Madison Ristovski 2012 signee

A profile of Madison Ristovski titled "Liggett’s Ristovski was groomed to be one of state’s best cagers" indicates that Ristovski verbally committed to Michigan some time ago:

The 5-foot-10 point guard, who carries a 3.4 GPA, will get the best of both worlds in her future endeavors. Madison Ristovski said she verbally committed to play basketball at the University of Michigan at age 14, after her freshman year at Liggett.

A resident of Sterling Heights, she's currently a junior at Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett, which plays in the Class C semifinals on Thursday against Sand Creek. She was just named first-team All-State for Class C, according to this article, which says she averaged 26 points, 10 assists, 8 rebounds, and 3 steals this season. Her father, Loren Ristovski, played basketball professionally overseas.
 
Also worth noting: Madison's sister Haleigh also plays for Liggett, and the sisters recently combined to score 55 points in a game:

Sisters Madison and Haleigh Ristovski have played together and against each other on the driveway for years and it showed as the two combined for 55 points to lift the Knights to victory over Bishop Foley 74-38 Tuesday night.
 
Madison scored 31 points, Haleigh scored 24, and when they weren’t scoring, they were dishing the ball off to each other with head fakes and stutter steps as if they’d done it a million times.
 
“We’ve been playing one-on-ones against each other since we were five and six years old,” said Madison, a junior.

Haleigh is a sophomore--and perhaps a Michigan recruit for 2013?

From a Detroit News preview of today's girls basketball semifinals (including Liggett's game at Breslin at 1:00) titled "Madison Ristovski driving University Liggett’s Class C run": 

Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett coach Wayne Gigante has wanted the opportunity to showcase junior point guard Madison Ristovski on high school's biggest stage.
 
"I want everybody to see her play because she's a special player who has so much talent," Gigante said. "I'll put her up against anyone. She was so relentless in the quarterfinal. She wouldn't allow us to lose."
 
Ristovski, who has committed to Michigan, had 25 points and 12 assists in Liggett's 65-62 quarterfinal victory over Saginaw Valley Lutheran this week.

Link for article: http://detnews.com/articl...ing-University-Liggett's-Class-C-run. 
 
Over at the Free Press, the Son of Swami has given Liggett the nickname "University of Ristovski":

Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett (24-1) vs. Sand Creek (24-2), 1 p.m. today. This will be quite a sister act. Sand Creek has the Robichaud girls -- Michaela and Landis -- while Liggett has the Ristovski girls -- Madison and Haleigh. Michaela hit six threes in the quarterfinals and is an excellent player, but there is nobody quite like Madison. University of Ristovski 63, Sandy Beach 54.

Liggett defeated Sand Creek 49-29 to make it to the championship game for the first time in the school's history. In the final at 4 pm on Saturday, they'll face St. Ignace (and Nicole Elmblad, the Miss Basketball runner-up), which defeated Flint Hamady in the other semifinal 63-55. From Detroit News article:

[Madison] Ristovski, a junior point guard, had nine points, eight rebounds and seven assists. Sophomore Haleigh Ristovski, Madison's sister, scored 18, making four 3-pointers, and freshman Bre'nae Andrews had 14 points and eight rebounds.

Championship game will be broadcast on Fox Sports Detroit and streamed online at MHSAA.TV.

Thanks Dave, something to look forward to.

Liggett fell to St. Ignace 65-54 in the Class C final. Quite a battle between Nicole Elmblad (a Wisconsin signee), who scored 33, and Madison Ristovski, who had 30. According to an AP story:

The game was tied at 46 with 6:39 to play, but Elmblad scored 12 points down the stretch against an exhausted University Liggett team that was reduced to five rotation players when Haleigh Ristovski fouled out.

Haleigh had been guarding Elmblad all game and evidently did pretty well in that role. There was also an interesting Michigan connection mentioned:

Three years ago, Nicole Elmblad and Madison Ristovski met over lunch at a University of Michigan basketball game.
...
Elmblad applauded Ristovski when she came out of the game in the final seconds, and the junior returned the favor while Elmblad was accepting her championship medal.

"We played against each other at that camp, and we ended up eating lunch together," Ristovski said. "We haven't talked since then, but I have a ton of respect for her. She's a great player, and I wish her all the luck in the world next year at Wisconsin."

I came across another recruiting tidbit that doesn't merit its own thread, so I'm mentioning it here. There is a transcript of a Flint Journal live blog of the Detroit Country Day quarterfinal loss to Goodrich in which someone posted a comment saying (in part), "DCD has a player committed to Michigan." I assume--if this is true--the player would be either Aerial Powers or Amber Deane.
 
