The First Five: Select Brings Home Gold
Minnesota Select Ohnstad won their bracket in Las Vegas with an undefeated record. Several Select players performed at a high level and NHR was their to recap the action.
One. Schools Need to Look at Luke Martens. Select Ohnstad has been one of Minnesota’s best teams all year but they went to Las Vegas without two of their better players in CJ Dickson and Beijan Newbern. The result? Select played their best basketball of the year including a win over RWA who is one of the best teams in Illinois.
With Newbern gone more offense was expected from Luke Martens and he delivered in a huge way. Division one schools were seen flipping through their books to find his name and take notes.
Luke scored at the arc at a 40 percent clip and he attacked the basket for touched in finishes or power completions all weekend. Mid-range jumper and the running touch score? All finished at a high percentage.
Luke hit the buzzer beating three in overtime of the semi-final sending his team to the final. In the final Martens was the best player on the floor and he was playing against nationally ranked top 160 recruit George Conditt plus division one offered Colton Sage and Kani Acree.
Martens had an all state level 17u year and is surly a top 25 prospect in this state if not top 20. Winona State has offered and they clearly know what they are doing based on what we’ve seen all of July.
Two. Nick Fulford. The Waconia 6-foot-6 forward took a monster step forward in Las Vegas supplying needed offense in the place of teammates that didn’t make it to Vegas.
By now we’ve all heard about Nick’s game earlier in the summer when he was perfect at the arc, perfect at the field, and perfect at the foul line channeling his inner Christian Laettner for a game of the summer performance.
This weekend Fulford replaced that with his three late game clutch threes in the quarterfinal stepping up to bring Select from down three scores and put them into the next round. Fulford is a skilled 6-foot-6 Waconia forward so you know he’s been well taught but he’s also a lot more agile than people realize.
Three. Maag the Amazing. Watching Garett Maag vault to a board, finish, or block is becoming one of the most remarkable views in the 2018 class. The semi-final putback dunk was finished with Maag’s hairline floating about the nylon net and some guy’s head trapped in Garett’s mid-section. There was also a sprint into a block where Garett nearly caught the jet stream.
Maag is more than just a high flyer. He’s strong and mean, hence his commitment to North Dakota for football. Garett is a vicious rebounder and screener who takes crap from nobody. Loves to get nasty plus his shooting touch is good to. One of the biggest shots made was his corner three late in the final.
Four. Most Improved. One of the biggest revelations of this weekend was the improvements of Ty Miklowski. There wasn’t a game I watched where he didn’t have multiple help over blocks using his incredible length. Ty did a masterful job limiting top Prep Hoops top 250 senior-to-be George Conditt IV and he made a block out hit and sustained it every time a shot went up (rare these days). Ty is also a much improved three-point shooter, an outstanding student, and one of the most improved players in the state.
Five. This was a total team effort. All eight guys were perfectly together to make this run. Cire Mayfield is one the faster guards in state and he has the touch from the perimeter especially in transition. Charlie Gove did a fantastic job running the offense in the title game and Jake Binley was often the second or third scoring option on the floor for his team.
Finally Alex Rasmussen showed a lot to everyone in this event. Alex is a much improved defensive basketball player who outplayed a division one talent in the final and he hit some big shots in both the semi-final and the final.