Breakdown Summer Showcase: Ten Takeaways from Mankato
NHR spent Sunday morning in the Glen Taylor Center checking out talent at the first Breakdown Summer Showcase of the summer. Prior Lake was a team that caught our eye the most and they lead the way with our “Ten…
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Continue ReadingNHR spent Sunday morning in the Glen Taylor Center checking out talent at the first Breakdown Summer Showcase of the summer. Prior Lake was a team that caught our eye the most and they lead the way with our “Ten Takeaways From the Breakdown Summer Showcase”.
One. Trent West has our attention. The 6-foot-7 Prior Lake forward hit four treys in his three games in Mankato, he went baseline for an impressive jam, and at his size with more developed skills than we expected West is becoming a prospect to know. His size, agility, and timing of development seems to parallel what Eli Cave did at this time last year.
Two. Prior Lake had seven guys and among those guys only West, Jacob Fredrickson, and Casey Gustina played much last year (Brian Sitzmann and 8th grader Dawson Garcia where not there). Fredrickson battled for double-double level numbers and Gustina did an excellent job running the team.
Three. Prior Lake beat Mankato East, Orono, and Austin on their way to winning the weekend championship. In addition to the three returning players that played strong roles Pat Bernick and Jack Nusbaum also had strong days. Nusbaum hit three treys in both games we watched while Nusbaum was the leading scorer against Orono.
Four. Oman Oman had 19 points in the second half to beat Delano in an excellent first round game. The 6-foot-5 Packer power forward had three And1s in the win, faced up and hit a couple jumpers, made all his free throws, and overall was too strong with a touch for Delano to deal with. He continues to be one of the most improved players we’ve seen in the senior class this spring.
Five. The Gach twins seem too tough for teams to defend unless they have two athletic wins. Both is a sharp shooter and showed that with his five trey makes in the weekend championship. Duoth is a more all around talent who doesn’t shoot at the arc as well as Both but likely does everything else at a pretty high level. Loved his work rate Duoth had double digits in every game and had a key nine point run against Delano.
Six. Derek Techam’s shooting touch was likely the main thing that got him on the court as a Delano freshman and it will keep him there for a long time as will his court IQ. Austin had trouble pulling away from the Tigers because of Techam’s deep touch making four second half jumpers.
Seven. Mitch Weber won an event for St. Clair as a sophomore in the state Track & Field event on Saturday and then came out and led his basketball team on Sunday. St. Clair was missing there top two guards but they had Weber who scored 21 of his team’s first 27 points in the semi-final. Mitch really impressed us the way he defender and verbally led his team on both ends plus he had two double-doubles in three games and hit some jumpers.
Eight. Love the poise, skill, and demeanor of young Hutchinson point guard Brandon Adelman. Everything he does is high percentage and calculated in terms of each dribble, pass, shot attempt, etc. There is some flare to him as well but overall this is a trusted young player with a three point touch. Hutchinson may finally have the guy to lead them to some success that they have long been waiting for.
Nine. Adelman isn’t alone at Hutch, Mitchell Halvorson is a physical wing player with the strength to do things in the paint but the skill and competitive fight to play with most on the arc as well. Loved his competitive edge against St. Clair.
Ten. James Pendleton and Calvin Wishart are two guys we also saw who played well. We didn’t give them a massive mention here simply because they did a lot of what we’ve seen them do in the past and it worked well for them. Both played well in Mankato.