Dan Hawk

Ellie Pudelko and the Next Wave at Tosa East Nine seniors. That’s what this year looks like inside the gym at Wauwatosa East High School. Experience everywhere. Players who’ve been through February and understand what postseason basketball demands. Underneath that? Two sophomores. One freshman. That’s the future. And when you start thinking about who carries this forward, one name stands at the front. @ElliePudelko. Last March she was a freshman getting real minutes in a state championship run. Not on the bench. On the floor. Guarding seniors. Taking shots when the margin was thin. Now she’s a sophomore. And she starts. On a team with nine seniors, she’s in the opening five. That tells you everything about how she’s viewed inside that locker room. She understands pace. She understands spacing. She understands when it’s her turn and when it’s not. She can score at all three levels, but it’s not about range. It’s about control. Leave her space and she’ll rise up from the perimeter. Fly at her and she’ll put it on the floor and find her own shot. Open a lane and she’ll attack the rim without blinking. She has the tools. More importantly, she knows when to use them. That awareness was built early. Last year’s roster was junior heavy. Those juniors are seniors now. Ellie grew up in a system that already knew how to win. Every day in practice she was lining up against players like Litza, Sellinger, Duprey, and Emma. You can see pieces of all of them in her game. Litza’s control. Sellinger’s grit. Duprey’s confidence from the perimeter. Emma’s defensive discipline. That’s not copying. That’s influence. When you’re a freshman in that environment, you either survive it or you sharpen because of it. Ellie sharpened. And before anyone fast-forwards to next season, remember this: Wauwatosa East High School just earned the number one seed in their region heading into postseason play. This senior class still has something to say. Ellie is part of that push right now, as a starter, not a spectator. Still, when nine seniors graduate, that’s a massive amount of varsity basketball leaving the building. Next season will feel different. Ellie will walk into it with more varsity experience than anyone in the program. State championship minutes as a freshman. A starting role as a sophomore. She won’t be stepping into the spotlight for the first time. She’ll be stepping into it ready. That’s how Tosa sustains itself. The next wave doesn’t appear out of nowhere. It’s already in the starting lineup. #StateOfPlayWisconsin #TosaEastGirlsBasketball #RaiderPride #WauwatosaEast #BuiltInTheGym

Wauwatosa East's Ellie Deprey overcomes severe injuries, named Naismith Award finalist jsonline.com/story/sports/h…

Litza and the Discipline of Calm When Mikaia Litza steps onto the floor, it feels like watching a virtuoso take the stage, prepared long before the lights came up. At Wauwatosa East girls basketball, that preparation shows itself quickly. You feel it early. Not in a shot or a look. It shows up in how the ball is claimed and how the floor begins to respond. Teammates drift into the right spacing. Defenders hesitate, not from fear, but from uncertainty. Whatever they give her gets used. Teams come in with a plan for her. You see it in early pickups, in help defenders shading a step closer than they want, in possessions that begin already tilted her way. The plan changes. The coverage changes. The result doesn’t. She sees it, processes it, and keeps playing. She doesn’t rush the possession. She waits until a defender shifts their weight, then goes. The dribble stays low. Her shoulders stay square. Contact comes late and doesn’t move her off her line. Help shows up in time to watch the play finish. She scores off space, not distance, but control is what defines her nights. A defender a half-step late gives up a layup. A shoulder turned opens a pull up. A second defender committing frees a teammate. The pass leaves before the window feels open. Becoming the school’s all-time assist leader comes from recognizing those moments early and trusting them. There are nights she could completely take over a game. Her restraint is a decision, not a limitation. Her eyes are already on the next movement. Cutters get the ball in stride. Shooters catch it ready. She makes the pass that puts someone else in position to shoot. Nothing gets held. Nothing gets forced. Pressure doesn’t change her pace. The state championship went to three overtimes. Three overtimes strip a game down. Legs go first, then voices rise. Edgewood would make a run, hit a shot that felt like it might finally tip things, and the gym would lean. That’s the moment games get lost if no one steadies them. Each time, the response stayed the same. She picked up the right matchup. She took the shot that was there. She made the pass that put someone else in position to shoot. Possessions ended with balance instead of scramble. Big shots came from teammates because they were already set. That night didn’t turn on emotion. It turned on decisions. Calm didn’t stand out. It led. Watching Mikaia play reminds me of listening to Yo-Yo Ma perform Gabriel’s Oboe. The calm comes from knowing the work has been done. That same calm showed up against Arrowhead. A disciplined team. Physical defenders. A game that demanded patience. The coverage adjusted. The pressure stayed. The play didn’t drift. Possessions stayed organized because Mikaia kept them that way. When the ball leaves her hands, the work continues. Passing lanes get read. A careless dribble gets taken clean, already heading the other way before the mistake finishes. Foul trouble stays away because she arrives early and stays on balance. There’s no visible change when things go right and no reaction when they don’t. That steadiness isn’t assumed. It’s familiar. Built through repetition until situations stop feeling new. Watch long enough and the details take over. Where the ball goes. Where feet land. Who’s ready. The game doesn’t slow because it’s controlled. It slows because it’s understood. Some players dominate by overwhelming a game. This one dominates by settling it. Quiet. Lethal. Certain. @MikaiaLitza @TosaEastGBB @DePaulWBBHoops

