College Commitments: Who’s going where among the 2020s?

updated 2/4/20

We’re entering the back stretch of the high school basketball season now. It’s an exciting time for seniors who have one last chance to achieve something special, but for wannabe college basketball players who have yet to make a next-level commitment it can be daunting. Time is clearly running out. For at least 79 Minnesota seniors, however, the decision has been made. The latest player to sign on the dotted line is Emma Kniefel of Medford, the #54-ranked player in the Prep Girls Hoops Class of 2020. Kniefel explored a variety of options, ultimately turning down opportunities to play at a higher level in favor of four years at Division 3 Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter where she’ll join an outstanding program that is loaded with talented athletes.

Kniefel wasn’t the only player to commit this week. #59 Myia Ruzek of Lewiston-Altura, one of the state’s most prolific scorers, will begin her college career at Rochester Community and Technical College. With the addition of Kniefel and Ruzek to the equation, more than half of the players ranked the Prep Girls Hoops Senior 150 have made their choices known. There may be others, but it’s difficult to keep track if players go about their commitment process in quiet mode, which some still do. Here’s what we know about the commits to date.

RECENT COMMITMENTS

Our last update on the class of 2020’s college plans was in mid-November, just prior to the start of the high school season. As is usually the case, the August through October period brought a flurry of announcements. Since that time another dozen or so players have signed on the dotted line. Besides Kniefel and Ruzek, the additions since mid-November include:

• Ka’Tia Cummings of Tartan High School in Oakdale signed with D2 Fisk University in Nashville
• Jenna Anderson, the big post from, Royalton committed to Bemidji State
• Amanda Drake of Lakeville South will join Kniefel at Gustavus
• Sara Kottke of Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart committed to Bethany Lutheran
• Megan Haugo of Moorhead will stay home to play for Concordia-Moorhead
• Liz Frase of Proctor, who is having an excellent senior season, also committed to Concordia-Moorhead
• Tianna Iserman of Roseville will play JUCO ball at John Wood Community College in Quincy, Illinois
• Sam Parendo of Proctor committed to Bemidji State
• Macy Hermanson of Duluth East will cross the bridge to attend UW-Superior
• Paige Servais of Burnsville will also play for the Yellowjackets of UW-Superior
• Miranda Broberg of Milaca has also signed with UW-Superior
• Megan Diggan, who is Servais’ teammate at Burnsville, signed with UW-Eau Claire

I know I am forgetting some players here. Apologies if that’s you or your offspring. One other athlete we should note is guard Tanna Gallo of Minnehaha Academy. Gallo had previously committed to Waldorf in Forest City, Iowa but has now decided to re-open her recruiting.

BY THE NUMBERS

As of Jan. 31, our calculator says there have been 19 Division 1 commitments and 29 more in Division 2. Rounding out the four-year, scholarship-level commitments are seven who will play at NAIA schools. The luminaries who lead the D1 contingent are well known – Paige Bueckers of Hopkins to UCONN, Lauren Jensen of Lakeville North to Iowa and Alyssa Ustby of Rochester Lourdes to North Carolina top the list.

The highest-ranked D2 player is New Prague’s Emily Russo, a power forward who was rated #9 in the state as of the fall update. She has committed to play in her own backyard at MSU-Mankato. Other high-profile athletes who chose to go the D2 route are #24 Lindsey Becher of Mounds View (Concordia-St. Paul), #26 Sydney White of Andover (Sioux Falls), #27 Gus Boyer of Waseca (UM-Duluth) and #29 Taya Hakamaki of Cromwell-Wright (UM-Duluth). We know of one more D2 commit – a terrific play-making point guard – that should be announced in the next couple of days.

The top NAIA commit is #40 Julia Dammann of Sauk Centre, who signed at the University of Jamestown in North Dakota. Rounding out the top three is #46 Grace Cote of Stillwater, who will play at Mayville State (North Dakota), and #70 Haidyn Pitsch of Prior Lake, who will attend Dakota Wesleyan (South Dakota).

Meanwhile eight players have elected to play junior college basketball with the powerhouse North Iowa Area Community College (NIACC) leading the way once again. The Mason City program, which annually snags some of Minnesota’s best, landed #15-ranked Zhane Thompson of Burnsville, along with a pair of Park Center Pirates in #50 Aaliyah Ragulen and #75 Kayla Cox.

The non-scholarship Division 3 commitments are starting to pile up now, too, with 16 of them announced to date. That number comes with an asterisk this year, however, as the future status of the University of St. Thomas is up in the air. The St. Paul school, long-time D3 competitors in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, are attempting to do something that has never been done before – jump directly to Division 1. We’ll leave the details on all of the behind-the-scenes activity taking place to make that happen, but the impact on recruiting is very real.

St. Thomas is currently bound by D3 recruiting rules, which are far less restrictive than D1, but they are talking to all kinds of different players, including several who are slam dunks to play at the highest level. The Tommies have officially landed two players to date, both of whom would not be completely out of place at the D1 level: #31-rated Brynn Schwanz of Eastview and #72 Kate Burns of East Ridge.

WHAT ABOUT THE 2021s?

With all of the aforementioned information on the table we should say that the most prominent signing of all in recent weeks has been in the class of 2021. That would be power forward Jenna Johnson of Wayzata, the #2 junior in the state. She surprised a ton of people by committing to the University of Utah of the PAC 12 Conference. Unfortunately, after playing the finest game of her career earlier in the week against Hopkins, Johnson suffered a torn ACL and meniscus last Friday and her season is now over. That’s a huge blow for Wayzata, not to mention her North Tartan AAU club.

Johnson was the second member of the class of 2021 to announce a Division 1 commitment. The first was Eastview guard Cassidy Carson, a top-10 talent, who said ‘yes’ to South Dakota. Three more players have announced their intent to play D2 ball: Jordyn Hilgemann of Marshall will attend Northern State in South Dakota, Lizzie Berkvam of Lakeville North committed to MSU-Moorhead, and Brigid Boyle of St. Agnes will play at Wayne State in Nebraska.

Top photo: Myia Ruzek of Lewiston-Altura and Minnesota Nice AAU signed at RCTC.