Recruiting Report: Nate Albers
This fall when people were talking about the upcoming winter season how many of you expected Mounds View to be 19-3 and Mustang leader Nate Albers to be a top ten scorer in the state of Minnesota? All of you…
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Continue ReadingThis fall when people were talking about the upcoming winter season how many of you expected Mounds View to be 19-3 and Mustang leader Nate Albers to be a top ten scorer in the state of Minnesota? All of you with your hands raised are either green and white supporters/believers from their program or you are an extraordinary basketball mind.
Fact is Nate Albers and the Mounds View Mustangs have been far better than anybody expected with Nate scoring 25 plus each night and the Mustangs enjoying regular wins under Coach David Leiser.
Albers had 33 against White Bear Lake and heads turned. He scored 30 versus East Ridge three days later and people talked player of the week. Nate put up 35 on Stillwater pushing them to a key road victory. There was the 40of his team’s 68 on the road at East Ridge and the 38 last week at Benilde-St. Margaret’s.
“Nate has worked himself into being one of the top players in the Metro area,” Coach Leiser said. “He put in a “Mustang Summer” and has earned all of his success. One of Nate’s best attributes is that he is a tremendous listener with a very strong work ethic. We have challenged him to improve aspects of his play and he consistently does so and does not cut any corners.
“Since his career started at Mounds View, we challenged him to become more than just a shooter. We asked him to improve his ability to drive to the basket and he has become very effective off the dribble.
Lately, since he is being over played so frequently, we have asked him to improve on his back cuts. In just a short amount of time, he is now scoring regularly back cutting. We challenged him to improve in the post and he has become very effective on the block. He has worked himself into being a player who can sore in multiple ways.
“Nate’s best asset, however, remains as a long range shooter with a very quick release. He is very accurate from well beyond the three-point line. Some probably don’t realize it, but he is a very good defender. He has a knack for reading the body language of the opponent he is guarding and thus is consistently in good position.”
Albers has scored 944 points for his career based on MN Basketball Hub stats but there are a few programs in the metro who don’t turn in box scores so Nate is likely right on the verge a grand for his career.
More importantly is the team as that is what Nate cares about.
“We feel really good about our season so far because of how we are playing defensively and share the ball on offense,” said Albers. “To help reach our goals, which would be winning our conference and section, we’ll need to rebound harder with our lack of height against the bigger teams and get good play out of our guys who come off the bench as well.”
“Our team is currently 18-3 and challenging for the Suburban East Conference title,” Coach Leiser. “We are a very close knit team and we are leading our conference and section in fewest points allowed. We have several very good shooters and we move the ball very effectively.”
Albers receives support from senior Zeke Thom[son and junior Nick McMillan who are also double figure scorers who take pressure off Albers while Seniors Luke Swenson, River Thompson, and Tyler Fairchild do a great job in their supporting roles.
Nate is the leader though and all of the advancements of what he does each game has pushed him to being a top scorer in the state.
“I feel like I understand the game more when it comes to angles and who’s going to be open and hit a shot when we need them to,” said Albers about the top things he is doing better.
“I also think attacking the hoop and my ball handling have improved from last year. I’d say just being more of a leader for guys who haven’t been in these situations before and making sure we are playing for one another.”
And as Alex Conover reported a month ago, Nate is down to three schools and he remains wide open to those three MIAC programs.
“I have it narrowed down to Gustavus, St. Thomas and St. Olaf so those are the three I hear from. And right now I’m not really leaning towards one school more than another.”
Whomever gets Albers will be receiving a scoring option who will be able to produce because sooner rather than later.