North Tartans Meltdown had big things to offer on Sunday

Located in West Central Minnesota, the town of Henning has 799 residents, six churches, and a quality K-12 school. One of its largest employers is the Earl B. Olson Feed Mill and Turkey Hatchery, and the town’s website says it has “big things to offer.” We saw one of those big things on Sunday at the North Tartan Meltdown. Her name is Ellie Dague. One of the coolest things about AAU basketball is the way it brings together the very best talent from near and far, introducing us to kids like Dague, a 5-9 combo guard with an outstanding skill set, a big powerful frame, and the kind of on-court confidence that’s really hard to teach. Dague plays summer ball for the 2021 North Tartan Kuppe squad, a fine collection of players that is one of three very good 8th grade teams in the Tartan stable. Dague’s skills are quite refined for an incoming freshman, and she never seems to get rattled under pressure. Although she can get to the hoop with ease (and knows what to do with the basketball when she gets there), Dague is a truly unselfish player who likes to drive and dish as much as anything. She also has a nice pull-up jumper and knows how to create the space to use it. What impressed me the most about Dague is the combination of great ball-handling ability with pure strength. In high school, particularly in small Class A programs like Henning, you just don’t find many big guards who can handle it as well as this kid can. As a result, she deflects pressure with ease, and defenders simply can’t get the ball away from her. Chances are, Dague has still got some growing to do – a scary thought for the rest of the Park Region Conference that has to defend her for the next four years. In reality, Dague has been her team’s go-to player since the 7th grade, but in a section that includes Ada-Borup and Wheaton-Herman-Norcross, it won’t be easy to get to Williams Arena to perform on the big stage. That’s why AAU ball is so important, of course. Dague’s abilities may be old news in Henning – I’m guessing they have been talking about her up at the Kountry Korner Kafe on Douglas Avenue for some time now – but now the rest of us are in on it, too. That would include the dozens of college basketball coaches on hand Sunday for the Meltdown, many of whom went home impressed by the big thing from Henning. A cupboard full of Kuppe North Tartan Kuppe has a number of names worth remembering, a few of whom are likely to end up in Northstar’s first official ranking of the class of 2021 coming up in the weeks ahead. I was impressed once again on Sunday by 6-foot power forward Helen Staley of Rosemount. Staley is a strong, physical presence inside who can bang with the best of them. She is a powerful rebounder who is relentless in pursuit of another board. She is also mobile enough to defend anywhere on the floor, and the lefty has a really sweet shot from inside or out. Other bigs in the class of 2021 tell me that Staley may be the toughest kid to play against in the paint in this age group. Point guard Gianna Kneepkens of Duluth Marshall is a highly skilled, pass-first floor leader. At 5’6” and not super strong, Kneepkens relies on her speed and smarts to get the job done. She is one of the reasons Marshall has undergone a stunning turnaround, from a program that had not won a single conference game in 11 years and then went 22-6. Piper Terry of Minnetonka plays the 2 and 3 spots equally well. Terry has a nice all-around game, although she’s not really a scorer. Her biggest asset is her defense. Simply put, Terry is an angry junkyard dog, and chances are she is going to be up in your grill, breathing down your neck, and hounding you into an untimely turnover or a hurried shot. She’s hyper-aggressive on the perimeter and forces a ton of turnovers as a result. Every team needs a Piper Terry on the roster. Ellie Hasz of Pine City is a good-sized wing with refined skills and a high basketball IQ, not surprising considering she is a coach’s kid. She won’t dazzle you on the floor but Hasz plays good minutes for Jake Kuppe’s squad and is only going to get better. Sophie Haydon is the dark horse of the bunch. At probably 6’2” or so, she’s still growing into her big body and is far from a polished product, but chances are she’s going to figure it out soon enough. Haydon is yet another quality big from Minnetonka (where do they grow all these trees out there?) and a year from now she could be making some serious noise. These Suns were shining at the Top Tier Showcase There are 192 teams competing in the North Tartan Meltdown from across the country, including most of the best local AAU squads. The courts at Hopkins H.S. and Bloomington Jefferson were lined with recruiters from just about every major women’s college basketball program you can name. But they weren’t all at the Meltdown. Over at Bloomington Kennedy, the Top Tier Showcase is going on. That’s where you’ll find many more of the best AAU teams, including the Minnesota Stars and Minnesota Suns squads. At mid-afternoon Sunday, college coaches were lining those courts, too. I caught a little bit of Minnesota Suns Jefferson against the Wisconsin Playmakers and a pair of players who have been making some noise over the past month or so for Dre Jefferson’s Suns team. Lindsey Olson of St. Louis Park, currently rated 169th in the class of 2019 and rising, is a versatile perimeter scorer. At nearly 6 feet tall, she is able to get her shot off easily. She can also attack the basket and finish with either hand. With her length, Olson can be a disruptive force on defense but is still working on making that happen consistently. Dre says Olson has drawn interest from a number of quality Division I and II programs and is putting in countless hours in the gym to get to the next level. Shayla Miller is a 2020 prospect, also from St. Louis Park. Currently ranked 53rd, Miller is a bit of a Swiss Army knife. The 5’11” forward/wing is really good at a lot of things but not particularly outstanding at any one thing. Kind of a wild card at this point, she has a very high IQ and a gigantic motor, but she needs to get stronger and refine her skill set. With three more years of high school ball and a strong work ethic, Miller is a quality prospect worth watching and Coach Jefferson says she may be a good fit for the Ivy League.