Breakdown Fall League: The City takes us back to the future

Breakdown USA’s Fall League has become a fixture on the local girls basketball season as high school teams prepare for their season, even if that season is going to start a month later than usual. But it’s not just high school teams that compete in fall league, particularly at the younger ages. A couple of weeks ago we told you about MGWM, a conglomerate of top prospects from Maple Grove, Wayzata and Minnetonka including the Hanna triplets and [player_tooltip player_id="205298" first="Jordan" last="Ode"] from Maple Grove, along with North Branch 8th grader [player_tooltip player_id="205299" first="Ella" last="Kuhlman"]. This week we’ll introduce you to The City, an AAU-based team featuring primarily 8th graders from within the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Although many teams elected to take the weekend off for MEA, there were plenty of squads competing across the region from East Ridge and Park-Cottage Grove in the East to St. Michael-Albertville and Maple Grove in the West and multiple points in between. We were at Bloomington Kennedy for a mix of varsity, junior varsity and 8th/9th grade action. That’s where we saw The City. A trio of talented prospects We have seen The City compete at AAU events this summer, usually playing up a grade or two, so it’s not unexpected to see them having success against high school players. It’s an impressive group with some next-level talent and a ton of potential. The unit is well-coached, they play with discipline and they move the ball. These kids have a solid understanding of the game and appear to work very well together. Make no mistake, The City can play run-and-gun basketball with the best of them but this group offers so much more than that. Of course it helps to have some elite athletes, and there were three who really stood out for us. Point guard Alaya Carter is long and athletic, has excellent quickness and lateral movement, and can get up and down the floor at a high rate of speed. Her acceleration is next-level. We loved Carter’s court vision and sense of timing. This is a point guard who understands pacing, and knows how to put the ball in the right place at the right time. She has excellent handles, a quality shooting motion and plenty of range. She’s also super smooth. Power forward Jordyn Cooke is big and strong and athletic. She has broad shoulders and sizeable frame, both of which hint at a possible growth spurt in her future. Cooke is far from polished, but her innate ability to take up space, pull down the rebound, and move the ball to a teammate is impressive. Jordyn also has length on her side. Still a work in progress, Cooke has a long way to go to fulfill her potential but she’s got plenty of time and some terrific raw material to work with. That brings us to [player_tooltip player_id="215457" first="London" last="Harris"]. Write down the name and remember the game because London is going to be a big-time player. The latest in a long line of quality prospects to emerge from Coach Mo’s Hospitality House youth program in North Minneapolis, Harris has Division I written all over her. Her first step is wowza. Her strides are crazy long. Her elevation is top-shelf. The 5’8 guard/wing has a solid frame and is strong for her age. She has range to three-point territory, handles the basketball well and got to the rim up and over pretty much every defender who stepped in her way. Two monster strides from the top of the key and the opponent was done and dusted. We have been hearing Harris’ name for some time, but this was the first occasion we’ve had to take an extended look. Let’s just say it was 90 minutes well spent. It appears London’s development is in good hands. We’re told she is training with Chauncee Hollingsworth, who did a ton of work with the [player_tooltip player_id="1915" first="Paige" last="Bueckers"]. What we don’t know for sure is where she’ll play high school ball. Minnesota’s open enrollment law presents unique opportunities for high school athletes. Apparently Harris attends a parochial school that feeds directly to DeLaSalle which would make her eligible to play for the Islanders now. When asked for their high school plans Cook and Carter mentioned the three primary options top kids from the city usually consider: Hopkins, DeLaSalle and Minnehaha Academy. Regardless of where they end up, it’s a good bet they will have success in varsity basketball in the not-too-distant future. 4 MORE PLAYERS WHO STOOD OUT In addition to the one-off units like MGWM and The City, and the usual suburban and exurban power programs, Breakdown Fall League is dotted with small-town teams preparing for their season against bigger competition. It’s great to see schools like Tri-City United of Montgomery involved, along with Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial that we profiled a couple of weeks ago. Hayfield is on the docket, too, along with [player_tooltip player_id="148342" first="Juliana" last="Ewald"]’s squad from Pillager along with Cass Lake-Bena, which features standout junior point guard Taryn Frazer. We watched eight hours of basketball on Sunday at Kennedy. Here are a couple more notable performers we saw. [player_tooltip player_id="178272" first="Mikayla" last="Thomas"] – The 6-foot forward from Spring Lake Park is a strong candidate for inclusion in the top 10 of the 2024 prospect rankings which will be released in the next week or so. Thomas played some varsity as an 8th grader last winter for the Panthers but now she’s ready for primetime. Mikayla is one of the longer players in the state. Now that she appears to have adapted to her body, Thomas is playing with more natural flow. Her extensive bag of tools is causing fits for defenders in fall league. Coach Randy Eatherton graduated multiple key pieces last spring clearing a path for Thomas to join standouts [player_tooltip player_id="130031" first="Macy" last="Smith"] (Cal State-Northridge), [player_tooltip player_id="109829" first="Madi" last="Ngene"], [player_tooltip player_id="186137" first="Kylie" last="Diaz"] and [player_tooltip player_id="57934" first="Averi" last="Dunbar"]. Lilly Hahs – The 5’9 freshman from Cretin-Derham Hall has done a ton of great stuff over the past couple of weeks when we have been watching. At last weekend’s AAU event she made her Metro Stars Barnes debut and was everywhere. Lilly is a great athlete with a big, strong body, quick feet, nice elevation and the willingness to take and make contact. She’ll need some reining in, but Coach Crystal Flint will be more than happy to do the work. When Lilly starts to see the floor better she is going to be a force. At CDH, she’ll join seniors [player_tooltip player_id="109760" first="Takara" last="Mason"] and [player_tooltip player_id="109781" first="Audrey" last="Martinez-Stewart"] along with a pair of quality junior transfers in Rayven Robinson of Park Center and [player_tooltip player_id="147448" first="Anisah" last="Wolf"] of Benilde-St. Margaret’s. [player_tooltip player_id="109826" first="Lexi" last="Hagen"] – The 5’11 junior forward from Jordan has quality skills, can handle the basketball and is a very good outside shooter. Lexi knows how to score and she was doing plenty of that on Sunday, aggressively attacking the basket with high frequency. I think this may be the best we have seen Hagen play. On defense she was forcing ball-handlers into trouble and feasting on the resulting turnovers. We loved her energy level. A bit of a late bloomer, the Top 150 senior will be heavily relied upon this year by coach Leah Aamlid following the graduation of five seniors, including Makenna Johnson, Amelia Ehrp, Madi Kes, Molly Kes and Julia Mahto. Pauline MacCarthy – The 6-foot power forward from Robbinsdale Cooper definitely caught our eye. I do need to note, however, that we only saw half of a half of Cooper’s second game on Sunday so it’s not much of a sample size. Still, it’s hard to miss Pauline because the sophomore has a big frame and a big body and is constructed very much like you want your 4s and 5s to be built. She is a quality rebounder, moves well and has good instincts. I watched some Hudl video, as well, and I loved the simplicity of what she was doing. To be successful in the post you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. If Pauline can develop a simple menu of go-to moves in the paint she’s going to go a long way in this game. We will keep watching. Top photo: 8th graders Jordan Cook (left), [player_tooltip player_id="215457" first="London" last="Harris"] (middle) and Alaya Carter (right) were excellent Sunday at Breakdown Fall League.