Prospect Spotlight – Austin Andrews

<p>Eden Prairie forward Austin Andrews is Mr. Reliable.  Andrews has committed to Duluth already and his current goals are helping EP reach the mountain top plus giving the Bulldogs an assist to the future. </p> <p>Did you know that despite playing on one of the most balanced line-ups in the state of Minnesota for several years that Austin still has accumulated 1,506 career points?  Austin was the leading scorer at Maranatha Christian (16.8 a game) when he was in grade eight plus Austin scored nearly 19 a game as a sophomore at EP. </p> <p>Different teams require different roles but the beautiful thing about Austin Andrews is that he rolls with whatever his coach asks him to do simply looking for wins.  This year Eden Prairie returns their starting line-up of Drake Dobbs, John Henry, Connor Christensen, Ariel Bland, and of course Austin Andrews.  But wait, they also return key reserves Brenden Donohue, Miles Frisch, and Lukas Dunford.  That's eight of their top nine guys from a 22 win team that made the state tournament. </p> <p>"We still have a chip on our shoulder from last year," Andrews said.  "We didn't get what we wanted when we were knocked out in the first round of the state tournament.  We know we could of got further, so we have one more year, and we have built up to this. Our goal is to win a state championship."</p> <p>Andrews, Dobbs, and Christensen played together on the D1 Minnesota team that was rated #1 in the nation for over two months putting together a 33-5 record.  It was another off-season of playing together on one of the best 17u teams in the nation.  A worthwhile experience.</p> <p>"This three years, 15u through 17u, has been a great three years," Austin explained.  "We pretty much had the same team all three years.  These are some of my best friends and we pretty much played against some of the best teams in the country every weekend.  We have learned so much and when we go back to high school we take that with us."</p> <p>Minnesota-Duluth received a commitment from Austin many months ago and just recently grabbed a commitment from Charlie Katona of Shakopee.  That's two of the top 20 kids in the state in a year when Minnesota high school basketball's senior class is deep with talent.  There will ultimately be more than 20 kids from this class with D1 offers.  In doing the math you realize, Charlie and Austin are D1 level players going to UMD?  Absolutely. </p> <p>So what does Austin love about Minnesota-Duluth?</p> <p>"First of all they have my major which is civil engineering which is super rare.  Coach Justin Wieck is doing great things up there. I also wanted to stay close to home and go to a place that I could play right away.  I didn't want to sit around and wait until my junior year to play a lot."</p> <p>Andrews is doing his part to help bring talent to UMD. </p> <p>"I am one of the assistant coaches now!"</p> <p>Andrews is easily one the state's most crafty players.  He can face-up and hit shots with range but his ability to score around the basket from all angles is at an elite level.  </p> <p>"I have to keep working on everything," Austin said.  "Get more athletic, ball handling, shooting, being a versatile player.  That's what we do at EP is expose the weaknesses of other teams so I want to be able to that.:</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>