No surprise here.
After going undefeated in the 2025-26 regular season, climbing as high as No. 2 in the rankings and finishing 33-2 overall after a 2-2 showing at the NJCAA women’s basketball championship tournament, four members of Schoolcraft College’s starting five received Division I offers.
That included two players native to the Hometown Life region: 2023 Garden City graduate Siena McNitt and 2025 Bloomfield Hills graduate Briana Young, who signed with Evansville and Buffalo, respectively.
Both were arguably the best players in program history at their high schools. McNitt set school records for career points (1,134), points in a season (481), points per game (21.9) and single-game points (34). Young, the daughter of former Notre Dame 6-foot-9 forward Marcus Young, was a 1,000-point scorer and led the Black Hawks to back-to-back Oakland Activities Association championships in the Blue and White divisions and the program’s first Division 1 district title.
Yet both were criminally underrecruited. McNitt drew interest from D-III and NAIA schools, while Young had only a few JUCO offers despite playing for the Michigan Crossover AAU team.
The two committed to the Ocelots, hoping to prove they were worthy of catching on with D-I programs.
“Coming out of high school, I knew there was a lot of work for me to do,” McNitt said during an offseason workout May 19. “Going JUCO, the whole point of it is to get something out of it you didn’t have coming out of high school, so my plan was to go D-II or D-I. I just took a chance on myself, put that work in and it has paid off.”
It almost didn’t happen for McNitt, who suffered a rare stomach infection that cost her the entire 2023-24 season at Schoolcraft. She lost weight and muscle tone and essentially had to restart her career after redshirting as a freshman.
But she bounced back to average 12.1 points and 4.3 rebounds per game in 2024-25 and was even more dangerous this past winter. After a rash of injuries at point guard, she moved from shooting guard to the one and led Schoolcraft’s offense for 20 games. She averaged 12 points, 4.4 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game as a facilitator. She even cracked 100 assists on the season.
She earned All-Michigan Community College Athletic Association-East honors alongside Young and was named MVP of the Great Lakes District regional tournament.
“Siena has a really high IQ and is super smart,” Schoolcraft coach Shay Lewis said. “She’s a very versatile player and, with our system, she can play point guard or off guard because the biggest thing about the position is knowing what the reads are, how to play at our pace and when to get the ball to who you’re supposed to get it to. Siena has all of that, and it comes natural for her because she studies the game and is always watching basketball. Because she’s a student of the game, that made the position switch easier for her.”
Those skills caught the attention of colleges, helping her land 11 offers since March and visits to Evansville and Indiana State this past weekend.
She chose Evansville because she liked the chance to star in the backcourt for first-year coach Ben Wierzba, who is tasked with turning around the 10-25 Aces in the Missouri Valley Conference.
“They think I can come in and lead a team that’s starting over from nothing because they like my IQ as a point guard and thought my stats were good,” McNitt said. “Evansville just got a new coach three weeks ago, and he has a really good resume for turning programs around. He told me that if I go there I could be part of something special, start over a team and make a name for myself, and I think that’s the plan.”
Young wasted no time once she got on campus at Schoolcraft, even pulling down 20 rebounds in her first summer league game just days after graduating from Bloomfield.
She never looked back. The small forward dominated for the Ocelots, finishing as an NJCAA All-American, MCCAA Freshman of the Year and MCCAA Player of the Year. She averaged 15.6 points, shot 53% from the field and recorded nine double-doubles.
“My confidence wasn’t the best before I got here, so I made it my mission to show what I was made of when I got here,” Young said. “Coach Shay and my coaches made me feel like I was capable of doing what I knew I could do and, obviously, the sophomores here instilled confidence in me when I was feeling like I wasn’t doing my best. They always made sure I kept my head high.”
Young had more good days than bad, leading Schoolcraft in rebounds in 15 of its 33 games and scoring 12 times.
“When I saw Bri play for the first time (at a high school camp), I was like, ‘This kid is going to be amazing because she works so hard,’” Lewis said. “I realized her ceiling was going to be through the roof. I’m very strategic here in the type of player that I want, and it’s not what I see them do physically but what’s inside their head, what type of work ethic they have and what type of culture kid they are. All of those things combined help you reach the next level. We’re really good at recognizing those diamonds in the rough and getting them to Schoolcraft, and Bri was one of those diamonds.”
At Bloomfield, Young had to do it all, from bringing the ball up the floor to playing center and driving to the basket.
When she got to Schoolcraft, Lewis moved her to the post, knowing sharpening her skills under the rim would make her stronger as a small forward and stretch-four. Young was turned off by the idea at first, but it made her a stronger wing player and helped her land a handful of Division I offers before choosing Buffalo in April.
“They like that I can get downhill, and they want to add more to my game, which is what I want, too,” Young said. “I loved how Buffalo talked about how they wanted to add to my skillset.”
Also heading to four-year schools for the Ocelots are Illinois native Mariah Scott, who has four offers, including one from New Orleans, and 2024 Ortonville-Brandon graduate Riley Abney, who signed with Southern Illinois Edwardsville. Expect a couple of freshmen to earn scholarships in the coming months as well.
Schoolcraft has found its niche as a powerhouse finishing school, and two locals wouldn’t have the opportunities they now have without signing with the Ocelots.
“I tell everyone that Schoolcraft is the best decision I’ve ever made,” McNitt said. “If I had to do it all over again, I’d choose the same exact school. Coach Shay did exactly what she said she would. I trusted in her, and she trusted in me.”
Brandon Folsom covers high school sports in metro Detroit for Hometown Life. Follow him on his new X.com account at @folsomwrites.
This article originally appeared on Hometownlife.com: Schoolcraft College basketball sending McNitt, Young to D-I schools
Reporting by Brandon Folsom, Hometownlife.com / Hometownlife.com
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
