Players to Watch: Midwest Classic Conference

The Midwest is a conference that has a fair bit of talent. Last season’s player of the year [player_tooltip player_id="155415" first="Julia" last="Hirt"] has graduated, and with only one other senior on first-team all-conference, that being the conference’s leading scorer Morgan Allen, this conference may have a look a lot similar to what it did a season ago. Regardless, some players are bound to improve and help their team perform better. These are some of the players who have the ability to be game-changers for their teams this season. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="206729" first="Mya" last="Hartjes"]-5’6 G-’23-University School: </strong>Following a very successful sophomore campaign Hartjes has built a very good reputation within the Midwest Classic. Her ability to make plays on offense and defense make her a handful to deal with for every one of her opponents. Her offensive game is still developing, but she does have moments where she looks the part. For instance, her scoring the last five games of last season was really good. She scored under 20 points only once, where she scored 17, but the issue with those performances is the efficiency not being where it could be all the time. Although with the efficiency issues, the ability to put up a bunch of shots and being able to keep taking them is really hard. <strong>Lucia Jensen-5’11 F-’24-Brookfield Academy: </strong>Jensen’s role in all honesty may have been a little bit too much too soon, but it will probably help her in the long run. Not many freshmen are going to be trusted to take more than 10 shots a game at any school, so she earned that green light through her play in practice, and the trust that her coaches have in her. As she progresses it is likely that she will keep that level of confidence that her coaches have. This means that she will be able to fail and figure who she is as a player, so expect a lot of up and downs in her game, but many players would love the opportunity that Jensen has, so I hope she can take it and run with it. <strong>Molly Jannsen-5’8 G-’22-University School: </strong>Jannsen finds herself in an interesting spot at University School. By playing in the same backcourt as [player_tooltip player_id="206729" first="Mya" last="Hartjes"], she has to play a bit of a balancing act by coexisting with equal talent in the backcourt. She did a great job of bringing a level of consistency to her team a season ago. Her scoring consistently was over 10 a game and being able to be that consistent is really helpful to every team. She also pulled down eight rebounds a game so she’s not afraid to do some dirty work for her team as well. <strong>Brooke Bluhm-’22-Heritage Christian: </strong>Bluhm is a very respected rising senior in the Midwest Classic. Her offense according to her stats is her main calling card. She has lacked a lot of consistency over her time, unfortunately. However, on any given night she is a player capable of scoring 20 or more if teams don’t account for her she can make people’s lives very difficult. If she can catch some level of consistency she could pop, but even if she doesn’t she can help her team win some games that they maybe shouldn’t this season