PH Circuit Preview: ND Phenom 16U

Today we are checking out one of the top 16U teams in the Midwest. North Dakota Phenom has high-level talent, gifted athletes, length/height, elite scorers, playmakers, creators, fierce competitors, and tireless workers. College coaches will want to see this team play!

ND Phenom is an official member of the Prep Hoops Circuit and I can not wait to see them play!

Take a look at their roster below, all of these players had an excellent high school season, and I expect that to carry over into the AAU season.

See below for Phenom’s roster, player comments, schedule, and some Q&A with head coach Jordan Maurer.

Roster & Player Comments w/ Coach Jordan Maurer

Josh Bickett

42 State

18 Pos

6'1" | SG | 2025 Carrington  |  ND Phenom

“#1 Josh Bickett Josh Bickett 6'1″ | SG Carrington | 2025 State ND is just solid. He can shoot it, competes defensively, and does not make many errors on either the offensive or defensive sides of the floor. Where we think he will impact winning on this team is with his ability to efficiently spread the floor offensively and his ability to make intelligent defensive decisions.“

Karson Ouse

3 State

1 Pos

6'7" | SF | 2025 Kindred  |  ND Phenom

“#4 Karson Ouse Karson Ouse 6'7″ | SF Kindred | 2025 State ND is a player that creates a lot of mismatch opportunities. He has the ability to stretch the floor and can score from every level, plus has the ability to be both a ball handler or screener in ball screen situations. He has shown to be switchable defensively. Karson is a player that you want on the floor at the end of a competitive game to help secure a victory.“

Hudsen Sheldon

10 State

2 Pos

6'2" | SG | 2025 Mandan  |  ND Phenom

“#13 Hudsen Sheldon Hudsen Sheldon 6'2″ | SG Mandan | 2025 State ND is a dynamic athlete with a knack for getting in the paint in the half court.  He has the ability to create for others. Where Hudsen stands out most is in the half court defensively, where he is very well taught.   That, in conjunction with his instincts and athletic ability, Sheldon creates up-tempo opportunities, and wow is he impressive in transition.“

Presley Peraza

9 State

3 Pos

6'6" | PF | 2025 Kindred  |  ND Phenom

“#21 Presley Peraza Presley Peraza 6'6″ | PF Kindred | 2025 State ND is an athletic specimen. He has shown ability to score from multiple levels. What Presley will really bring to our team is the ability to make impactful defensive plays, rebound in traffic, and obviously score the basketball.“

Ramsey Walz

4 State

1 Pos

6'7" | PF | 2025 Bishop Ryan  |  ND Phenom

“#22 Ramsey Walz Ramsey Walz 6'7″ | PF Bishop Ryan | 2025 State ND is someone we are really excited about. He has shown the ability to defend, rebound, score it, and shoot it. We think he will be pretty switchable. In our short practice time up to this point, he really does a nice job in being efficient all over the floor, and he does a great job of contesting without fouling. We think he can be a very big part of impacting winning for this team.“

Drew Kempel

– State

– Pos

6'2" | 2025 Century

“#23 Drew Kempel Drew Kempel 6'3″ | PG Bismarck Century | 2025 State ND is a winner. He can do a bit of everything on the court and is going to be that guy who has a lot of near triple doubles. He is very stout defensively, has the ability to score, but does a great job in running the team on both ends and getting everyone involved. He also has the ability to create his own offense, and does a really nice job in that balancing act.“

Caden Englund

20 State

4 Pos

6'2" | CG | 2025 Shiloh Christian  |  ND Phenom

“#24 Caden Englund Caden Englund 6'2″ | CG Shiloh Christian | 2025 State ND is also a winner. A competitor. He competes, hard, defensively. He has a knack of getting to the rack and creating offensive opportunities for himself, but also does a very nice job of sharing the wealth. He is a really nice transition player as well.“

Walker Braaten

2 State

1 Pos

6'4" | CG | 2025 Westhope/Newburg  |  ND Phenom

“#30 Walker Braaten Walker Braaten 6'4″ | CG Westhope/Newburg | 2025 State ND is a generational North Dakota scoring talent that also rebounds and defends at a high level. He can score going right, left, step back, mid range, 3, extended 3, post, in transition, etc. Playing with the playmaking and other scoring threats that this team has, we fully expect Walker to be a guy we can count on for double figure scoring game in and game out.“

