Recruiting report: Matt Nester (2016)
COLUMBIA — St. Louis University High 2016 point guard Matt Nester is among St. Louis’ premier perimeter shooters and helped lead the Junior Bills to the Missouri Class 4 Final Four this past weekend. A 5-foot-11, 175-pound point guard, Nester…
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Continue ReadingCOLUMBIA — St. Louis University High 2016 point guard Matt Nester is among St. Louis’ premier perimeter shooters and helped lead the Junior Bills to the Missouri Class 4 Final Four this past weekend.
A 5-foot-11, 175-pound point guard, Nester made 88 3-pointers and shot 48.6 percent from long distance. He averaged 12.9 points per game, led the squad with 116 assists (4.3 per game) and brought leadership to the squad.
“He has been solid, he runs the show and is a great shooter whenever he gets his feet set and gets in a rhythm,” SLUH head coach Erwin Claggert said. “He opens the floor up and spaces things out for us really well.”
Nester said he is a strong outside shooter and has improved his ability to get his outside shots off when guarded.
“I can get it off quick, but I still struggle with length,” Nester said. “I would say that I am pretty smart with the ball, I try to make the right play. It’s not always about assists, it is about the play before that that sets up the assists and I try to make that happen.”
Nester also takes pride in being named a captain and took his leadership role with the Bills seriously.
“Coach had me be a captain since my sophomore year, so I’ve really been able to transform my leadership abilities,” Nester said.
Nester has signed to play next season at Washington, an NCAA Division III school located in his hometown St. Louis. He said he also had an offer from NYU, but said the choice was an easy one in the end. He suffered an ruptured spleen during the offseason and missed much of the AAU grassroots season.
“It didn’t go perfectly as planned, but everything happens for a reason,” Nester said. “I’m going to go to a great school and great program and hopefully contribute there, so I have nothing to complain about.”
Nester said he hopes to start with a pre-med major at Washington and go from there.
Nester played with St. Louis Gateway during the offseason and said that experience helped him grow as a player.
“It really pushed me to work hard and improve my work ethic, and it helped me improve at defense,” Nester said. “I could always shoot the ball, but I couldn’t really play defense as a freshman and sophomore, and junior year. I was a defensive liability. As a senior, I’m still not the best defender, but I can guard a little bit better now.
“Playing at that level of competition, you’re going to automatically get better.”
Nester said he hopes to spend the offseason working on attacking the basket better as he prepares for a college career.
“I need to work on my first step and selling which way I am going to go with my body language and utilize a pump fake because of my shooting ability,” Nester said. “And when I get in the paint, knowing what to do with it — dish it off, shoot it, step-back, pull-up — working on all that stuff.”