Spring Jam: 17U Pool Preview

The Spring Jam at the Sanford Pentagon facility is this coming Saturday and Sunday and it will be the single most attended Grassroots event this year by teams from North Dakota and South Dakota in terms of percentage of teams at the 17U, 16U, and 15U levels competing plus it has an improved group of Minnesota teams this year as well as the normal Nebraska teams. <strong><u>17U Top Division (Blue)</u></strong> <strong>Pool A.</strong> Fury Kallman is the favorite led by USF offered Rocky Kreuser (Totino-Grace) as well as an excellent backcourt that includes Mykal Howard (St. Louis Park), Andrew Kallman (Chaska), and Brian Sitzmann (Prior Lake). They made the elite eight at the Comets Shootout and then won their pool last weekend in Iowa at the Midwest Live. Showtime Hoopers out of Iowa is an okay squad. They have Kyreese Peck playing up as their point guard with wing Marquise Bolden and James King producing on the sides. Nebraska Bison Red will be in their second event of the spring. They went 1-3 in Nebraska a couple weeks ago and need to improve to stay with the Fury. They are led by Carter Larson and Tommy Leininger. <strong>Pool B.</strong> The wide open group. The South Dakota Heat is playing their first tournament of the season and they are young with three 16U kids playing up, SW Minnesota Stars are playing in their second event of the year coming off a respectable showing in the NY2LA event, and the OSA Crusaders were winless in Iowa last weekend getting blown out terribly in three of the games and losing the other by nine (they were in the top pool of the event though). Who would we pick as the favorite? Based on the way they played last weekend we would say the Stars. The word to use for them is toughness. Spencer Smith is the top rated player while Derek Pendleton (CMC), Zach Bloemker (Marshall), and Jacob Christopher (JCC) are solid at guard. The Heat will be led by Sheldon Siemonsma (Dell Rapids) and Aaron Koupal (Elk Point-Jefferson) but the young guys they moved up (Mason Schmidt of Dell Rapids, Tate Gale of Irene-Wakonda, and Jeff Schuch of Dell Rapids) are talented kids. <strong>Pool C.</strong> The Dakota Phenom went 1-2 last weekend in the NY2LA event but this weekend they will have Aanen Moody and being fully stocked talent wise. In other words, they will be at their best and at their best they are an event favorite to win it. With 6-ft-6 versatile Austin Slaughter (GFRR), a top D2 point guard prospect KyJuan Johnson (Minot), D2 offered Wyatt Carr (Hazen), and of course one of the top scoring threats in the Midwest Aanen Moody (Dickinson) the Phenom should put together a nice weekend. Or at least have the opportunity to. Their opponents will be Select Ellis who is 3-4 after two events (Comets Shootout and Ny2LA) and the Power Basketball Club top squad plays their first event of the year.   Select Ellis has a guard that many want to see and that is Justin Ruhberg (St. Charles) as he had a fantastic junior campaign. He, Zeke-Carver Bagley (Minnetonka), Curtis Bell (St. Paul Washington), and Kaleb Nelson (Waseca) lead the club. The PBC Buus squad has a few impressive names including multi-all state player Seth Friesz (Chamberlain), Josh Mohs (Brookings), and 6-foot-8 Drew Jurgens (Brandon Vallley). The Phenom vs PBC match-up of Dakota squads is one that many are looking forward to. <strong>Pool D</strong>. BBA Force and their 7-1 record are the favorites and it only makes sense after they won their division of the Spring Tune U followed by a 3-1 showing in Chicago last weekend. That's a really nice start for Dejay Fykstra (SF Christian), Ethan Freidel (Tea), Wil Johnson (Harrisburg), Carson Coulter (Lincoln), Will Steineke (Tri-Valley), and company. They have a heck of a challenge to face in Comets K who will be a team college coaches will watch. Why? Because they have the best athlete and one of the hottest names in recruiting in Minnesota in Rob McClain Jr (Red Lake), they have one of the bigs that has surfaced in 6-foot-11 John Towner (LPGE), and they have a solid lead guard in Thunder Heyer (Zimmerman).   Comets K is 4-3 now after a tough weekend in the NY2LA. Nebraska Select is the third team in the division and we know little about them. &nbsp; <strong><u>17U Orange Division</u></strong> While the Orange Division only has eight times and a different format it is still a very interest tournament. We are going to break this group into three categories: Rookies, Unknowns, and Contenders. <strong>Rookies</strong>. Dakota Niners and PBC Knippling are locals playing in their first event of the Grassroots year.   The Niners won't have Bradley Dean (Pierre) in their opening weekend games so that is a blow but they usually bring a solid crew of South Dakota players.   PBC has Carter Kosiak (Lincoln) and Austin Eppard (Chester) in the post while Robert Vomacka (Gregory) and Noah Brown (Washington) are a couple names to watch in the backcourt. <strong>Unknowns</strong>. Showtime Hoopers White is the second time from the Iowa program. They didn't have much success early but are hoping to rebound. Last weekend they won their opener against the worst Kingdom Hoops team but then dropped double figure games to teams from Kansas before losing by three to Twin Cities Finest who has a 6-4 record. OSA Crusaders third squad went 1-3 in Iowa last weekend beating only the top team in their pool. <strong>Contenders</strong>. When it comes to Comets JL there is good and bad. What is the good? Ryan Warwick (Browerville) is a nice player who can shoot, Cam Decker (HLWW) knows how to produce points, Luke Dunsmoor (St. Cloud Apollo) gives frontcourt muscle, Jack Namyst (Grand Rapids) is good up front as well. The bad? They won their play-in game in the Comets Shootout but then lost all four of the remaining games that followed. ECI Selects is our pick to win this. Why? We like the scoring bunch of Brayden Uses Arrow (Solen) and Nate Symens (Bismarck Century), we like the size and potential of Collin Trottier (SF Sheyenne) and guys like Reece Hoherz (Beulah), Jacob Hanson (North Sargent), and Matt Thompson (West Fargo) are coming off nice years. Not to mention they won three of five games last weekend. D-17s is our other favorite and that is because they are basically a high school team (Fargo Davies) but a very good high school team with some quality prospects. Six-foot-6 Jake Paper and 6-foot-2 Matt Veit are coming off post-season honored years while Jaden Klabo had a really nice freshman season and Ty Setness is a big that can do a lot. The other squad is Select Leafblad. The Leafblad squad is 4-4 this year but a top 20 team in Minnesota who has already beat Twin Cities Finest and Comets JL this year and they have a load of dependable guards including Kipp Adams (Red Wing), Trey Sandness (SW Christian), Trevin Nelson (Chisago Lakes), and then there is 6-foot-6 Jake West (Prior Lake) up front.