Top Minnesota girls' basketball recruit Tessa Johnson picks South Carolina
Tessa Johnson, the No. 1 recruit in Minnesota's Class of 2023, announced Wednesday morning that she's committed to the national champion South Carolina Gamecocks. She chose South Carolina over Minnesota and Baylor.
"Minnesota is the gift that keeps on giving," tweeted South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley, who won the national title inside Target Center in Minneapolis last season. She also helped present Gophers coach Lindsay Whalen at the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame induction ceremony in September.
Minnesota is the gift that keeps on giving. 🥰🥰🥰
— dawnstaley (@dawnstaley) October 19, 2022
Johnson, a 5'10'' guard who averaged 23.4 points, 5.7 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 2.8 steals per game as a junior, plays at St. Michael-Albertville High School, located just northwest of the Twin Cities. ESPN ranks her No. 25 nationally in the Class of 2023.
Sunaja Agara of Hopkins is ranked 37th by ESPN and her teammate Taylor Woodson is ranked 59th. Agara is committed to Stanford and Woodson is headed to Michigan. Chaska's Kennedy Sanders, checking in at No. 73, is going to Colorado.
Olivia Olson of Benilde-St. Margaret's is 7th-ranked nationally in the Class of 2024. She recently announced her commitment to Michigan. Alivia McGill of Hopkins is ranked 14th in the Class of 2024. She is undecided.
Last year, the Gophers landed three ESPN 100 recruits from Minnesota: Amaya Battle (Hopkins), Mara Braun (Wayzata) and Mallory Heyer (Chaska).
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.