2021 Recruiting

It is. Since this is class of 2021 thread, who on Hopkins is class of 2021 gophers should go after?

last I checked they have offered two class of 2022 and class of 2023 on Hopkins but wouldn’t make since to bring them up on this thread would It?
Hard to believe but Hopkins has no prospects in the 2021 class above D3
 

Gophers got a commit! 5'11 Maggie Czinano committed to the Gophers today. Class of 2021. Long guard with a nice shot. Younger sister to Monica at Iowa. Good get for them!
She is a player, you guy's and gals are really going to like Maggie's game.
 


Too bad their coach doesn’t want them at the U.

He probably thinks/knows it's in his players' best interests that they play for teams with actual good coaches instead of having their talents wasted at schools with proven lousy head coaches like the U.
 



Given our current inside play I think Hart has to be THE priority in this class. I know we have some 6 foot plus players coming in next year (Woodard, Hedman, Sissoko, Strande) but of those only Hedman is listed as a post player. I'm not expecting much from the current roster centers and forwards for different reasons so I think getting some talent in the post is vital.
 

Passing on Adalia McKenzie is one of the worst things the gophers could do. McKenzie is BY FAR, the best guard in the class of 2021 in the state.
What makes you think they're going to pass on McKenzie? They've already offered her and one of the coaches is at every game she plays if allowed by NCAA recruiting rules.
 

Given our current inside play I think Hart has to be THE priority in this class. I know we have some 6 foot plus players coming in next year (Woodard, Hedman, Sissoko, Strande) but of those only Hedman is listed as a post player. I'm not expecting much from the current roster centers and forwards for different reasons so I think getting some talent in the post is vital.
Why aren’t you expecting much from Cummings? I know she has been hurt this year, and had injury issues in High School.
 

What makes you think they're going to pass on McKenzie? They've already offered her and one of the coaches is at every game she plays if allowed by NCAA recruiting rules.

once again, I meant it more as a response to the "they should go after only kids out of the metro" comment. not saying they are passing on her. I was saying suggesting to not go after metro kids would be dumb on their part.

Given our current inside play I think Hart has to be THE priority in this class. I know we have some 6 foot plus players coming in next year (Woodard, Hedman, Sissoko, Strande) but of those only Hedman is listed as a post player. I'm not expecting much from the current roster centers and forwards for different reasons so I think getting some talent in the post is vital.

Woodard is 6'3 Forward/Center, Hedman is 6'3 forward, Sissoko 6'2 forward, Cummings is 6'3 center and Sconier is 6'2 center. They will have height.
 




Given our current inside play I think Hart has to be THE priority in this class. I know we have some 6 foot plus players coming in next year (Woodard, Hedman, Sissoko, Strande) but of those only Hedman is listed as a post player. I'm not expecting much from the current roster centers and forwards for different reasons so I think getting some talent in the post is vital.

Skoniers has shown some potential with her freshman minutes. Hopefully she can stay healthy.
 

Sophie #43 on ESPN and Kneepkens #65 on prospects nation. Where is Borowicz top 100?
Borowicz isn't ranked nationally in any publication that I've seen. She is now #4 in the Prep Girls Hoops Minnesota rankings behind McKenzie, Jenna Johnson and Sophie Hart.
 





Why aren’t you expecting much from Cummings? I know she has been hurt this year, and had injury issues in High School.
Yeah, I just don't think it's reasonable to expect someone who has only played one full year of HS ball in the last four years to step in and make a big difference.

As to the other players, yes, Sconiers could become a decent player but I don't think you can count on her making big leap next year, particularly since she apparently has some knee issues. Tomacova does not look like a player to me. Sissoko is a wing player, not a post. You can find video of her playing in Europe and see she is a slasher.

As to the incoming players, I like the look of Hedman and she's rated in the top 100 but she will be a freshman. Woodard is a wild card. The ESPN review coming out of high school lists her as'6'1" and a perimeter player while her JUCO lists her as 6'3" and a forward. Couldn't find and significant video of her.

Bottom line is that in a lot of games this year we got overpowered inside. Bello is a fine player but she can get muscled and she's gone. I really would like to see some defenders who won't get backed down on D and can be a physical force on offence to create more inside out action. That would really take some of the pressure of the guards if the are able to get looks from 3 on kick-outs, rather than relying so heavily on drive and dish and on ball picks.
 


Passing on Adalia McKenzie is one of the worst things the gophers could do. McKenzie is BY FAR, the best guard in the class of 2021 in the state.
They've offered so it wouldn't be the Gophers passing on her but the other way around if she goes somewhere else.
 



A bit more on Borowicz from the Grand Forks Herald.

