Summer Jam recap: Top unsigned seniors who impressed

[player_tooltip player_id="57120" first="Allison" last="Miranda"] has always been known as a quality shooter, and over the past few weeks she has garnished that reputation with a giant exclamation point. This past weekend in Shakopee the senior guard from Eden Prairie was bombing it from distance with deadly accuracy for FBC North 2021, one of the primary reasons why she leads our lineup today of the top unsigned seniors at Summer Jam. Employing a delivery that is a thing of beauty – it is almost always smooth and silky – Miranda connected from three-point range at a 46% clip this past winter. At the Summer Jam she was a remarkable 16-for-25 (64%) from beyond the arc. Over the past month, Allison has had nine games in which she shot better than 50% from three, including a 5-for-10 performance in Des Moines and games of 4/5, 5/7 and 4/6 this weekend. This summer to date, she is a remarkable 62% from two-point range, which is an impressive number for a player who scores her twos primarily from mid-range and not in the paint. Over that same stretch, Miranda’s points production has improved steadily, from an average of 7.7 the first weekend in Iowa to 11.5 in round two in Des Moines to 16 ppg at Summer Jam. Sometimes numbers don’t paint an accurate picture. In Allison’s case the picture is worth a thousand words. Playing for a pair of teams that boast a number of big-time players, Miranda has had difficulty garnering the attention she probably deserves. Eden Prairie has had several highly-regarded collegiate prospects, including current guards [player_tooltip player_id="109758" first="Destinee" last="Bursch"], [player_tooltip player_id="12745" first="Myra" last="Moorjani"] and [player_tooltip player_id="108302" first="Molly" last="Lenz"] along with high-major forward [player_tooltip player_id="12732" first="Nia" last="Holloway"]. At FBC North she has played in the shadow of such elite athletes as Nebraska commit [player_tooltip player_id="2100" first="Kendall" last="Coley"], 2022 #1 [player_tooltip player_id="12712" first="Maya" last="Nnaji"], and top 10 guard [player_tooltip player_id="12727" first="Kiani" last="Lockett"]. Perhaps Miranda deserves more accolades. Although our rankings list appears to have been cheating her out of a couple of inches until yesterday – sorry about that Allison! – it has now been updated to reflect Miranda’s current height of 5’10 and she possesses a sizeable frame in addition. Allison is deceptively athletic and more mobile than before having made substantial improvement in her foot speed and quickness over the past couple of seasons. At what level she will be able to launch rockets in the fall of 2021 remains to be seen. It’s a topic of much discussion among observers that generally draws widely differing opinions. What we do know is that Miranda has proven against the best available competition in both high school and AAU ball that she can get shots up quickly and bury them from distance against the best of the best. That speaks volumes about her potential. Currently ranked 82nd in the class, Miranda is making a strong case that she deserves to move up. Back in the spring we identified Allison as a member of this year’s senior class who needed to have a great summer in order to maximize her college potential. She has done exactly that. Here are four more rising seniors who deserve our attention for the way they played at Summer Jam. [player_tooltip player_id="109763" first="Bella" last="Hartzel"] – guard, FBC North 2021 (Hill-Murray) Miranda isn’t the only high-end shooter on the roster of FBC North 2021. Hartzel, too, has established a reputation for her three-point prowess. The Hill-Murray guard, who stands about 5’8, also has very nice handles and knows how to defend. In a quality program, one where younger competitors have to prove themselves in a big way to earn playing time from Hall of Fame coach Erin Herman, Hartzel has proven her worth. She averaged 8 points per game as a freshman, 11.4 as a sophomore and 16.4 as a junior this past winter, including more than half a dozen contests in which she topped the 25-point mark. Much of that production was derived from her three-point shooting ability. Hill-Murray didn’t publish the shooting specifics for their personnel this year but, based on several years of watching Hartzel ply her trade, Bella’s percentages have to be pretty high. At Summer Jam we saw more of the same from the 60th-ranked prospect in the class. [player_tooltip player_id="109781" first="Audrey" last="Martinez-Stewart"] – guard, Minnesota Diamond Elite 2021 (Cretin-Derham Hall) Minnesota Diamond Elite was a new name on the scene at Summer Jam, but not really. The rebranded club used to be known as Lady Get Shook, and for the past several years the 2021 team’s best prospect has been Martinez-Stewart. The 