A highlights reel of about four and a half minutes was all it took to cast eyes from several of the big US schools.

Southern Utah University in the final view was the one that could not look away.

"I was just really surprised how it went," Anis said.

"I just put some film of me playing games and I basically got an immediate response from that pretty much.

"There was a few different ones that contacted me."

But rather than being the best of a short career carved out playing for the Launceston Tornadoes, it was just clip after clip of Anis leading Tasmania at this year's under-18 nationals in Canberra.

It is almost apt that the basketball scholarship to the tiny Cedar City - less than a third in size from Launceston - will be where Anis hopes to possibly study journalism as a minor and lean towards a biology pathway as a major.

ELSEWHERE IN SPORT

But there's no real pretense that knowing her clever ways around video production is the reason she will uplift life for four years from late 2021.

"Ever since I started playing basketball, it's kind of been a pathway I have been looking at for ages," Anis said.

Under the spotlight, the attentive Launceston Church Grammar student is under no illusions what to expect.

Southern Utah Thunderbirds play division I against the most elite of rivals UCLA, Notre Dame, Stanford, North Carolina to name the teams that American hopefuls pin their hopes and dreams on.

Every game will be bigger than anything the Tornadoes could prepare the natural point guard towards a real ambition for over a decade.

"It definitely is going to be tough physically when you get over there to play. They're really preparing your body, nutrition wise and in the gym," Anis said.

"You're basically with the team 24/7. So I need to hone down on my agility or that kind of stuff, get a little bit faster and really get good at specific things rather than being just a really good broad basketballer.

"It will be a lot of a mental game as well, so I also have to prepare myself for that."

Anis was hoping a fourth NBL1 season back at Elphin Sports Centre would be not only a breakthrough year, but a turning point under coach Sarah Veale before the coronavirus pandemic ruined it

The 18-year-old will take what she has learned so far playing against harder bodies than her college opponents.

"It's a really good experience for me going to college playing at NBL1 level, especially against the players who have gone through the college pathways already and the imports," she said.

"They're basically already developed, so you're playing against professional women, which is a big step from going into college.

"I know it's a real advantage because not many players in America would have that opportunity."

So would have the family housing for a number of years with former Torns skipper Lauren Mansfield through her teenage life.

It was the first taste of what top-level basketball was for Anis, who will go one more time around for the Torns next year to "get more games under my belt".

"Being around all those older girls has matured me and I think it has really prepared me for going to college as well," she said.

"Them being around me has already put that college ball in my mind."

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