Breakdown Breakouts: 5 prospects on the rise

The Breakdown Tip Off Classic is the biggest girls basketball event of the season prior to the state high school tournament in March. It draws a ton of eyeballs, from interested spectators to Division 1 college coaches and, of course, us ever-present evaluators. The Tip Off offers up-and-coming prospects a real opportunity to show how much they’ve improved. This past weekend at Hopkins, these 5 players in particular had a breakout at the Breakdown. <img class="alignnone wp-image-338494 size-thumbnail" src="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/pgh/uploads/2021/10/97-Mackenzie-Berg-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150" /> [player_tooltip player_id="302276" first="Mackenzie" last="Berg"]<strong> – 2023 guard, St. Michael-Albertville</strong> Some people use the term ‘role player’ in a negative context, as in “she’s just a role player.” That’s totally misguided, because without players who are willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done, the job won’t get done. Through the first six games of STMA’s season Berg has played her role to near perfection. Right now her job is to fill in here and there while star attractions [player_tooltip player_id="108299" first="Tessa" last="Johnson"] and [player_tooltip player_id="109124" first="Emma" last="Miller"] catch their breath. Except Kenzie has played so well in that role that coach Kent Hamre has been leaving her on the floor for longer and longer stretches. Why not! Berg is reliable, she rarely makes a mistake, is a quality defender and brings a ton of oomph to the proceedings every single time. Kenzie is never going to be a big scorer, but the Top 150 junior is a key reason why the Knights are 5-1 so far. <img class="alignnone wp-image-209086 size-thumbnail" src="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/pgh/uploads/2020/10/95_Ava-Cossette1-scaled-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150" /> [player_tooltip player_id="215944" first="Ava" last="Cossette"] <strong>– 2024 guard, Maple Grove</strong> Patience is a virtue, especially if you wear the uniform of high school basketball team playing at the highest level with a really deep roster. While many of her summer teammates have already become varsity stars – [player_tooltip player_id="177728" first="Olivia" last="Olson"], [player_tooltip player_id="215970" first="Morgan" last="Miller"] and [player_tooltip player_id="178277" first="Jordan" last="Zubich"], for example – Ava has had to wait her turn. Well the waiting is over and Ava is making the most of her opportunity. The lengthy combo guard, currently ranked #12 in the sophomore class, is a great distributor, a terrific outside shooter, a passionate defender, and a highly skilled practitioner of the game in all of its aspects. Ava is playing with so much fire right now! Her feet are quick, her desire is palpable, and she’s only going to get better. [player_tooltip player_id="346165" first="Hadley" last="Thul"] <strong>– 2025 guard, Alexandria</strong> You won’t find 6’1 guards who are long, mobile, athletic and versatile hanging around on every street corner. When one comes along, we pay attention.  Watch the lengthy freshman from Alexandria just once and you’ll be paying attention, too. Thul has the makings of a complete package. She’s intelligent, defends well, rebounds hard and handles the ball with precision. Her strides are endless. She runs the floor with ease and plays every position well. Hadley’s got the mid-range game and shoots the three. She can hit the step-back, execute the floater, pull off a spin move in traffic, and she can score, score, score. When we ranked the Freshmen 50 this fall Hadley came in at #33. Based on what we saw at the Tip Off we may have missed the mark – by a lot. Thul, it appears, is going to be the real deal. [player_tooltip player_id="346166" first="Autumn" last="McCall"] <strong>– 2025 forward, Centennial</strong> The summer of 2021 represented a big step up in competition for Autumn. Still adapting to her extensive growth, the 6’2 forward made the big leap up to top-drawer AAU and it was an adjustment for sure. Over the course of the grassroots season, however, McCall got better and better and better. We saw flashes of excellence throughout, enough to earn Autumn a Top 40 ranking in the first sorting of the Class of 2025. Now McCall is playing Class 4A varsity basketball. This weekend at the Breakdown Tip Off we saw her taking additional steps in the right direction. Big steps. McCall’s size and length is a handful for opponents at either end of the court. She’s a quality rebounder and finishes at the rim at a very high percentage, and she keeps on getting better and better. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="362575" first="Callie" last="Oakland"] – 2026 forward, St. Croix Lutheran</strong> We didn’t watch a whole lot of the Class of 2026 this summer. They’ll be the focal point of our AAU coverage in 2022, but several of them have already stepped up at the varsity level and there’s no way we’re going to wait to tell you more. Case in point: the near 6-footer from St. Croix Lutheran, who has opened a ton of eyes some five games into the Crusaders season. Callie has a big body and is very strong for her age. Her understanding of the game is advanced, not surprising given that she is the daughter of SCL assistant coach Nate Oakland. She rebounds well, has nice touch around the basket and also shoots the three. Her passes out of the post are excellent. Oakland is working on her quickness, which will make her a better one-on-one defender and enable her to be more effective down low. There are a lot of really nice forwards emerging among this year’s 8th graders and Callie is definitely among the best. <span style="font-size: 10pt;"><em>Top photo: Sophomore [player_tooltip player_id="215944" first="Ava" last="Cossette"] of Maple Grove</em></span>