Recruiting update: 68 Minnesotans have said ‘yes’ so far

Grant McGinnis October 2, 2021 @ 05:42 PM

On Friday afternoon realized the same dream that so many girls basketball players in Minnesota are chasing: she made her college commitment. The senior forward, who will play this season for Maranatha Christian Academy after transferring from Hopkins, committed to Briar Cliff University in Sioux City, Iowa where she will suit up next fall for the Chargers. In doing so London became the 62nd member of the Prep Girls Hoops Class of 2022 to announce her college commitment and the 68th player overall to have figured out her next-level plans.

[player_tooltip player_id="109203" first="Lily" last="Niebuhr"], Chaska

Since we last updated Minnesota’s college commitments list six weeks ago another 18 or so athletes have announced their college commitments, including five at the D1 level – four juniors and one senior:

Maren Westin Maren Westin 5'8" | CG Becker | 2023 State MN – 2023 guard, Becker (Green Bay) #5
Molly Lenz Molly Lenz 5'8" | CG Eden Prairie | 2023 State MN – 2023 guard, Eden Prairie (Illinois State) #7
Ella Johnson Ella Johnson 6'2" | SF Elk River | 2023 State MN – 2023 forward, Elk River (Montana State) #15
Sophi Hall Sophi Hall 6'1" | CG Holy Family | 2023 State MN – 2023 wing, Holy Family (Providence) #16
Lily Niebuhr Lily Niebuhr 6'3" | PF Chaska | 2022 State MN – 2022 center, Chaska (Indiana State) #95

Niebuhr’s verbal brings the total number of D1 commits in the Class of 2022 to 20. Not surprisingly, given the one extra year awarded to current collegiate players by the NCAA, that number is well behind the Class of 2021. Some 32 of this year’s seniors committed at the D1 level with a couple more likely to end up there via the junior college route. Will there be more D1 commits among the 2022s? Maybe. But it’s looking less and less likely. Division 2 Over the past few weeks two more players committed to play D2 ball: Guard of Eden Prairie, the 32nd-ranked player in the class, will play both soccer and basketball at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, and guard of Holy Family, ranked 47th, is headed to Colorado Christian. The highest-rated D2 commit so far is #15 of Mankato-East, who also signed with Duluth. Her East teammate , at #24, is the second-highest ranked D2 commit. She’ll stay home to play at Minnesota State-Mankato. NAIA & Junior College

[player_tooltip player_id="30186" first="Cloey" last="Dmytruk"], Como Park

In addition to Salberg-Thornton, Briar Cliff coach Brita Hand also landed point guard of Champlin Park, who was rated 79th in the class when the rankings were last updated in June. There were two other NAIA commits as of St. Paul Como Park (#65) and of Orono (#157) both committed to Waldorf University in Forest City, Iowa. Meanwhile, Hopkins guard verballed to Chocise College in Sierra Vista, Arizona. Contreras is the #21-rated prospect in the class, but after tearing her ACL in the late summer she will have to sit out her senior season. She’ll begin her comeback in JUCO. The other recent junior college commit is 2022 guard of St. Cloud Apollo who will play at North Iowa Area Community College in Mason City. Division 3

[player_tooltip player_id="147458" first="Kyla" last="Overskei"] of Maple Grove

As the D1 and D2 opportunities begin to dwindle we can expect a steady stream of Division 3 and junior college commitments in the coming weeks. Since we last updated in August, there have been six new D3 commits:

Kyla Overskei Kyla Overskei 5'11" | SG Maple Grove | 2022 State MN – 2022 guard, Maple Grove (UW-Eau Claire) #71
Sophie Stork Sophie Stork 5'9" | CG NRHEG | 2022 State MN – 2022 guard, New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva (Hamline) #74
Kirsten Dennis Kirsten Dennis 5'5" | PG New Ulm | 2022 State MN – 2022 guard, New Ulm (Bethany Lutheran) #153
Kyla Nygaard Kyla Nygaard 5'9" | SG Maple Grove | 2022 State MN – 2022 guard, Maple Grove (Concordia-Moorhead) #155
Kylie Johnson – 2022 guard, Brainerd (North Iowa Area CC)

BEST AVAILABLE 2022s

[player_tooltip player_id="12736" first="Sydney" last="Runsewe"] of DeLaSalle

At least a dozen scholarship-worthy prospects remain available in the Class of 2022. Our top six, who would be a great addition to any program, look like this: