Girardi out of Florida earns Wisconsin scholarship
She is already one of the best players in the Sunshine State and has been racking up offers left and right this spring.
Let’s keep talking recruiting, baby! Wisconsin offered 2025 wing Lena Girardi (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) last week and it is high time we took a look at her game and how it might fit in Madison.
Fast Facts
Name: Lena Girardi
Height: 6-foot-0
Position: shooting guard/small forward
Hometown: Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
High School: Westminster (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) Academy
Grassroots Team: FGB CW 17u (UAA aka the Under Armour circuit)
Other offers: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Clemson, Columbia, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Harvard, Illinois, Louisville, Miami (Fla.), Michigan, Mississippi State, Northwestern, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Penn, Penn State, Pitt, Princeton, Richmond, St. John’s, USF, Villanova, Wake Forest
High School Stats (2022-23)
Points per game: 23.3
Rebounds per game: 12.8
Assists per game: 1.8
Steals per game: 2.2
Blocks per game: 0.4
Turnovers per game: 3.1
Field goals: 241-of-488 (49.4%)
Three pointers: 25-of-96 (26.0%)
Free throws: 145-of-189 (76.7%)
Recorded a double-double in 21 of the 28 games she played last season.
Honors
2022-2023 Broward County Girls Basketball Player of the Year 4A-2A
2022-2023 Sun-Sentinel 4A-2A All-County First Team
2022-2023 Miami Herald 4A-2A All-County First Team
Ranked as the No. 1 player in Florida for the 2025 class by Prep Girls Hoops
Highlights
AAU highlights part 1
AAU highlights part 2
Scouting Report
You can tell that Girardi, whose father Joe played catcher and later managed for the New York Yankees among other MLB teams, comes from an athletic family by watching how she carries herself on the court. She’s ultra-competitive, appears to be very communicative with her teammates, and has a little bit of the swagger that all good players need.
Girardi has been playing varsity basketball since the seventh grade and scored her 1,000th career point during her freshman season. She helped lead her school to a state title as a sophomore and still has two more years to compile more accolades.
“I’ve had pressure on me my whole life,” said Girardi. “For me, it’s something I have gotten used to. Pressure is a privilege. That just means we are good. I love those high-pressure situations; I feel that’s what you live for.”
Her shooting stats are a bit puzzling to me. On MaxPreps, which has stats for her from the past three seasons, she shot 40% from three as an 8th grader (48 attempts) and a freshman (163 attempts!!!) but that fell precipitously to 26% as a sophomore.
This is puzzling because her two-point FG% has hovered between 53% and 55% while her free throw percentage has improved from 61 to 72 to 77 over those three seasons. This upward trend is happening on increased volume too, which is usually NOT how it works.
Now, could it just have been a prolonged shooting slump? Yeah, that seems to be the most likely answer…but it’ll be extremely interesting to see how she shoots the long ball as a junior because there is a MARKED difference between shooting close to 30% and close to 40% from deep. Especially from a wing player.
Speaking of her jumper…I don’t like how slow her motion is. She starts the ball too low and it takes too long for her to release it. When playing against Big Ten or SEC defenses you can’t waste half seconds in getting your jumper up or else it’ll be blocked. However, her mechanics are good and, overall, you can’t argue with the results.
There is a lot to like about Girardi’s game that has nothing to do with shooting, by the way. She looks active and engaged on defense, she rebounds the ball well, I love how she absorbs and finishes through contact, and her handle is solid. If Girardi grows another inch or two I could see her being a very effective small-ball post player too.
Overall Thoughts
Girardi is one of the best players, any age, in a talent-rich area of the country. There is a reason why she has dozens of Power 6 scholarships already. She also must excel in the classroom because multiple Ivy League schools and Northwestern have offered her as well.
The Badgers have had recent luck recruiting Florida with the addition of 3-star guard D’Yanis Jimenez (Cape Coral, Fla.), but I’d wager pulling Girardi out of the Sunshine State will prove to be more difficult. I like that the Badgers aren’t intimidated by joining these high-level recruitments, but until they start winning one or two I don’t see much reason to get too invested.