Ten Best: Mpls North vs Minnehaha Academy
The loss of Minnehaha Academy’s JaVonni Bickham was a blow to this game. There is no other way to look at it. Without the division one level 6-foot-6 big the Red Hawks just didn’t have the size position by position to defend…
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Continue ReadingThe loss of Minnehaha Academy’s JaVonni Bickham was a blow to this game. There is no other way to look at it. Without the division one level 6-foot-6 big the Red Hawks just didn’t have the size position by position to defend a very long and talented Minneapolis North team.
Polar junior Odell Wilson had 21 points and eight rebounds as the Hawks just couldn’t move him out of the post. Isaac Johnson is a 6-foot-5 wing playing the three and Johnson’s length edge of five inches allowed him to get good looks all contest for 22 points. Tayler Johnson plays the two and at 6-foot-3 he put together a double-double of 13 points and ten rebounds as the Redhawks couldn’t keep Tayler away from the basket when he had the ball, or when he moved to the rim without it. Sophomore Polar guard Nasir El-Amin contributed another nine points.
Minnesota Head Coach Richard Pitino and three of his assistants, Iowa State head Coach Steve Prohm, plus assistants from Baylor, Nebraska-Omaha, and North Dakota State all watched the game looking at all the young talent. The high major programs have all offered Jalen Suggs and they watched the ninth grader score 32 points making 10 of 20 shots including three treys and 9 of 12 foul shots. Kaden Johnson supported with another dozen points.
MVP: Isaac Johnson. Isaac had 22 points as the Redhawks didn’t have a player on the floor that could stop him from getting solid looks. Johnson’s size edge allowed him to knock out three early treys, scoring in transition, and put up an efficient scoring game.
Best Offensive Performance: Jalen Suggs. Suggs was the game star win or lose. His putback that gave him a ouble-double has made it’s way to You Tube and you saw the efficient numbers listed below. He made half of his ten shots and most of his foul shots. The pull-up from NBA range was memorable.
Best Defensive Performance: North Everywhere else. Jalen scored, and scored a lot. The Redhawks didn’t get much production elsewhere. It was a quiet game for most of their team as North had bigger, stronger, and faster athletes in front of them.
Best Guy Off the Bench: Nasir El-Amin. The sophomore contributed 11 points on six shots and did a fine job of defending the opposition. Handled some when Sanders was sitting and played an all around strong game.
Best Coaching Decision: Odell Touches. North got the ball to Odell Wilson in several ways in the first half and nobody on the floor could move Odell off his base. Every turn he made was on balance and often led to good things. He scored 21 points for North and with JaVonni Bickham out Minneahaha couldn’t stop him.
Best Under the Radar Performance: Luke Burnham. Kaden Johnson likely had the second best game for Minnehaha scoring a dozen but it wasn’t under the radar. I had no idea who Luke was before this game but the 6-foot-4 post scored four times in clever ways finding space against the Polar length.
Best Underclassmen: Suggs. This is the easiest question I’ve ever had to answer.
Best Story to watch Moving Forward: How will Minnehaha do without Bickham? Ja’Vonni missed the Totino-Grace and Minneapolis North games and the Redhawks lost both. Based on the time table given Bickham is likely to miss the next 9-10 games after that too and those are against teams like St. Louis Park, Tonka, Hopkins, Caledonia, and others so it will be a tough road.
Best Aspect of the Game: The Coaches. When Richard Pitino and his staff, Steve Prohm of Iowa State, an assistant from Baylor, and the North Dakota State assistants were courtside and watching the fans knew they were in the place to be.
Don’t Forget!: Tayler Johnson. This was one of the better games I’ve seen Tayler play and the two biggest reasons had to do with the intensity he played with and the way he asserted himself using his size against shorter Redhawk players. Had a double-double from the wing.