Parker Falcon

7 State

1 Pos

6'4" | SG | 2025 Bismarck Legacy  |  ND Phenom

“#32 Parker Falcon Parker Falcon 6'4″ | SG Bismarck Legacy | 2025 State ND is almost your prototypical 3 and D player, that also rebounds at a nice clip. He suffered an injury in the last game of his high school season, but when he is back, we are confident he will impact winning in a positive way.  His game is not flashy by any means, but he is productive.“

Brennan Johnson

18 State

6 Pos

6'7" | PF | 2025 Tioga  |  ND Phenom

“#34 Brennan Johnson Brennan Johnson 6'7″ | PF Tioga | 2025 State ND is a bit of a throwback big. He is physical, strong, and rebounds at a nice clip, shown as he averaged a double double both years of high school. He has put a significant amount of time in to improving his ability to stretch the floor, and we are excited that we will be able to use him a few different ways offensively this season.“

SCHEDULE

Q&A with Coach Jordan Maurer

PHD: What has you excited about this team/roster?

Coach Maurer: “After 1 weekend of practice, I am most excited about how happy everyone is to be in the gym together. What I find most special about club basketball is that you will not play it unless you love the game, so players are consistently in situations where they are playing basketball with those who love it as much as they do. We have a group of players that love basketball, love competing, and love winning. I feel that those things, plus their actual basketball ability, will create an environment where we have a chance to be highly successful.” 

PHD: When you are scouting for future players, what attributes make an impression?

Coach Maurer: “We try to build our rosters logically, when we can.  A 1, a 1/2, a 2, a 2/3, a 3, a 3/4, a 4, a 4/5, and a 5.“

“1 – Looking for someone that can run a team. Can you get in the paint? Can you guard? Do you take difficult shots? Do you make decisions quickly?” 

“2 – Looking for someone that can shoot it and score it. Can you guard? Do you understand how to read screens?“

“3 – Looking for someone that can play the 2 if we go big and can play the 4 if we go small. Can you guard multiple positions? Can you shoot it? Do you slash? Do you do something well offensively?” 

“4 – Looking for a stretch 4, or someone who is athletic and can get in the paint, and can really rebound. Can you guard? Ideally, you have all of these attributes, but that is obviously very uncommon.” 

“5 – Can you protect the paint? Can you rebound? Do you make layups consistently? Do you shoot it every time you touch it?” 

“In general, we look for players who do SOMETHING really well, but you have to be able to guard. If you can run a team and you can guard, or you can shoot and you can guard, or you can make pick-and-pop 3s and guard, you have to be able to guard or the rest is irrelevant.”  

PHD: How often will your team practice/work out?

Coach Maurer: “We do a few sessions on weekends where we will do 2 practice sessions on Saturday and 2 practice sessions on Sunday. We do workouts during the week 2-3 times per week for the duration of the season.” 

PHD: What will a couple of your strengths be as a team?

Coach Maurer: “Offensively we only really talk about shot quality and turnover percentage. I think our biggest strength is that we will not lose games due to taking difficult shots and turning the ball over.”  

PHD: What style of basketball will you play on the offensive end?

Coach Maurer: “We look to push the basketball in transition whenever we get a chance. In the half-court, we are more set-heavy than most programs and will run our motion or run through our quick hitters to create favorable scoring opportunities. I am a firm believer that bigs need to get rewarded for their efforts with post touches and roll/pop touches, and we really try to utilize our bigs in the half-court.“

PHD: What brand of defense do you foresee your team playing? 

Coach Maurer: “I am a conservative defensive coach. We are going to contest every shot, box out, and rebound. I am confident that the players and teams we play against will be talented enough to not fall for some of the gimmicks that work at the younger age levels of club basketball.  Coaches watching our team play will see a group of athletes communicating and really working on the concept of team defense.“

PHD: Is there an event/tournament you are most looking forward to?

Coach Maurer: “If we play up again in the Great Plains Alliance, I will most look forward to that event to see how our guys compete against kids that are bigger, faster, stronger, and older. The PHC and the SCPS are both very very great situations for our guys as well, and the players love Las Vegas.” 

PHD: Why did you join the Prep Hoops Circuit? 

Coach Maurer: “I think the staff is very professional. This past season with our 2023s, we were very happy with the level of competition and the amount of visibility our players received. As the old adage goes, if it is not broken, do not fix it.“