PGH Minnesota Expo: The best of Team 5

After back-to-back weekends of watching some of the best freshmen and sophomores in Minnesota strut their stuff at two Prep Girls Hoops showcase events, it was the juniors and seniors who had their turn in the spotlight this past Sunday. More than 75 prospects took to the floor at Jefferson High school in Bloomington. Tony Ragulen, Ally McGinnis and I have been writing individual evaluations of the top performers on each of the eight teams this week. Here are the best of Team 5.    During the day on Sunday I took a minute to look up Annika's ranking in the Prep Girls Hoops Class of 2026. It made me ill when I saw she was at #120. Clearly we have been negligent. That was obvious at the Expo where Dunrud showed just how much she can do. The 6'1 small forward has terrific length and great mobility. She has a well-honed set of skills. She can shoot the basketball. And she plays like a coach's kid – with high IQ and the ability to grasp concepts immediately. She is also an excellent rebounder and defender and is more than willing to play with physicality. I'm not going to make excuses, but clearly it has hurt Dunrud's visibility playing at New York Mills, a program that isn't really on the statewide radar at the moment despite its storied past. Annika has also been pretty low key with [program_tooltip program_id='712722' first='North' last='Tartan'] Elite. In the spring, however, she's moving over to the [program_tooltip program_id='712700' first='Minnesota' last='Suns'] where she can cash in on the many opportunities provided by playing with the great [player_tooltip player_id='205310' first='Tori' last='Oehrlein']. We won't wait until then to fix that ranking issue. It's long overdue.     Every showcase has its shining stars. On Sunday, Anderson was positively radiant. From beginning to end Sophia grabbed the bull by its proverbial horns and took charge of the proceedings. She showed off her superior handles – they are special – and demonstrated her ability to take advantage of her natural assets. She's long and tall and so bouncy. Sophia has also got some swagger. She plays with equal parts joy and ferocity, bringing the type of energy and effort to the court that college coaches crave. Coming off a summer in which she was named runner-up for our AAU Breakout Player of the Year award, Anderson took another step forward in her evolution on Sunday. Now her goal is to earn a much more prominent role at Maple Grove where the roster is deep and expectations run high. At the Expo, Anderson made it obvious that she is up to the task.     Sunday was Tamya's coming out party. She showed up at Jefferson High School as a relative unknown and departed with an enhanced profile and plenty of admirers. The fact that Dillard landed on the Expo All-Showcase team makes it obvious how much she did at the event. It's what Tamya is capable of doing down the road that's really exciting. Dillard has some excellent natural assets – size, length, speed, quickness and elevation. She has a well-developed skill set, too. Tamya is learning how to facilitate more effectively and investing the time to improve the accuracy and consistency of her shot. She can post up smaller defenders and step out to the perimeter when matched up against bigs. What also stood out were her leadership abilities. Tamya is a great communicator, an excellent teammate, and a positive presence. There's just a nice energy around her. Dillard is coming along defensively, as well. How we've missed out on Tamya's potential to this point is a mystery to me because she clearly has next-level potential and is getting the offers to prove it.     The Expo offered Maddy a great opportunity to raise her profile in a setting where she could shine. As a limited-limelight player on a high-profile high school team like Minnehaha Academy, it can be difficult for folks to see just how much Maddy can do. On Sunday, she did a lot. The most obvious aspect of Sobocinski's game that instantly comes to light is just how hard she works. She was everywhere on Sunday – making plays, sharing the basketball, fighting for possessions throughout. She has a nice box of tools, too, and is at her best when she is in attack mode, seeing the opportunities and going for it. Over the course of the day, Maddy seemed to develop some nice chemistry with Anderson, enabling the star attraction to do her thing more effectively. Sobocinski gathered a little spotlight of her own this weekend, which was the whole point of being there.     In our evaluation of Simonson's performance at last year's Expo we said that the athletic small forwardi appeared ready to have a good year. That turned out to be a prescient prediction. Simonson may not have lit up the scoreboard at Farmington but she gained valuable experience and put the work in to raise the sophistication level of her game so that it might match the obvious athletic ability she has been blessed with. A smidge under 6 feet tall, Ali has size and speed and length and strength. She is a solid ball handler and a quality shooter. She makes good reads, anticipates well and knows how to take advantage of her opportunities. Her defense has also improved and she's cashing in on her length there. Simonson has now become a more assertive leader who is vocal on the court. Perhaps most importantly, the time she has invested in her game seems to have given Ali a healthy dose of confidence. That may be the most important thing of all.     I hesitate to even bring this up, but facts are facts and the fact is that Madelyn is tiny. Although Barrow plays much bigger than she is, at just 5'3 her height is always a topic of conversation. The best way to overcome that is to develop all of the skills necessary to break down the barriers that all small guards face. The good news is that Barrow is in the process of doing exactly that. First, she handles the basketball very well. Second, she can shoot it from distance with a quick release. Third, she is crafting a nice floater, which is crucial. And fourth, she is a solid defender who can get up and press people in the full court. Playing behind elite prospect [player_tooltip player_id='515676' first='Samantha' last='Voll'] at Monticello, it's not going to be easy for Barrow to get as much court time as she might like. Regardless, she was the first player off the bench for Monticello coach Craig Geyen last season and appeared in 29 games. The key for Madelyn is to take advantage of every opportunity she gets.

After back-to-back weekends of watching some of the best freshmen and sophomores in Minnesota strut their stuff at two Prep Girls Hoops showcase events, it was the juniors and seniors who had their turn in the spotlight this past Sunday. More than 75 prospects took to the floor at Jefferson High school in Bloomington. Tony Ragulen, Ally McGinnis and I have been writing individual evaluations of the top performers on each of the eight teams this week. Here are the best of Team 5.