Brihanna Crittendon’s basketball genesis wasn’t glamorous.
In her very first game in first grade, she scored on the wrong basket. She was an athletic little girl, and already tall for her age, but she was far from a wunderkind.
That started to change the next year, when as still one of the worst players on her team, she came home from practice one day and proclaimed to her dad, Greg, that “I’m ready to be great.”
So Greg commissioned Bri’s grandfather to remove the in-ground trampoline the family had in the backyard, pour a concrete slab, and install a court. The rest is Colorado hoops history, with the sophomore’s latest feat leading Riverdale Ridge to a Class 4A championship with a dominant season that earned her the title of Ms. Colorado Basketball.
“There were lots of summer nights spent on the court,” Greg Crittendon said. “She’s still out there all the time. And it really came in handy for the state tournament at the Denver Coliseum, because it’s a glass backboard with no backdrop. Shooting there was just like shooting in the backyard.”
She averaged 25.6 points over five tournament games, including dropping a double-double with 22 points and 19 rebounds in the Ravens’ 50-43 win over defending champion Holy Family in the title game. Crittendon finished the season averaging 28.9 points, topping Colorado’s biggest three classifications. She is on pace to break the CHSAA career scoring mark of 2,934 points.
“When games got tight, she turned it on,” Riverdale Ridge coach Tim Jones said. “Her level of maturity and awareness of the situation was second to none. Every time it seemed like teams would go on a run, she would just shut it down on both ends.”
That trajectory wouldn’t have been possible without Crittendon’s commitment that began in elementary school.
A year after getting her backyard court, Crittendon joined a boys team in third grade. She still wasn’t a star, but she was starting to show signs of becoming one, so much so that the boys team didn’t want her back in fourth grade.
So that year, her family went all-in: They joined a club basketball team coached by ex-Rockies player Terry Schumpert, and also started having her work with a local trainer named Jody Hollins. Both commitments required the Crittendons to commute to Denver’s south suburbs four days a week, about a two-hour round trip, for practice with Colorado Lockdown and training sessions in the barn where Hollins trains.
That barn is the same spot where current WNBA players Michaela Onyenwere, Kylee Shook and Ashten Prechtel once trained.
“There’s no heater in there, so you can see your breath when it gets cold. There’s no air conditioning, so it can over 100 degrees. You’ve got spiders crawling across the floor,” Hollins said.
“It’s not a perfect environment, but my reference is it’s like a great (but tattered) boxing gym where champion boxers come out of. … The players who train in there, they get a different edge, like Bri has.”
By the time Crittendon was in eighth grade, she already had her first offer, from Texas A&M. That Division I offer list has since grown to over 35 schools, from CU and the majority of the Pac-12 to national powers such as South Carolina and Iowa.
The Buffs are putting the full-court press on Crittendon in an effort to keep her home. CU head coach JR Payne and her staff have been a fixture at Riverdale Ridge and Lockdown games and practices. Payne even tweeted about the Ravens winning the state title.
“It’s really meaningful that (the Buffs) support me and my high school team,” said Crittendon, who attended five CU games this year. “They’ve come out to a lot of my games this season. To see that support in-state, and them on the sidelines at my practices, is pretty awesome.”
Before colleges came calling, high school programs attempted to dissuade her from attending Riverdale Ridge. Now an established star there, prep schools are also trying to lure her away from the Thornton neighborhood she’s been raised in.
The answer to both inquiries? No.
“We had schools from 50 miles north of us asking for us to come, to Denver (suburb) schools, to down to Colorado Springs,” Greg Crittendon said. “We had coaches tell us she wouldn’t get seen going to a school like Riverdale. I told them, ‘We’ll try our luck with that one.’
“Because the thing is, Brihanna’s always been one who wants to make her team good — she doesn’t just want to join a good team.”
Even with all of Crittendon’s success over her first two seasons at Riverdale Ridge, there’s still improvement to be made. Most notably, Crittendon can take another step forward in her ball handling and perimeter shooting, while continuing to fill out her 6-foot-3 frame.
“I want to keep becoming a better version of myself,” Crittendon said. “I want to show people the unexpected. And I don’t want teams to be able to scout me.”
A two-tier jump from Class 4A to 6A awaits Crittendon & Co. next winter — a leap that will undoubtedly make Riverdale Ridge’s tournament prospects much tougher. Non-conference tests against Legend, Cherry Creek and Grandview — which will pit Crittendon against UCLA commit and two-time Gatorade Player of the Year Sienna Betts — are already on the calendar.
Before that move, Crittendon is also focused on checking off a few more boxes this summer. She wants to help Lockdown win a national club championship on the Power 24 circuit, and also hopes to make the Team USA U17 team in May.
“Me not making (Team USA) last year really motivated me,” Crittendon said. “I just have to keep my head down and keep working. I’m feel very confident.”
Amid all that attention, those closest to the phenom say Crittendon remains unchanged off the court.
“She’s nothing but humble, sweet, and the hype has never gotten to her,” explained club teammate and friend Kyla Hollier, an All-Colorado forward for Roosevelt. “Bri is still just Bri. With that level mindset, her potential is beyond — she can do anything she wants. Whatever she puts her mind to in this game, she’ll do it.”
