"She was developing the girls. Word got around," Berry said. "I always remember she was just really intense. We'd tease her: 'You ever smile?' We started calling her Sgt. Carter, like, 'Move it! Move it! Move it!' When she does her workouts, I don't see any kids playing around."

The workouts are mostly during the school year, but the Laneys were at the rec center last weekend practicing with the Philly Triple Threat, a 16-and-under AAU team of top talents from Southeastern Pennsylvania, South Jersey, and Delaware. Yolanda is one of the coaches. Betnijah is a forward.

She often plays on the wing, but around the basket she shows quick, powerful moves. She cuts easily without the ball, and with it she has guardlike control. One key part of her game: It's difficult to tell which hand is stronger. She shows a lefty hook - her natural hand, her mother confirms - but continually scores with her right hand down on the block and regularly shoots jumpers with her right hand.

At the rec center, the only time Betnijah looked her age was when her brother tried to get in a photograph. She shot him a perfect 15-year-old older sister look and tried to box him out of the picture.

On the court, it's not just her skills that catch the eye.

"I would say her strength is maybe just that - she's a relentless rebounder. She's not intimidated by contact," said Carol Callan, the USA Basketball women's national team director from the Olympic team on down.

Another obvious Laney asset, Callan said, is her ability to play inside and out.

"For the international game, we like versatility in our players," Callan said.

Yolanda had her daughter and the other girls play against boys in age-group leagues, just as she did when she was young. Coming back to Philadelphia from Delaware also had its purpose: more talented competition and more serious basketball. (Yolanda moved to Delaware after her brother suggested it, to be nearer to him after her mom died, as she worked full time as a single mom.)

Yolanda, a part-time assistant coach at Temple while in law school, was a little old to take advantage of the WNBA, although when the league got up and running, she often scored at will against some of its new stars in summer competitions, said her brother, Terrance Brown.

"I think she was before her time," he said. "She put on a show by herself. A lot of people didn't know how to play her because she had a post game, but she also had a very good jump shot that was really beyond everybody else out there."

Because Mom learned a lot of basketball nuances from coach C. Vivian Stringer at Cheyney, Yolanda said, other schools have assumed Betnijah is headed for Stringer's Rutgers team.

"I learned the craft for teaching as well as coaching from her," Yolanda said. "We've had our fights over the years and when I was a player, but I always loved her."

"At first, UConn wasn't recruiting me," Betnijah said. "They weren't going to because they thought I was going to Rutgers."

To let schools know this isn't a done deal, the Laneys are having Betnijah's godmother field recruiting calls. Except her godmother played for Stringer at Cheyney, too.

Yolanda tells everybody it will be Betnijah's decision and tells Betnijah she'll know when to make that decision. Yolanda had planned to go to Kansas, she said, but dreamed one night about playing at Cheyney and decided to follow her dream, canceling a visit to the Midwest.

This is the first year USA Basketball has a girls' team at this age group, preparing for a new under-17 world championship next summer. The coaches who cut a pool of 38 players to 12 never saw the Betnijah who preferred dance at Miss Lee's studio to hoops at the rec center.

"Once she said she loved basketball, she never backed down," Yolanda said.