Indiana Top 250 Notes: 2020 & 2021
This Fall, we at Prep Girls Hoops are hosting our inaugural Top-250 Expos in Minnesota, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa. This past Sunday it was Indiana’s turn to be in the spotlight, as close to 120 college prospects from Indiana, Kentucky,…
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Continue ReadingThis Fall, we at Prep Girls Hoops are hosting our inaugural Top-250 Expos in Minnesota, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa. This past Sunday it was Indiana’s turn to be in the spotlight, as close to 120 college prospects from Indiana, Kentucky, and Michigan took the floor at the Noblesville Boys & Girls Club, with several small colleges in attendance to evaluate them. This week you will see articles from Mason Asher, Blake Isaacs, and myself, and since I am the Senior Writer in Indiana and write about many of these girls on a fairly regular basis, I wanted to let Mason & Blake write about the more common prospects, while I turn my attention to several girls I was less-familiar with entering the event. There may be a little overlap, but between the three of us, we wanted to make sure we covered as many participants as possible. Below is a look at ten members of the classes of 2020 & 2021 who I wanted to comment on.
Nyla Asad, 2020, 5-4 PG, LaPorte H.S.
I haven’t seen LaPorte the past couple of seasons, and Nyla didn’t play major travel ball for anyone, so this was my first time seeing her in person, and she has a very intriguing game. She is a little water-bug style of point guard with very good speed & quickness, and she has the ability to get into gaps in the defense and collapse it. She is quite the playmaker off the bounce, but she also showed the ability to hit shots from the perimeter, though a little better shot selection could definitely be in her future. When she was open and in rhythm, though, she was pretty consistent outside. She got after it defensively as well, and she was a pest on the ball. I think she could have a nice season alongside 2021 wing Ryin Ott.
Eryn Turner, 2020, 5-7 G, Indianapolis Shortridge H.S.
Eryn was originally a Broad Ripple student, but when the school closed its doors at the end of the 2017-2018 school year, she had to find a new home. Eryn is a really nice talent who has gone somewhat under-recruited so far. She is extremely long, thin, but she can be “track” fast and explosive at times. She darts around the floor, changes directions easily, and she is just a playmaker. I don’t know that she’ll ever be a genuine point guard, but she is certainly a creator of offense who can and will find open teammates. Her jump-shot continues to improve, adding another threat to her arsenal, and she is a versatile and effective defensive player who can really cause problems for opposing ball-handlers.
Genevieve Decker, 2021, 5-9 F, Anchor Bay H.S. (MI)
With Genevieve being from Michigan, I was unfamiliar with her game prior to this event, but she made the long trip and was one of the better players in attendance. She is extremely long, somewhat thin, but she played much stronger than she looks and seemed to enjoy physicality. She plays with a great motor, she has some bounce to her, plus she has really good North/South speed and changes ends quickly. She showed the ability to play around the perimeter, attack the basket off the bounce, and play in the mid-post effectively, and I think the combination of her skill, height & length, versatility, and ability should draw her a great deal of widespread attention over this next calendar year. I’ll be interested to follow her recruiting from a distance.
Brooklynn Edwards, 2021, 4-11 PG, Carmel H.S.
Hopefully the fact that several smaller 2020 point guards are garnering a great deal of college interest/offers will only help Brooklyn get recruited over this next year, because she can really play. She might be small, but she is very quick/fast, she has some length for her height, and she’s always active & feisty. You have got to love little guards who play with a chip on their shoulder, and that’s exactly what she does. She has a nice handle, she changes directions well and can create offense, plus she can knock down open perimeter jumpers consistently. If there is any area for her to improve, I’d say she could stand to learn to change speeds a little better and not always play at 100 mph. She is entertaining/enjoyable to watch, though.
Anya Friend, 2021, 5-9 F, Bloomington H.S. South
Anya is actually a kid I have seen on several occasions, but what I saw Sunday was much different than any other time I have viewed her. She has shot it consistently in the past, but Sunday she looked more like a wing hunting jump-shots, and she flat out filled it up at times. She is a well-built, physical, almost post-like prospect, and in the past I had seen her play a lot on the interior for her grassroots teams. At this event, I was excited to see how comfortable and skilled she was around the perimeter, as she also handled it reasonably well outside. The next step for her is to find good balance between her power game (interior scoring/rebounding) and her perimeter skillet. She is a really nice small college inside-out forward prospect.
Emma Hoover, 2021, 5-9 W, Northfield H.S.
Northfield had a very deep and experienced team a season ago, so Emma and teammate Kearston Stout (below) probably didn’t get the starring roles they might have in other situations, despite their noticeable skill and talent. Emma is a wiry strong athlete with good length and a nice basketball frame. She showed off a solid handle, pushed the ball in transition, and even created some for others in the half-court. She has solid shooting mechanics, but she looked most comfortable shooting it in the mid-post. I do think she’ll be able to stretch her range to the perimeter consistently with more reps. I also liked her motor, physicality, and willingness to do whatever it took to help her team. She is a really nice, versatile wing.
Brooklynn Jones, 2021, 5-6 G, Loogootee H.S.
It’s tough to get out during the Winter and see every team in the state, so I haven’t been able to check out Loogootee at all. I have seen and been impressed with Brooklynn’s backcourt mate, Kalea Fleming (2021), but after seeing Brooklynn play, I now understand why they are one of the best teams in Class 1A, having won 40 games over the past two seasons. Brooklynn is an athletically strong kid with a great basketball frame. She is a nice athlete in most directions, and she plays with a good motor. She can handle the ball, manage a team, and create offense, or she can play off the ball, knock down open shots, and get to the rim and finish through contact. She’s also a versatile defender with some toughness, but overall she’s just a solid basketball player/prospect.
Jenna Louden, 2021, 5-3 G, Bedford North Lawrence H.S.
It has been some time since I’ve seen Jenna play, so it was good to catch up with her again. She is a shorter guard, but she is strong, gritty, quick (more quick than fast), and she plays with a high basketball IQ. From what I recall, she was always a very good perimeter shooter, but now she’s handling it much better and running offense much more efficiently. At her size, if she can continue to prove to be more of a traditional point guard who can shoot instead of just a shooting threat around the perimeter, I think she’ll see her share of small college interest this next year, because there is always a premium on kids who can shoot the basketball consistently.
Evy Murphy, 2021, 5-11 F/C, Fort Wayne Carroll H.S.
This was my first time seeing Evy, and she has sort of an “old school”, or even Euro, type of low-post game. She is a solidly built, strong, but deceptively long interior player. She does a nice job of establishing position inside, she holds her seal fairly well, and once she catches it around the paint, she shows solid footwork and a variety of ball-fakes, shot-fakes, and moves to get defenders off-balance so she can get an easy shot at the rim. She also played with a very good motor and was highly productive in the portions of the two games I was able to see. I think she will end up being a “fit” type of kid who goes somewhere she reminds the head coach of a player they’ve had in the past.
Kearston Stout, 2021, 5-9 W, Northfield H.S.
Kearston is another nice talent for the Norse, though she’s slightly different stylistically than teammate Emma Hoover (above). Kearston is an extremely long, somewhat slender, but very fast North/South athlete who plays with an incredibly active motor. She was the first player I noticed in my first game at the event, because her pace was just different than most of the other girls. She slices by defenders to attack the basket from the perimeter, she chases down rebounds, and she hustles for back-tips and deflections constantly. Most of the jumpers I saw her take were in the mid-range game, and they looked solid, but I would like to see what she can do shooting it around the perimeter. I think she will be a much more impactful player for NHS this Winter.