Powers is a 5-foot-11 guard/wing who was named Class B player of the year by the AP. In her junior season that just ended, she averaged 19 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 steals. AP story includes a quote from her coach:

"Aerial is unique in the way she has the quickness of a guard and the strength of a center," said Country Day coach Frank Orlando. "She can post up and score inside or hit the perimeter jumper. She can also take the ball to the basket off the dribble.

"Aerial has great jumping ability where she can get offensive rebounds. She also has the ball-handling skills to break the press."

AP story says she is "is being heavily recruited by a number of Big Ten schools, including Michigan State, Michigan and Ohio State." ESPN/HoopGurlz has her on their 2012 Top 100 watch list.
 
Deane is a 5-foot-8 guard who also just finished her junior season. She was named honorable mention on the AP Class B All-State team. Blue Star has her ranked 96th in the class of 2012. Oakland Press had this say about her in November 2010: "Quick penetrator and good ballhandler who could be one of Country Day’s next great point guards."
 
I think either of these players would be a terrific addition to the class of 2012.

Madison Ristovski was named to the Detroit News all-area girls basketball team: East:

Ristovski is a flashy point guard who can dribble with either hand and has been known to get the fans out of their seats with a no-look pass resulting in easy baskets.
...
"Madison's a special player," coach Wayne Gigante said. "She can hit the jumper, penetrate and finish or penetrate and kick the ball out for open threes."

Her sister Haleigh was named to the third team.
 
Both Amber Deane and Aerial Powers were named to the Detroit News all-area girls basketball team: North. Deane averaged 14 points and 5 assists for DCD this year. Here's a bit more about her from the article:

"Amber is the consummate point guard," coach Frank Orlando said. "She sees the floor well and gets the ball to players in the right position to be successful."
 
Deane is being recruited by several Big Ten and Mid-American schools.

It seems unlikely that Michigan would sign two point guards in the 2012 class, especially with another--Aquashia Anderson--coming in as part of the 2011 class. So on further review, Amber Deane seems like an unlikely Michigan commit.

I'm not sure you can ever have  too many point guards.  We learned that when we lost Hollins.  In a chalk talk way back at the beginning of the season KB said he had two commitments for the 2012 class with a good shot at a few more. Apparently Madison Ristovski is one but I have no idea who the other is. I saw Taylor Gleason of Goodrich at a few games but she would be in  the next class.  Obviously he couldn't comment further and didn't.  Hope we can land some physical post players who can rebound in the next few.

For the sake of a balanced roster, it just seems to me that signing three point guards over two straight classes doesn't usually make sense. I think you also have to look at it from the perspective of the prospective recruit, who is going to take the current players on the roster and incoming recruits into account when deciding whether to choose a particular school. With Anderson and Ristovski coming onboard, I think another point guard is less likely to choose to be part of Michigan's 2012 class.

I mildly disagree. The NCAA allows 15 women's basketball scholarships, which is basically three deep at every position. If the girls can play I wouldn't hesitate to stock up on point guards since there's little need to ever carry nine girls at the 3,4,5 positions since there's usually a lot of interchangability (to coin a word). Some girls just might not pan out and I wouldn't want to be caught short at point guard.  Losing Dayesha and Nya this year really hurt us there.  Since the men only have 13 scholarships they have to be a little more careful.  I say if a girl can play get her, especially since we're way under the scholarship limit anyway. 

Madison Ristovski was named to the Detroit News Girls Basketball Dream Team, as was Aerial Powers. The News also named Cyesha Goree and Amber Deane to its Class B second team. And Haleigh Ristovski was named to the Class C first team.
 

ESPN/HoopGurlz has now ranked their Top 100 for 2012. They've placed Aerial Powers #77 in that class.

The ESPN/HoopGurlz Top 100 for 2012 was just updated and now has Aerial Powers ranked at #97.
 
Two players from Detroit jumped into the Top 100 after previously being unranked: Branndais Agee (Cass Tech) is ranked #27, while Caprice Dennis (Pershing) is #47. Both players are uncommitted, although Dennis had committed to Kansas a couple of months ago (following in Asia Boyd's footsteps) but then reopened her recruitment earlier this month.
 
Also of note: Shilpa Tummala was another newcomer to the Top 100 at #68. She's the sister of Sai Tummala, the incoming preferred walk-on for the men's team.
 
There are still a number of uncommitted prospects, but so far the Top 100 has only two Big Ten commits:

• #34 Candice Agee (Penn State)
• #90 Joslyn Massey (Purdue; Massey is also the only other player from Michigan on the list; she attends Westland John Glenn H.S.)

