What is life without fun? And what brings more fun than fantasying with what can happen in the future and building our own dream scenarios?

That’s why I’m here today, to try and predict who will be featured on the 2025 MCDAAG come next Monday, January 27th. Don’t get me wrong, though. I won’t just throw some names of prospects I like. Nope. I will be looking at what has happened in the past based on that, come up with a 24-player roster and some snubs.

In order to do this exercise, I will be using information from World Exposure Report Player Rankings of recruits.  I will break down the data, try to find trends, and then kind of predict what could happen to the 2025 HS class in terms of this or that player being or not selected to be part of the McDonald’s showdown. Let’s get it poppin’.

Top-10 Prospects Are Almost Locked-In

Top-11 to Top-30 Prospects Are Solid Picks

The bulk of the snubs have come from prospects ranked No. 24 to No. 30, so we can more or less assume that any player inside the Top-23 have a really good chance of making the final MCDAAG roster (to they have an 80.5 percent chance of making it next year).

2023 No. 27 Oluchi Okananwa (snub)
2023 No. 28 Sayvia Sellers (snub)
2023 No. 29 Delaney Thomas (snub)
2023 No. 30 Reniya Kelly (snub)
2024 No. 24 Tajianna Avant-Roberts (snub)
2024 No. 25 Britt Prince (snub)
2024 No. 26 Avary Cain (snub)
2024 No. 27 Kiyomi Miller (snub)
2024 No. 29 Danielle Carnegie (snub)

Players Ranked No. 31 Or Lower Are Random Roster Fillers

One good clue when looking at potential picks from that group can be their position in their home state rankings.  That’s something to be definitely considered when predicting future classes.

2023 No. 31 Addy Brown (selected)
2023 No. 32 Amanda Muse (selected)
2024 No. 30 Zania Socka-Nguemen (selected)
2024 No. 31 Me'Arah O'neal (selected)

Five-star Recruits and Top-Position-Prospects Rarely Get Snubbed

83.6 percent of the five-star recruits make it to the McDonald’s All-American Game on a yearly basis.

The past two seasons ESPN HoopGurlz has increased the total number of 5 stars compared to 247, On3, and World Exposure Report player rankings. So are there really that many 5 stars or is it just a safe bet for ESPN to do so.  If so, it makes it difficult to choose which player really deserves a spot on the McDonald's All-American team. 

When looking at positional rankings, rarely clear position players not get picked  while being labeled Combo Guards will cause you to not make the team. It is a little harder to asses their true skill level given their different roles.

 

There Is Always A Positional Balance

If we consider each class to feature 24 players, it has normally featured the following structure: 12 Guards, 4 Wings, 6 Forwards, and 2 Centers. (Prior to 2023: 5 PGs, 6 SGs, 4 SFs, 6 PFs, and 3 Cs.)

 

So, How Could The 2025 MCDAAG Rosters Look Like?

Taking all of the information gathered from the past  into account, we can kind of project a potential roster for next year’s event already. 

I’d work in “rounds” of picking players until I get to the full 24-prospect roster, starting with the most obvious picks and filling the holes taking the knowledge we gathered from the data set into account.

• First Round Picks

Almost 90 percent of Top-10 prospects are selected. 

The ten prospects selected would be: Aaliyah Chavez/ Monterey HS (PG), Sienna Betts/ Grandview HS (F/C), Jasmine Davidson/ Clackamas (SG), Aaliyah Crump/ Montverde Academy (SG), Grace Knox/Etiwanda HS (SF), Emilee Skinner/ Ridgeline HS (PG), Darianna Alexander/ Purcell Marian HS (SF), Hailee Swain/ Holy Innocents' (PG), and Jordan Speiser/Lutheran HS (SG).

Roster construction so far: 3 PGs, 3 SGs,  2 SFs, 0 PF, 1 Cs - 9 Players

• Second Round Picks

One of the most heavily featured positions on the McDonald’s Game is that of the point guard. The 2025 class is loaded with several high quality Point Guards and given that we  have 3  on our roster and we only want 5. There will be a lot of snubs at this position. 

Between prospects ranked No. 11 to No. 30 we have four PGs: Mia Pauldo, Alyahna Morris, Destiny Jackson, Leonna Sneed, and Kelis Fisher. 2 of them make it, but Morris, Jackson, and Sneed will be our first 3 snubs. Even though, ESPN has Kelis Fisher ranked after Morris, Jackson, and Sneed, we don't think McDonald's All-American voters are going to have a showcase that does not feature a UConn commit. 

