All Things Olivia Olson Recruitment Thread - Videos, Analysis, Tid-Bits, Articles


She will be a game-changer for the Gophers if we can keep her home. With NIL money, we must wonder if it will create a huge imbalance in college basketball. Are players going to opt for colleges that have the promise of huger earnings?

Closeness to family and friends is our hope.
 



The USA U16 team is 2-0 after defeating Chili 117-23 and Mexico 126-43. Olivia Olson is averaging 18.2 minutes, 11 points, 4 steals and 2.5 assists/game.

Recap of the Mexico game with the Olson mentions:

Watkins, who played 16:13, hit 8-of-14 from the field and shot a USA U16 single-game record-tying 5-of-5 from the foul line. A total of six North Americans scored in double digits, including Delaney Thomas (St. John's College H.S./Charles Town, W.Va.), who scored 14 points after hitting 5-of-6 from the field and 4-of-4 from the line; Breya Cunningham (La Jolla Country Day School/Chula Vista, Calif.) and Olivia Olson (Benilde-St. Margaret's/New Hope, Minn.) scored 13 points apiece; KK Arnold (Germantown H.S./Germantown, Wis.) notched 12 points and Kendall Dudley (Sidwell Friends School, D.C./Manassas Park, Va.) chipped in 11 points.
[...]
“Coach wanted us to play hard right from the get-go,” said Olson. “I thought we stepped up, played hard together, and moved the ball really well. It’s hard to come back from a 16-0 deficit and we kept the pressure on them the rest of the game.”
[...]
“We’ve been working on getting steals and rotations on defense when we’re pressing, just communicating better and I thought we did that really well tonight,” added Olson on what her team worked on in the second half.
 




US U16 advances after edging Argentina 115-36.

The USA Women’s U16 National Team (3-0) rode a 23-0 game-opening run to a dominating 115-36 victory over Argentina (1-2) at the 2021 FIBA Americas U16 Championship on Wednesday night in Leon, Mexico. The preliminary round win, which saw six players finish in double-digit scoring, advances the U.S. to the medal round as the No. 1 team from Group B. The team will face Costa Rica (0-3), which finished fourth in Group A, in the Aug. 27 quarterfinals (time TBD).

“It feels great,” said Delaney Thomas (St. John's College H.S./Charles Town, W.Va.), who put up the game’s lone double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds, on the team being 3-0 heading into the medal round. “This team is awesome to play with and it’s a bunch of fun, we’re just out there having fun together.”

For the third time in as many games, JuJu Watkins (Sierra Canyon High School/Los Angeles, Calif.) paced the USA’s scoring effort after notching 17 points. She also added five rebounds, four assists, four steals and three blocked shots.

Maggie Mendelson (Fremont H.S./North Ogden, Utah), who hit 10-of-12 from the charity stripe, finished with 16 points and seven boards; Jada Williams (La Jolla Country Day/San Diego, Calif.) scored her 15 points in the first half and dished out a game-high nine assists; Jadyn Donovan (Sidwell Friends School, D.C./Upper Marlboro, Md.) tallied 14 points and six caroms; and Olivia Olson (Benilde-St. Margaret's/New Hope, Minn.) chipped in 10 points
[...]
Olson netted back-to-back 3s in the first 14 seconds of action and the USA was off and running. After three minutes had expired, all five starters were on the board and the lead was 14-0. In all, seven players put up points in the 23-0 run. By that point, Argentina had missed all six of its shot attempts, while the USA was 8-of-14 (.571).
 


Costa Rica breaks double digits in a 121-12 loss to team USA. Olson scored 11 and grabbed 7 rebounds.

The USA Women’s U16 National Team (4-0), the FIBA No. 1-ranked youth program in the world, ran away with a 121-12 quarterfinal victory over No. 39-ranked Costa Rica (0-4) at the 2021 FIBA Americas U16 Championship on Friday morning in Leon, Mexico. The win not only advanced the U.S. squad to the medal semifinals, but it also earned USA Basketball a berth to the 2022 FIBA U17 World Cup as the top four finishing teams, all four quarterfinal winners, qualify for next summer’s competition.
[...]
JuJu Watkins (Sierra Canyon High School/Los Angeles, Calif.) scored 17 points, grabbed eight boards, dished out seven assists and had five steals; Jadyn Donovan (Sidwell Friends School, D.C./Upper Marlboro, Md.) hit 7-of-8 from the field and notched a double-double with 16 points, a game-high 10 rebounds and four steals; Grace Slaughter (Grain Valley H.S./Grain Valley, Mo.) contributed 14 points; Breya Cunningham (La Jolla Country Day School/Chula Vista, Calif.) scored 12 points; and Olivia Olson (Benilde-St. Margaret's/New Hope, Minn.) chipped in 11 points and seven rebounds. Jada Williams (La Jolla Country Day/San Diego, Calif.), who scored nine points, tied Watkins with a game-high seven assists.
 


USA defeated Mexico 121-30 clearing the way for a championship showdown with Canada

Behind another well-rounded team effort that saw all 12 players score, including six in double digits, the USA Women’s U16 National Team (5-0), raced past Mexico (2-3) 121-30 in semifinal action at the 2021 FIBA Americas U16 Championship on Saturday night in Leon, Mexico. The USA will face also undefeated Canada (5-0) in Sunday’s gold medal game at 9:30 p.m. (all times listed are EDT), which will be streamed live at YouTube.com/FIBA.

