2022 AAU Player of the Year & All-Star Team

2022 AAU Player of the Year &#038; All-Star Team

Grant McGinnis August 19, 2021 @ 04:24 PM

A summer season is comprised of so much more than a single game of basketball. In the case of , however, her singular performance in the 17U AAU State Championship game was a big one that serves as a microcosm of the excellence she displayed throughout the campaign. The incoming senior from Wayzata scored 29 points in a truly dominant performance to lead her North Tartan EYBL squad to the title. After many more weeks of greatness through the conclusion of her grassroots career, we saw Mara do it all in 2021 which is why she is the Prep Girls Hoops Class of 2022 AAU Player of the Year. Mara was not to be denied on that Sunday afternoon in May as North Tartan prevailed over a star-studded cast from the Minnesota Fury. She was everywhere, scoring in pretty much every way you can score, defending with passion, making one big play after another. North Tartan led by two at halftime but started to gain some breathing room midway through the second period when Braun cashed in on a three-for-three opportunity at the free throw line. She followed that with an end-to-end dash to score, then a pull-up jumper in transition, two more free throws and a drive to the hoop that gave NT a 10-point lead with 6 minutes to go. From there North Tartan played stellar defense to maintain its advantage and did a quality job of killing clock until the buzzer sounded. The final score was 52-44. Mara has had an outstanding career to date, from the bright lights of high school basketball playing on one of the state’s highest-profile teams, to the trenches of AAU where she has gone head-to-head with the blue bloods time and time again and prevailed more often than not. Mara’s tenacity and will to win is unmatched. Her skills are pretty good, too! Braun tops the list now of our 2022 AAU All Stars, a group that includes her North Tartan teammates , , and , along with five members of that Fury UAA squad – , , , and . Also making the first team is of Metro Stars 3SSB who was the 2020 AAU Player of the Year. Her Metro Stars teammate is an honorable mention. A dozen players return to the All-Star Team By the time players reach their final season of AAU, there aren’t a ton of surprises anymore. The top athletes have separated themselves and it takes some mighty fine work to get into the conversation with the big dogs now. That’s why Braun, Battle, Heyer and Holloway – all of whom have committed to play for the University of Minnesota – returned to the First Team again this season. They’re joined by Lockett, who was a second-teamer one year ago. Kiani has verballed to Creighton University in Omaha. In all, 12 of the 20 players selected this year were named to the squad last summer. Among the newcomers of note are of 43 Hoops Elite (Champlin Park), of Minnesota Fury Premier (Holy Angels/Missouri Western), of FBC Real (Como Park) and of Minnesota Stars Bjorgaard (Waconia/MSU-Mankato). Eighteen of the 20 players selected have already made college commitments, including 13 at the Division 1 level. Seven of those are to high-major programs. Those are remarkable numbers. Only Bates, at #79, is ranked outside the Top 50 in the Prep Girls Hoops Class of 2022 prospect rankings. 1st Team