 Roster construction so far: 5 PGs, 3 SGs,  2 SFs, 0 PF, 1 Cs -  11 Players 

• Third Round Picks

To this point, 11 players make our roster. Of those 11, all of them are five-star recruits. As of today, there are 20 more players considered five-star prospects in the class of 2025, and given that on average almost 84 percent of them are MCDAAG , we still have have to pick the five-star players to make the team.

Of the remaining five-star players, and as the roster is constructed right now, the most probable thing is that Power Forwards would be picked in this third round.

Leah Macy has scored over 3,000 points and has been named to the Naismith Midseason team.  
Brynn McGaughy has been named to the Naismith Midseason team.  
Jaliya Davis is averaging 23 points per game and 9 rebounds. 
Lara Somfai has been named to the Naismith Midseason team and is considered a future WNBA prospect.

 Roster construction so far: 5 PGs, 3 SGs,  2 SFs, 4 PF, 1 Cs -  15 Players 

• Fourth Round Picks

We’re only nine players away from the full 24-men 2025 MCDAAG roster, and  SGs/Wings are also prominent each year. This is another position that is extremely deep with 5 stars, so you will see a lot of great players getting snubbed. 

I’m going to pass on Keeley Parks, Taliyah Henderson, Nylah Wilson, and Isabella Hines. Hines and Henderson was on the bubble but I felt McDonald's voters would not add Hines because LSU already have 3 slots on the team and there is no way a McDonald's voter is going to leave off a South Carolina commit. 

The 7 remaining 5- star recruits that will make the 2025 MCDAAG will be Divine Bourrage, Zakiyah Johnson, Deniya Prawl, Kaelyn Carroll, Ayla McDowell,  Addison Deal, Nyla Brooks ( only makes the team because  Agot Makeer/ Montverde Academy (CG) has not played in the States that long.) 

Roster construction so far: 5 PGs, 6 SGs,  6 SFs, 4 PF, 1 Cs -  22 Players 

• Fifth Round Picks

Welcome to the round where the final four players of the game will be picked.

Given how the players are spread over the five positions, the most logical remaining picks would be geared toward an athletic wing and forward from the east. Let’s see what is available and make the most sense.

The forward selections goes to  Madison Francis who played for the USA Team and is ranked by ESPN No. 39/ WER No. 31 and the Wing selection goes to Jaida Civil (WER No. 20/ ESPN No. 32). 

Roster construction so far: 5 PGs, 6 SGs,  7 SFs, 5 PF, 1 Cs -  24 Players 

Final 2025 McDonald’s All-American Game Roster

After all, this is what we have come up with:

• Point Guards (5): No. Hailee Swain, Mia Pauldo, Aaliyah Chavez, Emilee Skinner
• Shooting Guards (6): No.  Nyla Brooks, Divine Bourrage, Addison Deal, Jasmine Davidson, Jordan Speiser, Aaliyah Crump.
• Small Forwards (7): No. 10 Zakiyah Johnson,  Deniya Prawl, Jaida Civil, Darianna Alexander, Grace Knox, Ayla McDowell, Kaelyn Carroll
• Power Forwards (5): Leah Macy, Madison Francis, Brynn McGaughy, Jaliya Davis, Lara Somfai
• Centers (1):  No. 3 Sienna Betts

 

Some notable snubs: No. 24 WER/ No. 29 ESPN Keeley Parks (G), No. 32 WER/ No. 30 ESPN Isabella Hines (G), No. 25 WER/ No. 24 ESPN Alyahna Morris (PG), No. 27 WER/ No. 25 ESPN Destiny Jackson (PG), No. 42 WER/ No. 26 ESPN Leonna Sneed (PG), No. 23 WER/ No. 23 ESPN Taliyah Henderson (SF), No. 30 WER/ No. 28 ESPN Nylah Wilson (SG), No. 29 WER/ No. 31 ESPN Alexandra Eschmeyer (PF)


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East

Name	College
Hailee Swain	Stanford
Mia Pauldo	Tennessee
Kelis Fisher	UConn
Nyla Brooks	North Carolina
Aaliyah Crump	Texas
Zakiyah Johnson	LSU
Deniya Prawl	Tennessee
Jaida Civil	Tennessee
Kaelyn Carroll	Kentucky
Lara Somfai	Stanford
Leah Macy	Notre Dame
Madison Francis	Mississippi State

 

West

Name	College
Aaliyah Chavez	Uncommitted
Emilee Skinner	Duke
Divine Bourrage	LSU
Addison Deal	Iowa
Jasmine Davidson	USC
Jordan Speiser	Kansas State
Darianna Alexander	Cincinnati
Grace Knox	LSU
Ayla McDowell	South Carolina
Brynn McGaughy	Washington
Jaliya Davis	Kansas
Sienna Betts	UCLA