AAU Week 1: 10 fresh faces we liked (part 1)

Fresh faces. We thrive on them. A big part of our mission at Prep Girls Hoops is to uncover hidden talent, introduce them to a wider audience, and let coaches know that these kids are prospects worth paying attention to. Sometimes these discoveries make it all the way to the top. More often they are potential Division 3 athletes who just need the opportunity to be seen. Our AAU Week 1 odyssey – a 10-day stretch that commenced on June 1 – concluded on Thursday with four Minnesota Rise training sessions in Mankato. We saw a lot of terrific prospects throughout the past 10 days, including the fresh faces we’re introducing here. All are unranked. Three are players we have introduced in a low-key way over the past year. Our colleague Nate Wahl has written about <strong>Erin Knisley</strong> of New London-Spicer and is a big fan of her game. I have written this year about <strong>Lauren Johnson</strong> of Belle Plaine and <strong>Ruthanna Doely</strong> of St. Croix Prep but they are still relative unknowns and have yet to make an impact in AAU basketball. All 10 are names to keep in mind in the months ahead. Today we bring you the first five players in this group with part 2 to follow in 24 hours. Here goes. <strong>Annika Millar – 2021 forward, Heritage Christian</strong> Millar is a classic late bloomer. The 6’2 post has been toiling behind the great [player_tooltip player_id="56233" first="Jordyn" last="Allen"] at Heritage Christian for years. With Allen now headed for Bethel University, the stage belongs to Millar. Even in a supporting role Annika averaged over 8 points and 9 rebounds per game last season while shooting over 40% from the field. She put up those numbers mostly due to innate athleticism and hard work, but had weak footwork and little technical knowledge of how to out-maneuver opponents down low. Over the past few weeks she has been doing one-on-one training with Bill Hinck of the Minnesota Heat and to say Millar’s transformation has been remarkable would not do justice to her improvement. Annika has absorbed a ton of basic yet vital information for successful post play and learned to consistently knock down shots from the outside. If she can grow her confidence, and carry this new-found knowledge to game situations, Millar is going to have a big senior season. <strong>Aubree Kranz – 2021 guard, MN Rise 2021 (Immanuel Lutheran)</strong> There are over 425 schools in Minnesota who participated in girls high school basketball this year. I personally watched more than 170 of them play live, and even schools with enrollments under 100 such as Christian Life Academy and Christ’s Household of Faith occasionally draw our attention. Until this week, however, I had never even heard of tiny Immanuel Lutheran in Mankato and I certainly had no familiarity with junior Aubree Kranz. The 5’9 guard will join Dan Wolfe’s strong 2021 Minnesota Rise squad this year. She is a gym rat with plenty of length, a ton of athleticism and almost no basketball instruction to this point. Her skill development is behind the curve for sure but she is improving fast and had zero difficulty grasping everything being taught on Thursday. We’ll follow up on her this summer but trust me when I tell you that Kranz will play college basketball. <strong>Erin Knisley – 2021 forward, Stars 2021 DeSart (New London-Spicer)</strong> Erin is a 6’2 power forward who averaged 12 points per game (with a high of 28) on a state tournament team. In his preview of the Class AA field Nate Wahl described Erin as “a strong body who plugs up a ton of space down low.” That would be accurate, and Knisley been doing exactly that for some time at New London-Spicer. She has appeared only briefly on the Minnesota AAU circuit, however, participating in some tournaments with the Southwest Slam. Now she is about to make her debut on a much bigger stage. Knisley is joining a strong Minnesota Stars 2021 DeSart team where she will combine with fellow bigs [player_tooltip player_id="109782" first="Nicole" last="Post"] and <strong>Masyn Holland</strong> of Coon Rapids to give Jim DeSart's squad a formidable presence up front. Erin could be another late bloomer who will excel at the next level. <strong>Jenna Kluxdal – 2023 forward, North Tartan 23 Elite (Jordan)</strong> Jenna got her feet wet in varsity basketball this season at Jordan where the freshman averaged nearly 6 ppg and earned her way into the rotation through hard work. Jenna, who stands about 6 feet tall, has a big body and can be a commanding presence down low. Her skill development has a ways to go but the potential to become a scholarship-level player is definitely there. She will be learning from a great teacher this summer at North Tartan 2023 Elite. Head coach Maddie Wolkow has assigned her former Lakeville South high school teammate Katie Quandt to work closely with Kluxdal. Quandt, in case you have forgotten, was a big post who had a nice D1 career, graduating in 2018 from Boston College. <strong>Lauren Johnson – 2021 guard, Minnesota Stars Zabel (Belle Plaine)</strong> Lauren is a 1,000-point scorer at Belle Plaine so it’s not as if she is a complete unknown. This summer marks her AAU debut, however, as the 5’8 guard joins Bri Zabel’s 2021 Minnesota Stars team. Johnson plays a relatively simple game. She can get to the rim as well as shoot lights out from distance. Lauren averaged 16 points per game this winter on a team that won 22 games. Twice she topped the 30-point mark while posting season shooting stats of 46% from the field and 50% from three. Like we said, this girl can shoot the basketball. Johnson has a bigger body and is a tough match-up for defenders because she can beat you inside or out with power or finesse. She’ll be a difference maker for the Stars.