Earlier in the evening, Canada defeated Argentina (2-3) 74-47 to secure its spot in the championship game. Argentina and Mexico will play for bronze at 6:30 p.m.
[...]
Breya Cunningham (La Jolla Country Day School/Chula Vista, Calif.) led the USA with 18 points on 8-of-10 from the field, nabbed a game-high tying seven rebounds and had three blocked shots. JuJu Watkins (Sierra Canyon High School/Los Angeles, Calif.) scored 16 points, hauled in seven caroms, dished out six assists and had three steals; Jada Williams (La Jolla Country Day/San Diego, Calif.) scored 15 points; Olivia Olson (Benilde-St. Margaret's/New Hope, Minn.) contributed 13 points; Grace Slaughter (Grain Valley H.S./Grain Valley, Mo.) added 12 points and Delaney Thomas (St. John's College H.S./Charles Town, W.Va.) chipped in 10 points and six boards. Jadyn Donovan (Sidwell Friends School, D.C./Upper Marlboro, Md.), who scored eight points, dished out a game-best seven of the USA’s U16 single-game record 33 assists.
 





It was get the ball to JuJu Watkins night as USA dismissed Canada 118-45. Olson played 17:45 with 5 points and 4 rebounds.

Behind a USA U16 women’s record 28 points from tournament MVP JuJu Watkins (Sierra Canyon High School/Los Angeles, Calif.), the USA Women’s U16 National Team (6-0) knocked off previously unbeaten Canada (5-1) 118-45 in the 2021 FIBA Americas U16 Championship gold medal game on Sunday night in Leon, Mexico.

“Everybody has been levelheaded and confident,” said Watkins after winning gold. “We were confident in all the work we put in and all the hard hours and long nights in the gym. We just came in confident, poised and ready to take on Canada. Everyone here sacrificed a lot to be here, and we really had a lot of fun with it. Wearing those three letters across your chest means a lot more than just playing for the name on the back.”

Watkins, who scored 17 points in the first half, netted all six of her free throw attempts and nabbed six steals against Canada, averaged a tournament-best 20.0 points per game over the six games. Joining Watkins on the FIBA U16 Championship All-Star Five were the USA’s Jada Williams (La Jolla Country Day/San Diego, Calif.), who scored 10 points and dished out eight assists in the gold medal game, as well as Mexico’s Loriette Maciel, Brazil’s Taissa Nascimento Quieroz and Canada’s Cassandre Prosper.
 

 

Good to see that she is still playing soccer. It seems multi-sport athletes are becoming rarer & rarer.
 


Q: Has the tournament had any impact on your recruiting since you got back?

A: I would say it has picked up quite a bit. A lot of coaches have called Nick Storm from the Fury. I had kind of shut it down while I was there because I didn’t want to get distracted. I’m just getting caught up with coaches now and talking to some new ones who were there.

Q: I know you have been out visiting schools over the past week or so. Where all have you been?

A: I went on a road trip to Michigan, Michigan State and Notre Dame.

Q: What other schools have you visited in person?

A: I have been to Minnesota, Iowa, Iowa State and Nebraska.

Q: So how many offers do you have now?

A: I think it’s around 35
 





Not trying to start a fight here with this comment - but you would think more than one of the six would be masked up. Still too many breakthrough cases going on out there. And, the cases in schools are on the rise, as well.
 


Article from Benilde's student paper:

After winning the gold medal, Olivia returned home and resumed her regular high school experience. She missed sleeping in her own bed and spending time with her family; she also missed practices on BSM’s girls’ soccer team. Since her return, Olson has started in the last four out of five soccer games and made essential saves as the team’s goalie. “Basketball was way more fun, but I didn’t want to get burnt out and still love soccer, so high school soccer is perfect for me,” Olson said.

In the future, Olson plans on playing Division 1 basketball. She has already caught the attention of coaches and visited schools such as Notre Dame, University of Michigan, University of Iowa, and others. The head basketball coach of Maryland even came to watch Olson in a soccer game she didn’t start in, an effort to gain Olson’s attention. “I don’t know what school I want to go to yet. I still have a lot to figure out, but it is nice to know I have options,” Olson said.
 



Olivia Olson, a 6-foot-1 sophomore forward from St. Louis Park (MN) Benidle St. Margaret’s, is ranked as the number three player in the Class of 2024 by ESPN.
 





The second line of schools that do not show in the image above are:

UConn, Vanderbilt, Stanford, Minnesota and Tennessee
 




I wonder how coaches ages play into this. Tara and Geno will both be 70 by 2024. Is UConn still UConn without Geno? Will he be there for four years after 2024? Same for Stanford. Heck, maybe it doesn't matter these days. You can change schools at anytime.

Interesting to see a resurgent Nebraska on the list. Gophers not even being NCAA eligible recently seems a killer when looking at the other schools on the list. Gophers need a BIG bounce back year in 2022.
 

Courtesy mention....
First of all, wrong.

Are the Gophers the favorite? No. If they had no chance, they wouldn't be on there. After classes of 2020/2021, the coaches made it clear to recruits they would rather know now if they are off the list. An example being Nnaji not having them on her top 13 that came out. They let the kids know they want the truth. It doesn't help them to be on there as a courtesy. All ten have things she likes and all ten have something she isn't thrilled with. the 2022s as a group and Klick are good pulls for the program. If they are lucky enough to get Tessa, they could be in business.
 





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