Women’s basketball commitments, decommitments, unofficial and official visits, recruiting updates from news sites and other sources, etc. Items listed in reverse chronological order.
Janelle Allen, 6-1 F, Marian Central Catholic HS (Woodstock, IL): committed to Holy Cross back in October. The Northwest Herald offers some belated coverage of her commitment.
Allen, whose offers included Illinois State, Bradley, Alabama-Birmingham and St. Louis, said the process of choosing a school was difficult. She committed to Holy Cross before the start of the high school season.
“It was definitely rough. It was a struggle, and it was frustrating,” Allen said. “I know I wanted to play at the next level, and I love it out there. The coaches are nice, and everything is beautiful.”
(12/31/2018)
Jayme Horan, 6-0 W, Millard South HS (Omaha, NE): committed to Creighton, so the Bluejays have picked up three 2020 commitments in less than one week.
She only got better last summer on the club circuit, and started picking up offers — Colorado State, Illinois State, Wyoming, North Dakota, Omaha and North Dakota State. Creighton offered in August.
“They’ve always been top on my list, honestly,” said Horan, who also was a first-team Super-State honoree in softball this past fall. “I really love their coaches and I love the school, and being in Omaha still really helps because I was wanting to stay closer to home, so it just felt like a perfect fit for me. I knew I always wanted to go there but I just wanted to sure that there wasn’t anything else and that I was doing the right thing for myself.”
(12/31/2018)
Angel Reese, 6-3 W, St. Frances Academy (Baltimore, MD): Asked about recruiting in a postgame interview, Reese says she won’t be making a decision until next fall and that she currently has a top eight (listed alphabetically): UConn, Maryland, Rutgers, South Carolina, Syracuse, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. Back in August, she had named a top ten; compared to that list, she has now added UConn and dropped Baylor, UCLA, and Louisville. Reese is ranked in the top five in the 2020 class.
(12/29/2018)
Mady Draak, 6-1 C, Bay Port HS (Green Bay, WI): committed to Michigan Tech, a D-II school. She had an offer from Northern Illinois and had visited Yale.
Draak, a 6-foot-1 junior forward, had a Division I offer from Northern Illinois and a DII one from Truman State. She also had visited Yale University, but felt the Connecticut school was a bit too far from home.
“I always loved the school,” Draak said of Michigan Tech. “I’ve visited there twice, so I always loved it. I just thought it was the perfect fit. It was the school that was going to cater to my needs both academically and for basketball.
“It was way more about academics than a division. I didn’t really take Division I or Division II into account in my decision. It didn’t really matter to me.”
(12/27/2018)
Morgan Maly, 6-0 W, Crete HS (NE): committed to Creighton, giving the Bluejays two 2020 commitments in two days.
Maly chose Creighton over scholarship offers from UNO, Texas-Arlington, Denver and South Dakota State.
Colorado State, Gonzaga and South Dakota had also been in regular contact with her but did not offer a scholarship.
(12/27/2018)
Emma Ronsiek, 6-1 W, O’Gorman HS (Sioux Falls, SD): announced her commitment to Creighton yesterday, becoming the first 2020 commit for the Bluejays. Her other finalists were Green Bay and South Dakota.
Along with the Jays, Ronsiek had offers from South Dakota, South Dakota State, North Dakota State, Green Bay, Colorado State, and Denver. She narrowed her list down to CU, Green Bay, and South Dakota before ultimately deciding to head out of state.
“I always knew I didn’t want to stay within an hour of my house,” Ronsiek said. “It’s nice to be able to drive 45 minutes to see your family, but three hours — Omaha to Sioux Falls — is not that bad. It gives me freedom to be further away from my parents, but yet close enough so that when I want to go home I can.”
(12/27/2018)
Lauren Ware, 6-4 C, Bismarck Century HS (ND): Coaches from Iowa and Minnesota were at a recent game watching Ware play. Oregon and Oregon State coaches are expected to attend her next game. She’s ranked in the top 40 in the 2020 class.
Coaches from Oregon and Oregon State are expected to be attendance for Century’s next game, Friday at 6 p.m. against Jamestown. Currently, Oregon is ranked No. 7 in the country with Oregon State ranked 11th.
Ware is up for anything geographically.
“Distance isn’t a problem for me,” she said. “Really, anywhere is a possibility.”
(12/19/2018)
Paris McBride has announced that she’s reclassifying from the 2019 class to 2020. The 5-4 point guard, who has had to sit out the last two years because of injuries, transferred from Highland Springs HS (VA) to Riverdale Baptist HS (MD) prior to the 2018-19 school year.
(12/16/2018)
Kylee Blacksten, 6-3 W, Air Academy (CO): Current list of offers is reportedly Air Force, Colorado, Wyoming, Northern Colorado, and VCU.
