Minnesota Freshmen Showcase: Top Five Headlines

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>What are my biggest takeaways from the Minnesota Freshmen Showcase on Sunday? Here are the five!</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>One</strong>. <strong>212 Kids</strong>! The fall Expo events have been separated by age because they have become so popular, and now there were 212 freshmen at the event. That's incredible and just about every good 2028 in Minnesota was at the event. It was a chance for the underdogs to play against the top dogs and it was a chance for the best to show they are the best, and that is exactly what we saw. A very impressive showing by the class of 2028.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Two</strong>. <strong>Tre Moore Impresses</strong>. The 5'11 guard from Hopkins came off the bench last year as an 8th grader and played his role. He defended hard with good pressure and he was in the corner making jumpers when he had the chance. Yesterday we saw Moore in all of his comfort handling the basketball and creating. Defensively he was the one player that I saw harass players consistently on the defensive end and that spoke volumes. But Tre also did a fantastic job feeding his teammates in a situation where many players are focused on getting their shots. Moore passed the ball to everybody on his team no matter the look, shape or size and made their attempts comfortable. It was something to see and it left a great impression. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Three</strong>. <strong> Daniel Dominant.</strong> The most dominant player at the event was 6'4 [player_tooltip player_id='1895712' first='Daniel' last='Zoa'] from Totino-Grace. Last winter Daniel averaged 13 points, 8.6 rebounds, three assists and 1.7 steals a game at Legacy Christian shooting 56 percent from the floor and 71 percent from the foul line. He took that varsity experience and physical advantages to the court yesterday. At this point Daniel is bigger, faster and stronger than everybody that's on the court with him at this age and he was a highlight show at this event. Other kids are going to grow and when that day comes it will be interesting to see who can slow Daniel down, but for now in this state, at this age, Daniel is ahead of the pack. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Four.</strong> <strong>The Prospect to Watch</strong>. You can search around on Twitter from yesterday but you aren't going to find too many dominant [player_tooltip player_id='2380924' first='Jesse' last='Riziq'] highlights quite yet, but some day you will. There are kids that are physically developed early like a [player_tooltip player_id='1895712' first='Daniel' last='Zoa'], and then there are kids that are young and just starting to develop, like Jesse. Riziq is about 6'6 at this moment with long arms, long legs, big hands and huge feet. I'm actually guessing this is what Chet Holmgren looked like around grade six. Jesse blocked some shots, contested some others, rebounded some and finished around the basket some. He also hit a couple jumpers and he ran up and down the floor well. But mostly what he did was put his name in our heads as a guy that could really grow in all ways and become a name we are talking about in a big way in two years. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Five</strong>. <strong>Another 6'4 Dominant Player</strong>. The first thing I saw at the Freshmen Showcase was watch a 3 on 3 game that included Koa Fuller of Hill-Murray making four threes. I then saw another Fuller 3 on 3 game where he scored NINE times in a twelve minute running time span using strength that most of the kids at his age don't have combined with agility few of the kids at the event have. Throw in some really good body control and a nice touch from a lot of angles and we have a really nice player for the Pioneers JV/V the next four years both in football and in hoops!</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->