Podcast: The biggest winners of the 2025 grassroots basketball season

Antonio Pemberton was among New England's breakout stars in AAU. (Anoke Deitg-Blanchard)

The grassroots basketball season goes by in a blur.

After less than four months, we’ve watched New England’s top AAU programs assert themselves on national circuits. We’ve also seen elite players break out and climb to great heights as both local stars and college prospects.

Steve Hewitt and Ethan Fuller catch up to reflect on the 2025 season. They look back at their experiences covering AAU and discuss the teams that shined during July’s championship weekends.

Steve and Ethan also each rank their top five stock-risers from the entire spring and summer, explaining what has each player on the ascension.

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Highlights

Steve on Quinn Costello’s national rise:

“I think he’s always been a shooter. He’s a 6-foot-10 shooter and that’s always gonna pique colleges’ interest. But I think he just really ratcheted up his inside game, his aggressiveness. He really started crashing the glass a lot more, attacking the rim, taking guys off the bounce, running the floor in transition. He’s kind of just kind of put it more all together. I want to say (he was) maybe a little inconsistent over the year at Newman. I think he was really challenged there this year. Don’t get me wrong, he still had some great moments there and was a big reason why they won the championship, but he just took it to another level.”

Ethan on Bella Owumi’s national rise:

“If you kind of take a step back and look at these couple months, it’s very validating for everyone who has watched her for a couple years. … Bella, I’m sure, had this level of confidence and self-assurance. I’m sure the people close around her knew. But for someone like me who just doesn’t have the same kind of national context — for her to debut at No. 32 in the ESPN 2027 rankings, that’s very validating. I knew she was really good and now I can put that in the context of other top prospects in the country.”

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