Coach's Take: Duez Henderson

tonyroe, thines21 and I certainly provided our fair share of player evaluations this spring and summer, but we thought we'd give the guys who know the kids best a chance to be vocal: the coaches. <h2>Duez Henderson: Pump 'N Run program director</h2>2016 Mitch Burger, Cedar Rapids Xavier, 5’11 PG “Mitchell is a very athletic, shifty point guard, who can make plays on both ends of the floor. Obviously looking at him at first glance the first thing that jumps out to you is his size, but I think his athleticism and quickness makes up for that. The kid, as you guys saw watching him play, he is fearless, I think that’s one of his biggest attributes. He plays with an intensity and an aggressiveness that really serves him well. He’s confident and has enough gumption to make things happen, and I think that helps him to excel. He got some Division II and Division III interest towards the end of the summer, but he has no firm offers right now.” 2016 Ryan Stulken, Cedar Rapids Xavier, 6’7 SF “Ryan has a great, great body. He fits a perfect three body-type, he’s kind-of a prototype three. He has flashes, and same thing in high school, he would have quarters where you think, ‘gosh, this could be a all-state kid.’ Where he projects at the next level I’m not quite sure, but I know that if he does what he’s supposed to, he could set himself up to have a really nice senior season at Xavier and garner some interest from some programs. He’s one of those kids that every time I saw him from one week to the next it looks like he put on four or five more pounds of muscle and grew another half-inch.” 2016 Adam Wall, Cedar Rapids Kennedy, 6’9 C “People will see that he’s 6’9 or 6’10 and think he should be able to dominate on the offensive end. I think that his offensive game is growing, but the things that Adam does on the defensive end is what sets him apart, he really does a great job of disrupting plays. He’s one of those players who at the end of a game may have two or three shots blocked, but he’ll alter many more, he’ll hedge on pick-and-rolls, and he’s just really disruptive on the defensive end of the floor. As he continues to get better, and continues to work, I think the offense will come along. But the things he can do defensively makes him a real intriguing player in the MVC next season, I believe.” 2016 Braydon Smith, West Liberty, 6’4 F “An absolute work-horse. He’s called on to guard a lot of guys who are a lot bigger than him, a lot stronger than him, but Brady just has a motor that allows him to play a lot bigger than his size. He does a lot of great things on both ends of the floor. He’s one of those guys who I don’t know if he had a play ran for him all summer, but he still found ways to score; whether it was in-and-out of transition running the floor hard, or hitting it off the glass, or taking advantage of mismatches. He’s one of those glue-guys, I think the word glue-guy is overused, but he’s the epitome of that. He just works his tail off, plays extremely hard, and I think those attributes are able to compensate for the things he may be lacking athleticism-wise, or skill-wise. But he’s definitely a valuable member of that team, and looking forward to him having a great senior year as well.” 2017 Garrett Rickels, Calamus-Wheatland, 5’9 PG “Garrett is a great all-around athlete. Right now his athleticism carries him a lot, he has a really good love for the game. He’s been in our program for a few years, and he’s just really steady. He may not jump off the page at you at an AAU tournament and some of the bigger events we play in, but man he does a lot of things that coaches notice that makes him very attractive for a team, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what kind of junior year he has. He’s a kid that gets better year-in and year-out, and he’ll be looked upon to carry a big load at Calamus-Wheatland this year.” 2017 Brett Kelting, Calamus-Wheatland, 6’4 SF “Brett’s a good scorer, he’s just one of those guys that finds a way to put the ball in the basket. He doesn’t really have a position, he’s one of those guys that if there’s someone smaller than him, he’ll make them pay inside, and then by the time you switch and put a bigger guy on him, he’ll get loose and hit two or three 3s. He’s just very crafty at his approach to scoring and he can score in a lot of different ways, which makes him a tough match up, especially at the high school level.” 2017 Tristan Timmerman, Mediapolis, 6’2 G “He’s very similar to the Rickels kid from Calamus-Wheatland. He’s a very good athlete, he plays four sports at Mediapolis. He does a lot of great things on both ends of the floor. He did a lot with that (16U) group, whether is was to score or bring the ball up against pressure. He’s just one of those all-purpose utility guys that really sticks out and really adds a lot of value to the team. I look forward to him having a really good year at Mediapolis as well.”