Tati Griffin's Return to OT Select Showcases the Growth Behind The Nation's No. 1 Player

Before every game, Tati Griffin's stomach turns over. It always has.

A Long-Awaited Return

After waiting a year to return to OT Select — the showcase featuring many of the nation's top girls’ basketball players ages 15-18 — Griffin finally got her chance. And no amount of Pepto Bismol was going to help calm that feeling.

"I get butterflies in my stomach before I play," Griffin said. "So now that I got the first game in the books, I feel like all the butterflies went out of my stomach."

Once the opening tip arrived, those butterflies disappeared.

Griffin, the nation's No. 1-ranked player in the Class of 2028, missed last year's OT Select season after suffering a right knee injury. But she was not away from basketball altogether. She returned during the high school season to average 21.3 points, 7.9 rebounds and 3.2 assists while leading Ontario Christian to a national-championship.

Leading By Example

This past weekend, at Overtime Arena in Atlanta, she returned not as a player easing back into competition, but as captain of Flau State, OT Select's newest team, founded by the Seattle Storm’s first-round pick Flau'jae Johnson.

The temptation, after a year away, would have been to attempt to make up for all of it at once — to call her own number and force plays to prove through volume that she was back. Griffin did the opposite. A 21-points-a-game scorer and the leading edge of a national champion, yet on the opening night of OT Select the most noticeable thing was how little she forced.

"I don't like to force anything," she said. "I like to play at my pace."

Learning When To Take Over

That patience is not the same as passivity. It's the part of her game a box score can’t fully capture. Griffin is fully capable of dominating the ball, but on a roster stocked with players used to being their home team's first option, she chose instead to figure out where she could most impact the game.

"Sometimes when talent plays with talent, everybody's ball-dominant," she said. "Everybody wants to score. But I feel like we do a great job of sharing the ball and just uplifting one another."

For a brand-new team, the opener was as much about building chemistry as winning. Griffin picked her moments, found open teammates and led more through decision-making than scoring. Griffin had 8 points, 4 assists and 3 rebounds.

Flau State won its opening game against the No. 4 overall in the class of 2027, GG Banks and YGE 87-73.

"We're just getting comfortable with each other, getting to know each other," she said, "and we're just playing team ball."

It is one thing to say it. It is another to mean it when you are the captain, the top-ranked player on the floor, and the one everyone assumes should have the ball in her hands at the end. Griffin's version of leadership, on this night, ran through her decisions more than her volume. She knew when to find a shooter, when to facilitate, and when the moment actually called for her to score.

"If it's not my day, then it's not my day. I'm okay with it. I can go scoreless. It doesn't matter," she said. "I like to impact the game in many different ways, not just scoring. Rebounding, assisting, facilitating, getting my teammates involved. I'm cool with not having the ball in my hands."

The Next Step In Griffin's Evolution

Griffin still left Atlanta with areas she wants to improve. She came out of the game with a clear read on what still needs sharpening, including the timing of when to defer and when to take over.

"I feel like I can rebound the ball better, and it's times and moments of when I need to score and when I need to facilitate," she said. "So just using my IQ more."

There is a version of that last instinct this opening weekend Griffin will walk away from this opening weekend. The team dropped its second game to Cold Hearts, who wanted to run, forcing the pace and catching Flau State on its heels. Flau State played its second game from behind and never closed the gap, falling 87-71 and into the bubble game for a rematch with YGE.

The rules of the bubble game were simple. First to 15. Period.

Flau State fell behind early, then clawed back to tie it 14-14 when Marietta High School’s Leah Dewitt buried a three. On the next possession, Flau State forced a stop and came away with the ball and the chance to win.

Griffin brought it up the court. Doing what she had done all tournament, reading the floor and finding an open teammate under the basket. The look was there. The finish wasn't; the shot missed, and so did two free throws that followed. YGE pushed the ball back the other way, drew a foul and won 15-14 by converting the second of two free throws.

Griffin made the correct basketball play, finding an open teammate under the basket. The shot simply didn't fall. However, it points at the one place her return remains unfinished. A player with Griffin's ability draws a defense toward her the moment she decides to attack, and that pressure is often what springs a shooter free.

The instinct to give it up is the sign of a unselfish gifted player with a mind for the game. Someone willing to make the right play to put her team in position to win. But, knowing the exact moment to keep it is the part she named herself: when to score, when to facilitate, using her IQ more.

This weekend showcased Griffin's willingness to defer. The next step in her evolution will be recognizing the moments when she shouldn't.

Add us as a preferred source on Google