When Mikaia Litza steps onto the floor, nothing feels rushed. She waits. She reads. She decides early. Defenders hesitate because they know a mistake is coming. They just don’t know which one. She could take over games with scoring alone. There are nights she chooses not to. That restraint isn’t a limitation. It’s a decision. In the state championship, triple overtime stripped everything down. Legs went first. Voices rose. The game leaned. She didn’t. Calm led, and Wauwatosa East followed. Some players dominate by overwhelming a game. Litza dominates by settling it. The full story is up on Substack. 🔗 Link open.substack.com/pub/stateofspo… @MikaiaLitza @TosaEastGBB @DePaulWBBHoops

@jaypo1961 Thats the most AI hand Ive ever seen. Plus, you're the opposite of smart because they took his gun from the other side...

That would be his phone, which he held in his right hand from the beginning of the interaction. His firearm had, by this time, been removed from his holster by an agent.

How any top whatever list in Wisconsin doesn’t have @MikaiaLitza of the @TosaEastGBB at #1 is beyond me....

@mattmfm Not one of them rendering aid....

Video of the Minneapolis shooting on Reddit shows a group of ICE agents beating a man on the ground. One of the ICE agents then steps back and shoots the victim multiple times. A nearby witness says “they killed the guy.”

SELLINGER In The Middle Audrey Sellinger plays well when the game gets physical and possessions slow down. That showed up immediately this season. Wauwatosa @TosaEastGBB is undefeated, and opponents arrive with clear plans. They load the perimeter, chase shooters, and try to force the ball away from what East does best. What keeps breaking those plans is that there’s no shortage of weapons on this roster, and Audrey is one of them. Her impact shows up most clearly in tight space. Her footwork stays clean when defenders are on her body, and her balance doesn’t disappear when contact comes early. She doesn’t rush decisions just because the defense wants her to. In the paint, she reads before she reacts. She doesn’t commit to a move without knowing where the next option is. When the first look gets taken away, she stays grounded and moves into the counter. When defenders adjust again, she pivots and keeps her base underneath her. She absorbs contact before the ball goes up, which keeps finishes controlled and possessions alive. That control doesn’t stop inside. Audrey can get to the rim from the perimeter without needing a clean lane. She shifts defenders with small changes of pace, keeps her shoulders square, and arrives under control. When they find Audrey cutting to the lane, she arrives on balance and finishes at the rim. Timing matters more than speed for her, especially when defenders arrive early. She’s also a physical player. Sellinger rebounds through contact and plays through bodies. When she gets to the glass, she’s comfortable bringing the ball right back up. Her ability to secure a rebound and finish off it in one motion is consistent and difficult to disrupt. That carries across matchups. Against Kimberly, the game turns physical and possessions stack. Against Pewaukee, the perimeter gets crowded and the offense needs stability. Against Providence, the game slows and execution replaces momentum. It shows up most clearly against Brookfield East. They come in with a familiar idea. Load up on Makaia. Take away the arc. Disrupt the rhythm. With attention pulled outward, Audrey goes to work inside. She controls the glass, stays available as a release valve, and finishes through contact. Possession after possession, perimeter pressure turns into interior production without forcing the game. That’s who she is as a player. She doesn’t need touches called for her to stay involved. She stays connected to the action and keeps the offense intact when coverage leans too far in one direction. Her game works when defenses are organized and physical. That reliability is part of why this group stays balanced and keeps winning. Audrey Sellinger is one of the reasons opposing plans don’t hold for long. Follow State of Play Wisconsin for Wisconsin sports stories.