"When I went on a visit two weeks ago, I told my mom and dad that's where I wanted to go." Borowicz told Dom Izzo on Hot Mic on 970 WDAY Tuesday morning. "They had come to watch me play, when they watched me play a high school game, they must be seriously interested and I was super excited for that."
...
Borowicz's junior season just wrapped for the Roseau Rams as they fell in the Section 8AA semifinals to Fergus Falls. She finished the season averaging over 31 points per game, she was named a AA all-state selection. The 5'6 guard crossed the 1,000 point threshold during her sophomore year of high school
...
When asked what the Gophers liked about her; Katie answered: "The Gophers said they did not have great team chemistry, they love me as a team leader, I try to be a team player, I'm there to win, and most of the time I'm getting other people involved."

There is a Minnesota small school connection on the Gophers staff. Former Fosston standout Kelly Roysland is one of her Lindsay Whalen's top assistants.
 


What were her final school choices? I don’t want to dig for it.
 




I think she was interested in Belmont and SDSU.
She had multiple mid-major offers but SDSU was after her the hardest. Had she waited through the July viewing period there would have been many more and other high majors were showing interest, as well. This was the offer she had been hoping for all along.
 


Coley is sitting on 20 offers right now... Another 60 High Interest Schools waiting for spring evaluation period...

Will be trimming list to Top Ten after May Evaluation Period, if we have one...

Mostly from exposure on the National AAU circuit...

Coley’s MN Regional Rankings:
MN Prep Girls Hoops #5
Jr. All-Star MN #2

MN WBB 2021 Recruits on the 3 Top National Ranking Listings that determine the NCAA’s Top Recruiting Classes:
updated 5/6/2020

ASGR National 75 2021 Rankings
#25 Jersey Wolfenbarger (Arkansas)
#33 Ari Wiggins
#35 Kendall Coley (Nebraska)
#43 Sophie Hart
#54 Adalia McKenzie

#75 Sydney Affolter (Iowa)
NR Meg Newman (Arizona State)

ESPN HOOPGURLZ Super 60 2021’s
#18 Jersey Wolfenbarger (was #19) (Arkansas)
#30 Ari Wiggins (was #29)
#40 Sophie Hart (was #43)
#41 Meg Newman (was #46) (Arizona State)
NR Kendall Coley (Nebraska)
NR Adalia McKenzie

NR Sydney Affolter (comitted to Iowa)

ProspectsNation.com Top 2021’s
#12 Ari Wiggins
#22 Jersey Wolfenbarger (Arkansas)
#32 Kendall Coley (Nebraska)
#39 Sophie Hart
#44 Sydney Affolter (comitted to Iowa)
#48 Meg Newman (Arizona State)
NR Adalia McKenzie
 
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After watching this video (and a couple other nice games that it led me to on YouTube), I'd say that Adalia McKenzie was a whole lot more relaxed, and whole lot more "in the flow of the game" (if that conveys the essence of what I'm wanting to say), and in general played a whole lot better in this game, than in the State Tournament game in which they were eliminated. Her points scored show it too.

I think that's rather intriguing. For one thing, in this game in which she played much better, she was going againt what I would label the best defensive guard in the state of Minnesota (if not the whole country), Paige Bueckers. If you watch the video, you'll probably agree that Paige did as good a job as possible defending Adalia, a great job, actually - yet Adalia had such speed that she got a gajillion points anyway. I have to rewatch to count how many fast-break layups she got (plus a few Hail Mary like passes that set up her team-mates for the fast-break score).

In contrast to that, in their MN State Tournament defeat, they doubled her up (with two rather mundane defenders) essentially 100% of the time. She still got 20-some points, but they basically frustrated her a lot, and prevented her from doing what she is used to doing. It could be that a double-team is the only defensive solution against Adalia. I mean, if Paige can only slow her down a bit, I guess it takes two defenders to do the job. She will be a real asset to whoever is lucky enough to get her (Minnesota, hopefully) since if defenses double her up, that leaves somebody open.

Of course, whaddya gonna say about Bueckers, anyway. Geno has gone on record saying that she's better than Diana Taurasi at that comparable age. I'll go him one better than that. I'll claim that she's better than Diana Taurasi is, right now at this moment in time. Or if you want to argue that Diana is recovering from injury, well OK, then let's say Bueckers is about as good now (heading into UConn as Taurasi was before her injury.

I honestly have never ever seen any basketball player recently, that has the X-Ray court vision that Paige has. You have to go back to players like Kobe or Michael Jordan or Magic Johnson to match her court vision, I think. Her off-the-dibble passes remind me of Whalen in her prime. Her senior year, she's obviously focusing on assisting (since she's mastered shooting, she can do that any time). One other game I watched, Paige had 15 assists. That's more than the average number of assists by the entire Gopher team this year! Anyway, I'd earlier seen videos of her playing in prior high-school years, and at that time I couldn't possibly imagine how she could improve anymore than that. Well, she has. UConn game are gonna sell out, and UConn will be back in the winners circle again soon.
 






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