The Race for Mr. Basketball
The Minnesota high school basketball year is less than a week old but it’s never too late to talk about The Race for Mr Basketball. Who is off to a great start? Find out. The Favorites Nathan Reuvers (Lakeville North).…
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Continue ReadingThe Minnesota high school basketball year is less than a week old but it’s never too late to talk about The Race for Mr Basketball. Who is off to a great start? Find out.
The Favorites
Nathan Reuvers (Lakeville North). The Panthers rolled over a struggling Century team by 59 points and Reuvers scored his 22 points and then rested the legs for much of the season half. This weekend Reuvers and the Panthers take on Daniel Oturo and the CDH Raiders in a match-up of two of the state’s top bigs.
McKinley Wright (Champlin Park). How does a favorite for Mr. Basketball kick off the season? 27 points, ten rebounds, and six assists will do it. Wright weaved through the JM Rocket defense like a Ferrari cruising through South Beach traffic. They could do nothing with him. Next for the Rebels? Tre Jones and the Apple Valley Eagles.
Brad Davison (Maple Grove). Right now Brad is just itching to play I’m sure. That Player of the Year football trophy looks nice, but Brad is tired of looking at box scores of others. He’s ready for the weekend double header of Rogers and then DeLaSalle to kick off the year.
Goanar Mar (DeLaSalle). Goanar made a statement on night one with 27 points on only ten shots. He hit three treys, made most of his several free throw attempts, plus defended the Hoover best player and shut him down in half two. Add in the 19 he scored in a blowout last night and the fact that he is working to be a four time state champ and this is a guy that belongs with the favorites.
Contenders
Ishmael El-Amin (Hopkins). El-Amin is the one guy on this contenders list that we should maybe talk about boosting up to the favorites area. El-Amin exploded for 32 in the opener against Cedar Falls and his 18 point early second half run was the momentum swinger. Last night El-Amin scored another 27 points as the Royals beat Columbia Heights by 30+.
Simon Wright (Hopkins). Simon may not have the big scoring numbers in the end, but his all around play could possibly get him final five consideration. He had a double-double in the opener (16/10) and is a fantastic player on both ends of the floor for a team that will win a lot.
Jericho Sims (Cristo Rey). The Texas signed talent had 16 points, 15 rebounds, and 9 assists in his season opener but his team was beat last night by Park of Cottage Grove 67-52. No details on who played well have made the public airwave yet.
Myles Hanson (Watertown-Mayer). Myles gets better every year. I feel like every season he’s doing just a little more than you would expect. He exploded in the season opener for 31 points against Eagan in a 20 point win. Hanson had 20 last night in a comeback victory over Tonka.
Trae Berhow (Watertown-Mayer). Berhow has led his team to a couple local wins over area rivals (Mayer Lutheran and HLWW) and he put down a nasty hammer dunk on Mayer Lutheran that people out there are still talking about. Heck, kids at neighboring schools were talking about it. One kid asked me at our school if I could lower the hoops for him to try it on. Anyway, Berhow is off to a nice start.
Bryce Irsfeld (Browerville). Browerville is winning again. Bryce has now went over 2,000 points for his career. His team is competing for a state title. It’s tough for an outstate small school player to get into the final five for this award but Irsfeld has a chance because he can do the things to make his resume look excellent.
Theo John (Champlin Park). Can Theo John win the award playing with a guard like McKinley? I doubt it but he could make the top five. Against Rochester JM on a big state Theo had 19 points, 7 boards, 7 assists, and 3 blocks but also several turnovers. He didn’t miss a shot all game. It was a nice start for Theo.
Jordan Horn (Tartan). In the Tartan debut against Richfield, Horn scored 24 points as the Titans routed their opponents 84-57. Horn and the Titans should have an excellent year and if they can take out a couple of section opponents and make state, his name will be considered for that final five.
What About?
Chase Grinde (Spring Grove). Considering the way that Spring Grove beat Minneapolis North this past summer at the Breakdown State Tournament some had mentioned that Chase should be in this conversation. Should he? Shouldn’t he? The future will tell us. Right now Chase has the Lions at 3-0 as his team has beat up a couple teams on the road and beat a good Iowa team (Decorah).
Senior Name to Know
Jake Hall (Rockford). Before the season started Rockford Head Coach Michael Tauber told us that Jake Hall was one of the hardest workers he had seen. After 8.8 points per game we thought maybe he should be a top 250 senior prospect. Jake then opened the season with 38 in the opener! “Forget 8 coach, I’ll just score 38 instead.” Sounds good.