5’6 guard from St. Paul began her high school career at Highland Park but has built the majority of her reputation at 4A Cretin-Derham Hall. Throughout those years, however, she has been loyal to her AAU program in spite of many opportunities to join more high profile clubs. It’s not surprising that other teams would want a shot at Audrey. Yes, the 5’6 guard is small, but she is also very gifted with the basketball and is one of the fastest players in the state. Her first step is elite. In the name of full disclosure I have to tell you that I watched Martinez-Stewart a lot back in the day when she played on the same team as my daughter. It gave me an up-close opportunity to see just how much she can bring to a team in terms of offensive leadership, skilled distribution and boundless energy. This winter Martinez-Stewart averaged 8 ppg for Crystal Flint’s Raiders while racking up plenty of assists and steals, as well. This weekend in Shakopee the top 100 prospect showed us more of the same. [player_tooltip player_id="109815" first="Kylie" last="Baranick"] – guard, Crossfire 2021 Schuck (Maple Grove) Kylie has always been a highly-skilled but quite small guard. At around 5’4, she emerged on the high school varsity scene as a slight 10th grader who could get the job done in spite being diminutive in stature. Fast forward to this weekend and what we saw was a big change in Baranick’s build. Clearly a late bloomer, Kylie has filled out substantially and is now a strong, well-constructed senior-to-be who can definitely make an impact at the next level. Like Coach Herman at Hill-Murray, Maple Grove bench boss Mark Cook is not prone to inserting players into his lineup until they are well-seasoned and have paid their dues on the junior varsity. As a sophomore, however, Kylie stepped into the fray and immediately impressed. Last year she was the third-leading scorer for the Crimson at 7.7 points per game playing behind a pair of D1 commits in top 10 prospect [player_tooltip player_id="56228" first="Abby" last="Schulte"] (North Dakota State) and St. Thomas commit [player_tooltip player_id="57081" first="Jordyn" last="Lamker"]. At Crossfire she is often overshadowed by Heritage Christian Academy point guard [player_tooltip player_id="109784" first="Taylor" last="Schuck"], whose mom Linda is the coach and was the most successful leader in the history of the program at Northwestern College. Baranick is an excellent floor general, a reliable team-first leader who knows how to distribute the ball effectively and can execute an offense with no fuss, no muss. She loves the big moment and can score in bunches. Kylie is ranked #140 in the 2021 class. [player_tooltip player_id="109797" first="Alayna" last="Lindquist"] – guard, Minnesota Comets 2021 Elite (Becker) We didn’t set out to make this rundown of impressive seniors-to-be all about players who are overshadowed on their particular teams. Nevertheless, that’s how it has turned out I guess as our final player of note at Summer Jam is Lindquist, a workhorse guard whose valuable contributions often go unnoticed at both Becker High School and for Comets 2021 Elite, one of the top AAU teams in the class. Much like Baranick and Miranda, Lindquist plays on a loaded high school squad that boasts Division 1 point guard [player_tooltip player_id="2122" first="Julia" last="Bengtson"] (Eastern Illinois), dynamic shooting guards [player_tooltip player_id="30163" first="Adeline" last="Kent"] and [player_tooltip player_id="108304" first="Maren" last="Westin"] (they also hold D1 offers) along with more prominent prospects such as forwards [player_tooltip player_id="29532" first="Megan" last="Gamble"] and [player_tooltip player_id="109774" first="Courtney" last="Nuest"]. Even 2023 talents [player_tooltip player_id="186119" first="Ayla" last="Brown"] and [player_tooltip player_id="108338" first="Dani" last="Nuest"] have drawn more headlines. Yet down in the trenches, where much of the most important work gets done, you’ll find Lindquist quietly contributing on a daily basis. Over the past two weekends, Courtney and Julia have been absent from the Comets’ lineup which yielded an opportunity for Alayna to shine more than usual. That’s exactly what she did. Playing in the Lake Nokomis Division, the Comets rolled off four straight victories, beating the Cal Stars’ second team by 25, Team Wisconsin Select Black by 35, scoring an exciting one-point win over the Southern Minnesota Fury and defeating Crossfire 2021 DeWitt in the championship game by a 32-point margin. Along the way Lindquist played a more prominent offensive role than she is accustomed to, delivered her usual excellent defensive performance, and was once again one of the most reliable competitors on the floor. Lindquist is versatile, makes great decisions and has a high basketball IQ. She is currently ranked #129 in the class.