Recruiting Report: Dawson Garcia (2020)
Six-foot-10 sophomore power forward Dawson Garcia of Prior Lake has big potential as he’s skilled, agile, and just seems to keep growing. The Minnesota Gophers feel Dawson’s a great fit for their program.
Garcia helped the D1 Minnesota 15s to a 34-9 record over the spring and summer. They were the best 15u team in Minnesota and finished ranked 13th overall by PrepHoops.com.
“I had a great experience playing 15u this past spring,” Dawson told Prep Hoops. “Some of the top moments were beating the Atlanta Celtics by 15 when they were ranked #1, and also playing in Vegas. We didn’t finish how we wanted to, but it was still a great experience and left us with some unfinished business.”
Dawson felt that the coaches he played for really helped him develop better on both ends of the court.
“I feel like my game improved a lot. I give a lot of credit do my Coach Nick Carroll and also Jeremy Miller for having the confidence in me to go out and perform the way I did this past spring. My defense really improved throughout the four months. I started really taking pride in it.
“My focus of improvement before winter starts is to continue to work at every aspect of my game. Right now I feel like every aspect in my game is clicking, so I just want to continue and make everything better. I am also doing a vertical training which is something that is really helping my game. I will continue to stay in the weight room before season starts as well.”
Prior Lake has one of the best frontline’s in Minnesota with Garcia and 6-foot-9 Robert Jones, a junior center, plus skilled guards that have talent but are short on varsity experience.
“The sky is the limit for our team this year,” Dawson said. “The big thing we need to focus on is everyone coming together and staying on the same page throughout the season.
“We all have made it clear we want to get Prior Lake back in the state tournament. The rotation last year was mainly seniors, so we don’t have too many kids coming back with varsity experience but have a great core of underclassman that could do some damage.”
Garcia has big goals set for himself, and his team. Dawson scored nine a game as a freshmen but with so many graduated players no longer at Prior Lake much more will be expected of him. And he expects a lot from himself as well.
“My team goal is to make it to state and win our conference,” Garcia said. “My individual goal is make it on first team all state and put myself in contention to win Gatorade Player of the Year.”
Garcia is a four star level, top 100 prospect and several schools are aware.
“I have talked/heard from Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa State, Iowa, Stanford, Nebraska, USD, Butler, Creighton, DU, and a few more have expressed some interest through my coaches,” Garcia said.
Garcia has taken a few visits, has another planned, and has some places he would like to visit.
“I would like to visit a couple of my childhood favorite teams such as Kansas and Duke, as well as all of those great programs that have contacted me,” Dawson said.
“I think I’m going to visit Minnesota soon. I was just recently on a visit to Wisconsin and earlier in the summer I visited Iowa State.”
The Gophers have let Garcia know that he is a priority for them going forward.
“They have been showing a lot of interest,” Dawson told Northstar Hoops. “The Gopher basketball program is heading in a great direction. I love their culture and style of play. I really like the Gopher coaching staff. I have been in closest contact with Ben Johnson, he is a good guy and easy to talk with.”