PHD Commentary: 2017 or 2008?

<p>PHD has been doing a lot of talking about the North Dakota class of 2017 so we were starting to wonder, is this the top D1 group of North Dakota talent in a long, long time?</p><p>So far <strong>Siman Sem</strong> and <strong>Jordan Meidinger </strong>have been offered by, and committed to North Dakota State.  Not to mention <strong>Wyatt Carr</strong> has two D2 offers already. </p> <p>The list will grow too as you know <strong>Austin Slaughter and Aanen Moody</strong> will get something plus we are hearing really good things about <strong>Jacon Mertens, Justin Engg, KyJuan Johnson, Nate Symens, and Deyondre Simpson</strong> lately amongst others. </p> <p>Can the group add more D1 talent?  That depends on how the kids develop.  Moody definitely has a quick releasing high percentage stroke and as he matures into his frame Slaughter has a chance to develop as well.  Good size. </p> <p>Can the 2017 group be the best ever?  Or at least best in awhile?</p> <p>PHD was reminded recently that in 2008 <strong>Jordan Allard and Jordan May </strong>went to North Dakota, <strong>Luke Martinez</strong> went to junior college at Williston State and then on to Wyoming, and of course <strong>Austin Dufault</strong> blew up on the Grassroots circuit over the summer grabbing several offers before choosing Colorado.</p> <p>I’ll never forget writing about Dufault for Minnesota.Rivals.com (Gopher Illustrated is the other name for the publication) when he was doing the Jordan two ball pose with the Killdeer water tower in the background.  One of the coolest photos ever.</p> <p>The 6-foot-9, 225 pound Dufault was in the Colorado rotation from day one playing 31 minutes a game as a freshman and scoring 8.2 points per contest his first year.  Austin finished his career putting up 11.1 points per game as a senior and in total he scored 1,076 career points and not many guys can say they scored four digit points at the high major level in their career.</p> <p>As far as May and Allard go, May never played in a game for UND but Allard found a role as a worker reserve who played in just about every game as a sophomore, junior, and senior. </p> <p>Then there is Luke Martinez.  Luke was one of the top scorers in junior college basketball at Williston State earning second team All American honors.  He was at Wyoming for three years red-shirting his first because of injury and then scoring a dozen points a game as one of the top shooters in the Mountain West as a junior.</p> <p>His senior year Luke was leading the team in points, steals, and three-point shooting before breaking his hand and getting suspended for the rest of the year.  Word is he could be playing for the Reno Bighorns this year.</p> <p>Martinez played at Bismarck High while May and Allard are Fargo area talents and Dufault from Killdeer.  May, Allard, and Dufault were all Mr. Basketball finalists with Austin winning the award after putting up incredible numbers as a senior.</p> <p>As far as the juniors to be, too early to tell.  Meidinger and Moody are trying to bring up the Dickinson program, Sem is hoping to lead Fargo North into a new and better era, Slaughter is apart of a Grand Forks Red River team with high expectations, Johnson and Engg will have bigger roles as Minot defends the state title, Simpson wants to lead his team back to state, Devils Lake is so young a lot could happen there for Mertens, and Carr is a monster at Hazen.</p> <p>They are all entering their prime so it’s too early to tell if they can match what the top 2008 guys did in high school and/or college.</p> <p>So between Dufault and Martinez, 2008 has two guys that went west and had really productive years.  NDSU is hoping that Sem and Meidinger can produce in similar ways.  Who knows, maybe the touch of Moody, toughness of Carr, or the potential of Slaughter gets them to a similar position. Time will tell.</p>