NY2LA Lone Star Invitational: Sunday Standouts
The NY2LA Lone Star Invitational finished up quite well for Minnesota as the Comets DLR squad won the 17U top division bracket while the Comets Lewis and Grassroots Minnesota top teams finished the weekend 4-0 and Select Ohnstad got a…
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Continue ReadingThe NY2LA Lone Star Invitational finished up quite well for Minnesota as the Comets DLR squad won the 17U top division bracket while the Comets Lewis and Grassroots Minnesota top teams finished the weekend 4-0 and Select Ohnstad got a nice win. Here are some of the standouts from Sunday in Texas.
Matt Carik (Comets DLR/Rogers, PG). Love his toughness. Love the way he runs the team. There was a lot of trash talking opponents this weekend and Matt backed down from none of them. Runs his team with toughness and discipline, a much better prospect than we realized.
Aaron Gill (Grassroots MN/School of Record Arts, PF). Right now Aaron is about a 6-foot-4 jumping jack of a power forward that has moved from Indiana to St. Paul. Where will he play next winter? Who knows as his school doesn’t have a co-op yet. Whoever gets him is getting a double figure rebounder. Aaron had ten points and 11 rebounds including the game clinching alley-oop dunk.
Bryce Irsfeld (Comets Lewis/Browerville). Is Bryce Irsfeld a division one caliber point guard? I say comfortably without a doubt yes. He’s just doesn’t make mistakes. He had athletes from SYF Players and Playground Elite all over him and Bryce refused to make a mistake or getting turned off his path. His performance in running time wins over groups of future D1 athletes was nearly flawless running the team plus he hit a couple key shots from distance to put those games away. He is a D1 level point guard but the question is, with so few D1 teams in this surrounding area, will one of them that needs a PG take him? Something to watch.
Xavier Johnson (Grassroots MN/Hopkins, G). Xavier had one of those explosive games knocking out four treys, made all of his ten foul shots, and totaled 34 points on 10 of 17 shooting as the Rashard Lewis Elite team was not able to keep up their defensive effort. Johnson was struggling early but once the RL9 guys got soft on defense Xavier attacked them relentlessly.
Trevor Koenig (Comets DLR/St. Cloud Tech, C). When watching Trevor in the semi-final a college coach said “what D1s are looking at him” and I said right now D2s are just trying to get ahold of him. The coach was stunned. Why? Because Trevor is not only a left-handed big that runs well, is good in the hips, and has a nice touch, but because he scored an active 14 (team high) to bring his team to the final. Scored three times in the final as well.
Zac Olson (Comets DLR/WEM, SF). Olson looks like more of a four man because of his strong build but he has transformed his game in a way that is rarely seen becoming a true three man for the Comets. Coach DLR commonly plays Olson with two frontcourt players and the production works perfectly. Olson knocked out three championship game treys yesterday plus scored on the move. His highlight was ten points in the first five minutes and he went on to score 18 in the title game win. Another excellent game for Olson. Zac also knocked out a couple treys and key foul shots in the semi-final win.
Jalen Suggs (Grassroots MN/Minnehaha Academy, Guard). RL9 was wild in a lot of ways. They were trash talking, active but inconsistent, they were aggressive and cheap, and there was an incredible amount of trash talking from their coach and fans. How do the 2020 Jalen Suggs react to it? He really didn’t. Just kept playing for another 16 points. A very consistent weekend for him on a 4-0 squad.
Derek Thompson (Comets Lewis/Rocori). Derek is without a doubt growing on me. Saw him make a three on Sunday, watched him quickly bounce to the rim for six first half points every game, and watched him consistently be in position and work hard on the defensive end. A guy standing 6-foot-8 with this much agility is going to be a very good player in the NSIC.
Noah Whalen (Select/Tartan, SG). If Noah was as good in the two games that we didn’t watch as the two we did watch he had a transforming weekend. A breakout weekend even. Noah knocked out a handful of treys in the win over the Illinois Celtics including four scores in the second half all with the jumper touch and on defense he was active and positioned as well as we have seen him. Looks a legit 6-foot-3 and stronger.