The story of Ellie Deprey doesn’t begin with a made three or a clean look from deep. It begins with a summer that never arrived. The summer of 2024 was taken by injury, removing live reps and the chance to sharpen timing at a point when most players are building momentum. What remained was rehab, repetition, and work done without the feedback of games or crowds. She returned and helped lead Wauwatosa East to a state championship, and what stood out wasn’t simply that she came back. It was how intact her game looked. Her base was solid, her mechanics consistent, and her shot appeared preserved rather than reconstructed. Whatever time had been lost to injury didn’t take the work with it. When her junior season began, opposing teams guarded her with intention from the opening possession. Closeouts came earlier than they wanted, and help defenders stayed home longer than most schemes prefer. She was picked up farther from the arc than most players ever are, not out of caution, but respect for what her shooting demands. That dynamic showed up when a nationally ranked Providence Academy Lions, winners of three straight state championships in Minnesota, stepped onto the floor at Tosa East. They came in with discipline, length, and a clear plan. It didn’t matter. Ellie put up 21 on them, not by forcing shots, but by staying ahead of the coverage possession after possession, punishing space when it appeared and remaining patient when it didn’t. Ellie doesn’t catch and shoot in the traditional sense. The ball rarely pauses, her feet are already set, and the release follows immediately. Add her range to that speed and the margin for error disappears. Shots that feel too far out for most players sit comfortably within her window, forcing defenders to make decisions earlier than they want to. They can execute the right coverage and still arrive late. As coverage leans harder in her direction, the rest of her game stays connected. Hard closeouts turn into drives, defenders running past her create pull-up opportunities, and early help opens clean reads and open teammates. The offense doesn’t lose its shape because her decisions stay controlled, and everything still begins with the threat of the shot. There’s another layer to her impact that doesn’t always show up on the stat sheet. Ellie is a leader, and real leadership tends to create more of itself. Teammates play with more confidence around her, responsibility spreads, and trust grows. That part of her game is real, and it deserves its own space, which we’ll return to later. That control is central to what Wauwatosa East does. Her shooting bends coverage, shortens reaction time, and forces opponents to commit defenders to her space. Even then, the margin for error keeps shrinking as possessions unfold. That’s the impact of real shooting. open.substack.com/pub/stateofspo…

Teams come in with a plan for Wauwatosa East. They think they know where the danger lives. I’ve watched those plans unfold, possession by possession, and I’ve watched them fail when they lose track of Emma Close. Too many teams treat her like a piece instead of the problem. They shade elsewhere, lose her, and pay for it. Leave her open if you want to. You’ll regret it. I saw it most clearly against Pewaukee. They lost her in transition, the ball swung once, and Emma buried it. The next trip down, they tried to recover late. Same result. By the time the timeout came, the damage was already done. Emma is a double-digit scoring threat in just about every game, and she’s comfortable with the ball in her hands. I’ve seen teams adjust and start guarding her tight. Defender slides one way, Emma’s already gone the other. One step into the lane, soft floater before the help arrives. Possession over. But where she separates herself is on the other end of the floor. She disrupts offense and forces decisions sooner than teams want to make them. Emma reads offenses like you read the paper. If you think the long pass is open, you’re already late. She doesn’t need a play called to change a game. Watch her jump a passing lane, turn it into a quick two, then pick up full court on the very next possession. That swing doesn’t come with fanfare, but it changes the feel of the game. This is a power squad with plenty of weapons. Still, the Raiders benefit in a very real way from what Emma Close brings every night. If you forget about her, she’ll remind you. Follow State of Play Wisconsin on Substack. open.substack.com/pub/stateofspo…

Tosa East doesn’t look for easy nights. They look for tests. A nationally ranked Providence team showed up, and every hesitation turned into points. Culture showed. Undefeated stays undefeated. Read: open.substack.com/pub/stateofspo… @TosaEastGBB

You can stay in the same cycle. Or you can change your choices and change the outcome. If the pattern keeps repeating, it’s not bad luck. It’s a signal. Sometimes you do it on your own. Sometimes you need help. Either way, growth starts with ownership. And nobody gets there alone.

Friday night was a neighborhood argument. Saturday turned it into a statewide conversation. @TosaEastGBB vs. @GBBKimberly, and the moment the floor tilted. Full story ⬇️ facebook.com/share/p/17vBmW…