Las Vegas Classic: Top Performers

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Minnesota teams were out in Las Vegas this past weekend, Prep Hoops got a chance to watch some of the talent in the Tark Center and the Vegas Basketball Center!</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Jack Burke of [program_tooltip program_id='2075685' first='Minnesota' last='Select'] Brewer (Southwest Christian). I feel like "he's a top shooter" or "he's been hot all summer" are comments that were made about Jack Burke by nearly ten different Prep Hoops scouts across the network. Simply put, when Burke is playing, he's hitting threes. He's the guy a team needs to mark early and limit the help off of him. On Thursday night I saw Jack hit four threes and it seems like he's been hitting 3-4 a game regularly all summer. This is after scoring 10 a game as a sophomore at Southwest Christian last season. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1579885' first='Nolan' last='Groves'] of [program_tooltip program_id='2075685' first='Minnesota' last='Select'] (Orono). This month not only has Nolan committed to Yale, I think he has firmly secured a spot in the top five prospect wise in the state and maybe even top three. Of course his growing another inch or two helped and he looks more explosive than ever, but that touch from so many different angles I think is underappreciated. People talk about shooters but I don't believe they often talk about a guy like Nolan being able to make shots from so many different angles, from so many spots on the floor, and from a contested position, or moving to space to make it less contested. [player_tooltip player_id='1579885' first='Nolan' last='Groves'] had a fantastic summer for Select I believe that Yale got a steal. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1946855' first='Samson' last='Hagstrom'] of [program_tooltip program_id='2076003' first='West' last='Central United'] (Alexandria). When people talk about Alex next year they rightfully talk about the state's top Senior ([player_tooltip player_id='1572690' first='Chase' last='Thompson']), they talk about the Witts ([player_tooltip player_id='2118449' first='Mason' last='Witt'] and [player_tooltip player_id='2118495' first='Talan' last='Witt']), and now they are talking [player_tooltip player_id='2115658' first='Myles' last='Gray'] after the summer he has had. But don't forget about Samson. I really liked the energy that Samson brought off the bench last year and he's brought that same energy for WCU this year, including in Vegas when saw him scoring 14 points making six of seven attacking buckets against a good team from Indiana. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2432892' first='Chad' last='Herickhoff'] of [program_tooltip program_id='2076003' first='West' last='Central United'] (Sauk Centre). Chad is 6'9 and an interesting player. He is certainly just starting to get comfortable with his size and abilities as of late so his future is brightest three years from now. But this 2025 has very good length and was able to get his size on Legacy Ice well. He had a couple dunks and I think has agility to him. When he gets stronger in his core, and gets more experience I think he could really take a good step forward. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Nick Nordaune of [program_tooltip program_id='2075672' first='Minnesota' last='Fury'] Shepherd (Wayzata). One of the top questions I have received this summer is... "who is going to win AAAA next year?". The two common answers are CDH or Wayzata. Good answers, but Wayzata will start as the preseason one because of their depth. How many players have we seen from the Trojan class that played JV last year, that are out here on good AAU teams playing fantastic basketball?</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Nick is one of them. And he is a part of a frontcourt with [player_tooltip player_id='1560778' first='Nolen' last='Anderson'], [player_tooltip player_id='1560801' first='Brady' last='Lam'], [player_tooltip player_id='1454976' first='Wyatt' last='McBeth'] and [player_tooltip player_id='1560847' first='Thomas' last='Shunmugavelu'] (don't forget [player_tooltip player_id='1560867' first='Christian' last='Wiggins'] and [player_tooltip player_id='1560807' first='Isaac' last='Olmstead'] are in the backcourt), and Nick is a 6'8 skilled forward that is going to have a chance to get solid minutes it seems. He had 21 points in the game I saw using his face up skills to score, and he scored off the basketball with his activity. Defensively Nick got his length in front of everything and overall I thought he has been their best player the last few times I watched. And this is a Fury Shepherd team that is top six in the state! And back to the face-up four man item, Nick has been shooting the ball from the arc very well in July with Fury. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1436821' first='Eli' last='Schroeder'] of [program_tooltip program_id='2075685' first='Minnesota' last='Select'] (Shakopee). Eli is a prominent member of the 2025 40% Club. Shoot, he might have been the class's founding member! We saw that touch in Vegas this weekend as we watched Eli hit threes under giant photos of Klay Thompson and Steph Curry in the Vegas Basketball Center. As Select was beating teams soundly, we also saw Schroeder move smartly off the ball building his point total to a higher number with effort. Because that is what top scorers do, they find many ways to score and Eli did that when we saw him in Vegas. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->