Kylee Blacksten scored 20 points to lead Air Academy to a 44-38 win over previously unbeaten Pueblo West on Saturday at the Pueblo County Holiday Tournament. For her efforts, Blacksten, a junior who has offers from Air Force, Colorado, Wyoming, Northern Colorado and VCU, was named most valuable player.
(12/16/2018)
Morgan Maly, 6-0 W, Crete HS (NE): A recruiting update on Maly lists her current offers as Creighton, Denver, Omaha, South Dakota State, and UT Arlington.
In addition to Creighton, Maly also has offers from UNO, Texas-Arlington, Denver and South Dakota State. Nebraska hasn’t offered but is continuing to evaluate her, according to Maly. Colorado State, Gonzaga and South Dakota have also been in regular contact with her but haven’t offered a scholarship yet.
Maly doesn’t have any visits planned but she’ll likely make trips to Colorado State and Denver after the season.
(12/14/2018)
Kylee Watson, 6-4 F, Mainland Regional HS (Linwood, NJ): Watson opened her junior campaign with a 31-point performance that put her over the 1,000-point mark for her high school career. An article covering this mentions that South Carolina, Florida, Oregon, and UCLA have been among the schools recruiting her. She’s currently ranked #30 in the 2020 class by espnW.
“I have to give credit to my whole team, they played so hard and I know in a lot of people’s eyes we’re coming in as an underdog in a lot of these games, so we’re motivated to do well this year, especially after the way our season ended last year,” said Watson, who has been recruited by colleges such as South Carolina, Florida, Oregon and UCLA, among a host of others. “I’m just so happy to be here with my friends and for them to experience this with me. This will be my last year playing with some of the people I’ve played with since about third grade, so it’s amazing. It was awesome. I wasn’t too focused on scoring, just helping my team. If I wasn’t open I would pass it to Claudia (Mairone), Madison (Hafetz) or ‘T’ (Taylor Dalzell), and it just happened that way.”
(12/14/2018)
Jayme Horan, 6-0 W, Millard South HS (Omaha, NE): A recruiting update on Horan indicates she’s looking to stay closer to home and has narrowed her list with that in mind.
Creighton, UNO, Northern Colorado, Colorado State, Illinois State, Eastern Illinois and Wyoming are the schools that have offered scholarships and are still in the running, according to Horan. Nebraska and South Dakota have had more contact recently, though they haven’t offered scholarships yet.
Horan has unofficially visited Creighton a handful of times and was in attendance when the Bluejays hosted Nebraska on Dec. 2.
“I really love the campus and the coaching staff,” she said of Creighton. “It helps that it is close to home.”
(12/13/2018)
Dijone’ Flowers, 5-7 PG, Live Oak HS (Watson, LA): A Livingston Parish News feature on Flowers says she has offers from Nicholls State, Southeastern Louisiana, Southern Miss, UL-Lafayette, Little Rock, and Jacksonville.
“If you haven’t seen her play yet, she’s something worth seeing,” Yawn said. “She handles the ball like nothing I’ve ever seen. She has college-level passing ability, she can shoot the ball well and she can attack the rim. She’s fun to watch. Sometimes girls on the floor are caught watching the ‘D’ show.”
College recruiters are also beginning to watch the ‘D’ show. With two full high school seasons left to play, Flowers said she has already received scholarship offers Nicholls State, Southeastern, Southern Miss, UL-Lafayette, Little Rock and Jacksonville.
(12/13/2018)
Amari Conn, 5-7 G, Lincoln Prep (Kansas City, MO): Local news item reports that Conn has offers from TCU, Oklahoma State, Central Arkansas, and UTRGV, along with interest from UCLA, Houston, and Texas State.
“She already has offers from TCU, Oklahoma State, interest from UCLA, University of Houston, Texas State. I mean, the kid gets better every year,” Atkins said.
She’s also received offers from Division I Central Arkansas and Texas-Rio Grande Valley out of the Western Athletic Conference which is the same conference UMKC plays in. Wherever she decides to play, Amari is certainly blessed to have the opportunity to continue playing the game she loves.
“I’ve been putting in a workload of time on the basketball court for over a decade. And, I just feel like it’s my time to shine,” Conn said.
(12/13/2018)
Taliyah Medina, 6-1 W, Bethlehem Catholic HS (PA): The Allentown (PA) Morning Call reports that Medina is out for the season with a knee injury. The article also lists some of the schools who have maintained their interest in her: West Virginia, Virginia Tech, Michigan, Villanova, Penn State, and Pittsburgh.
“You find out who loves you as opposed to who likes you,” said Taliyah’s father and Bethlehem Catholic coach Jose Medina, on the state of his daughter’s recruitment to college after her injury.
Coach Medina says West Virginia, Virginia Tech, Michigan, Villanova, Penn State and Pittsburgh are among the Division I schools still on Taliyah’s trail as she continues rehabilitation and looks forward to next season.
(12/12/2018)
Categories: recruiting
Leave a Reply