Tuesday Night Across the State, Pt. 1: Standout Wings

Wings have become the norm in basketball--and the state of Wisconsin is no exception. They’ve become imperative to roster construction and provide the type of balance to a lineup that every team needs. Tuesday night exemplified this. Here were some of the standout performances by wing players in the state last night: <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="209880" first="Gracie" last="Grzesk"] | Notre Dame | Class of 2024 | #4 Overall Prospect</strong> Grzesk showed why she’s the #4 player in the class of 2024 against Sheboygan North. She demonstrates ease and comfort in conducting an offense that not many sophomores can emulate. On the break, she’s a quick decision-maker who sees the soft spots early, but it’s in halfcourt sets where she really shines. Against North, she consistently found her cutters and hit them in stride for easy layups while perched at the top of the key. And her interior passing with [player_tooltip player_id="262971" first="Sarah" last="Hardwick"] was a thing of beauty. She reads angles precisely and throws strong but delicate passes in the interior. But her playmaking ability often gets overshadowed by her scoring touch around the hoop. She does such a great job of setting herself up for success. Facing a North front that didn’t have the size to contain her, Grzesk rolled hard to the basket and sealed off her marker, creating an easier passing seam and attacked inside. She also has a habit of sprinting down the other end off of a defensive position, rim running with the chance to get an easy bucket--one of the best skills for any young wing, forward, or center. Grzesk paced the Tritons with 18 and Notre Dame eased by with a 42-point victory. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="204151" first="Brynn" last="Fuerstenberg"] | New Berlin Eisenhower | Class of 2022 | #46 Overall Prospect</strong> Fuerstenberg is one of the most fundamentally sound players in the class of 2022. Were she not able to shoot from up to 23 feet out, she’d still be a menace on the offensive end with her passing and screening. Against Greendale, Fuerstenberg consistently made the <em>most </em>right decision when stationed at the free-throw line/mid-key area. She swings the ball with pace and seems to always know where she wants to go and what she wants to do. But, she can shoot from 23 feet out--and her scoring touch is what makes her particularly lethal. That same kind of quickness you see in her passing and screening translates to her scoring mentality. Catching the ball in the mid-key Fuestenberg would make the simple and effective read: attack space. When she wasn’t making quick passes, this often times meant attacking the space right in front of her and scoring down low. Greendale also lost track of her multiple times--especially in the first half--as Fuerstenberg would float from her original positioning to somewhere along the perimeter. When she did find an open pocket of space, she demonstrated no hesitation in launching and hitting catch-and-shoot threes. A do-it-all performance in Ike’s 47-point dub. <strong>Juliana McGillivray | Mukwonago | Class of 2024 | Unranked</strong> Simply put, Mukwonago does not win against Muskego if McGiillivray is not in attack mode from the get-go. She finished with a game-high 26-points and hit eight of her nine free-throw attempts in the process--a testament to her aggression attacking the rim. Her physicality immediately set her apart from her competition, she looked the part of an athlete ready to dominate. And that she did. Her onslaught on the rim was met with constant resistance (well, attempts at resistance) but contact only did so much to alter her shots. Her ability to drive and finish at awkward angles kept Mukwonago in the game as they struggled early. And then, she went nuclear. Realizing that the defense had to sag off of her to avoid getting blown by, she hit the biggest shot of the night. After being down 22-8 and fighting all the way back to make it 31-30 Muskego, Mcgillivray hit a wide-open three-pointer to give the Indians their first lead of the night--crowd goes wild. A minute later, with the game tied up again, she takes her defender for a dance. Instead of sagging off of her, the defense starts pressing and McG showed off her handle. A two-dribble hesitation move into an ever-so-subtle stepback bomb that gave Mukwonago the lead again. McGillivray stepped up when her team needed her the most. And if she demonstrates that kind of attacking ability going forward, she won’t stay unranked for much longer. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="264942" first="Jorey" last="Buwalda"] | Randolph | Class of 2023 | #27 Overall Prospect</strong> I'll get into the nitty-gritty of her standout performance against Laconia in a minute but let's not bury the lede here: <em>23 points. 19 rebounds. </em>Yup. Just a dominant performance for the junior that saw the Randolph Rockets stay perfect on the season. Outside of the gaudy numbers, what stood out was her agility and flexibility when she received the ball. Her first field goal of the game came by making an incredible catch at the mid-key, and in one movement she brought the ball down, took a dribble, and finished through contact at the rim. She's an overwhelming presence at the rim that wasn't bothered by the contact Laconia was throwing at her. Lost in her incredible scoring performance were some of the more wing-y abilities she demonstrated. Her handle--especially in the heavily congested painted area--was a considerable weapon for the Rockets as Buwalda looked to initiate her own offense. And her ability to read the paint for cutters and make tight-window passing was equally impressive. A terrific all-around performance from one of the best forwards in the class of 2023. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="206584" first="Marie" last="Outlay"] | Sun Prairie | Class of 2023 | #29 Overall Prospect</strong> Outlay is one of the smartest players in the Big 8 conference--closed and shut. She knows where her mismatches are, knows who should be where in offensive sets, and knows when to cheat off of her assignment to land a steal on the defensive end. Sun Prairie’s drubbing of Beloit Memorial was no different in this regard. She played her usually terrific defense, conducted much of the offense, and cut without the ball to get easy buckets. But one wrinkle was added that SP hadn’t flexed thus far. Off of the Cardinal’s motion set, Outlay set a down screen on the frontcourt player--Lucy Strey--and then sealed off her defender for a post-up opportunity on the low block. The play lead to free throws and demonstrated yet another aspect of her game that requires keen attention to detail and her killer mentality. She also delivers a punch of defensive intensity when assigned the opposition’s primary ball-handler. Since game 1 of the season, she’s ramped up her play-to-play intensity and her defensive effort against Beloit exemplified this. When defending in the half-court, Outlay was pressing out to the timeline and rarely (if ever) got straight up burnt by it. And another notice to those who didn’t hear it the first time: do. not. try. passing. over. the. top. on. Marie. Outlay. She’s so quick at reading when a pass is being delivered that there’s only been one player this year--Janesville-Craig’s [player_tooltip player_id="206576" first="Ellie" last="Magestro-Kennedy"]--that’s been able to successfully pass over the top of Outlay. As cliche as it sounds, Outlay oftentimes looks like she’s playing chess when her matchup is playing checkers. &nbsp; &nbsp;