Brad Emons has an Observer & Eccentric article on Liggett's first game of the season, with a couple of interesting tidbits. First, the nickname "University of Ristovski" is even more appropriate for Liggett this year as Madison and Haleigh have been joined by their freshman sister Lauren (called Lola in a Detroit News article on the game). Lauren had 15 points in the game, Madison amassed a game-high 29 (plus 7 assists), while Haleigh was praised for her defense against a top opposing player.
 
Second, the article says that Liggett's coach, Wayne Gigante, has beefed up his team's schedule this year, meaning that Madison will be facing at least a couple of her future Wolverine teammates, including Taylor Gleason (game at Goodrich this Friday) and Kelsey Mitchell (home game vs. Inkster on Feb. 7). The Liggett schedule also includes:

• Dearborn Divine Child (with future MSU walk-on Cara Miller; away game on Dec. 16)
• Cass Tech (featuring MSU signee Branndais Agee; Dec. 30, in a Roundball Classic game played at Detroit Country Day)
• DCD itself (home game on Jan. 10)

The article also includes some extensive praise from Gigante for Madison:

Madison Ristovski scored in a variety of ways – driving to the basket while using her left hand, hitting mid-range pull-up jumpers and draining (five) triples.
 
“I’m a lucky coach – there’s nobody better,’ Gigante said. “I’ve been around about 10 years doing girls basketball and I haven’t seen anybody like that. It looks like she’s a boy. You watch her take a jump shot from three feet behind the line. That doesn’t look like a girl, it looks like a boy. She’s tremendous. She’s a great kid, works hard, great leader.’’
 
And the Liggett coach said Miss Basketball candidate now plays both ends of the floor.
 
“Defensively she’s stepped up her game tremendously over the past two or three years,’’ he said. “She’s progressed. When she was a sophomore when I came here she was a horrible defender, but got better as the year went on. Last year, really became better and better. This year . . . different attitude defensively. Because she’s so programmed offensively, I think that got a little lost in the shuffle during the development stages. She knows at the next level that ‘I’ve got to be able to defend.’ She’s that good.’’
 
As good as advertised for sure.

Sounds fantastic!

For those interested, Bill Khan from the Flint Journal was at last night's Liggett-Goodrich game, and his report on the game, which Goodrich won 70-67, can be found here. He also did a live blog of the game, the transcript of which is here, and posted video of the game's final minute here. Taylor Gleason had 8 points for Goodrich (which was led by Penn State commit Aketra Sevillian, who tallied 22); regarding the Ristovski sisters, Madison had 31, Haleigh had 21 (including 6 triples), and Lola had 5.

Midwest Recruiting Report has Madison Ristovski ranked as the #3 2012 prospect in the Midwest--and #1 in Michigan (they have Kelsey Mitchell #5 in the Michigan rankings).
 
The same site has a brief rundown of Liggett's 57-48 victory over Cass Tech last Friday in the Motor City Roundball Classic, with Madison said to have "outdueled" Branndais Agee. Madison led Liggett with 22 points while "[dishing out] creative dimes that you would have to see to believe." He sister Lauren (Lola) added 18.

Interesting situation at Liggett, where their coach, Wayne Gigante, has just resigned mid-season, citing "extreme parental interference." See articles in the Detroit News and Free Press. Assistant coach Joe LaMagno is taking over and immediately has the tough task of facing Country Day in a home game tomorrow.
 
EDIT: For another perspective on this, be sure to read the comments accompanying the Detroit News article, including one from one of the parents.

Wow!  Hope it wasn't Madison's parents.  Not a good sign if it is.

Frank99


Wow!  Hope it wasn't Madison's parents.  Not a good sign if it is.

 
I hate to say this, and I'd be happy to be corrected if I'm wrong, but I'm almost positive that the parent Gigante claims was interfering was in fact Madison's father. But the Detroit News article has a comment from the mother of Bre'nae Andrews (one of Madison's teammates), and she indicates that Gigante allowed Madison's father to become overly involved in the team's coaching, so Gigante kind of brought this on himself.
 
I guess I'm not overly concerned about this in regard to Madison's career at Michigan, because there's no way that Borseth is going to put up with any sort of parental interference.
 
Note: I'm pretty sure this is Madison's father because of the references in the comments to "the ice cream man" (the Ristovskis apparently own an ice cream parlor in Grosse Pointe Woods). Also, her father, Loren Ristovski, played professional basketball overseas and was the coach of Harper Woods' boys team for several years.