STMA 80 Eden Prairie 76: Five Things to Know

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Section 8AAAA is going to be a dog fight and last night STMA made another case as a section contender!</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>One. STMA Perimeter Shooting</strong>. The Knights just stretched EP too thin. [player_tooltip player_id='2103351' first='Jordan' last='Holm'] opened the game with several corner threes on his way to four threes made for the game and 18 points. Then [player_tooltip player_id='1428994' first='Hudson' last='Hochstedler'] got hot hitting three right after halftime plus one early in the game, and one late getting to 23 points for the game. It wasn't the total numbers of the threes that hurt EP, it was that they were coming from different angles and different humans to worry about. [player_tooltip player_id='1586882' first='Jeremiah' last='Johnson'] hit one, Layton Bottolfson hit one, and the Eagles never knew where to go.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Two. STMA Ball Movement</strong>. The other reason the Eagle heads were spinning on defense? Ball movement. [player_tooltip player_id='2126108' first='Jack' last='Thelen'] moved it will off the block and in the high post, [player_tooltip player_id='1586882' first='Jeremiah' last='Johnson'] attacked and had five assists, Holm and Hochstedler each had four assists rotating the basketball, and overall it was a team ball movement effort. They had 21 assists on 25 made field goals! </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Three. Eagles Scored in a Different Way</strong>. EP nearly pulled off the road upset and they did things in a different way. [player_tooltip player_id='1574221' first='Max' last='Lorenson'] attacked for his offense early and late, [player_tooltip player_id='1560851' first='Hamze' last='Yusuf'] got in the zone in the second half with his attacking offense, and the attacking they did led to open threes for [player_tooltip player_id='1560877' first='Grant' last='Sprute'] and [player_tooltip player_id='1617698' first='Cole' last='Stern']. It was more dribble to set up the pass as opposed to STMA who did some of that from Johnson, but had more of the ball reversals. And both had success, it's just that STMA had more passing coming from the paint with Thelen. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Four. Yusuf Goes Wild</strong>. I've always thought junior [player_tooltip player_id='1560851' first='Hamze' last='Yusuf'] was good player but I had never really seen him control a game with his pass or with his scoring. You can check the "scoring" box off after last night. Yusuf gave us the pull-up, he gave us the perimeter jumper and he gave us the basket attack leading to rim makes and foul shot makes. Hamze made five threes, he sunk 14 of 21 of his field goal attempts for 34 points, and he had five boards and five assists. This is a player with a very good burst and last night we saw that burst with touch! </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Five. Prospect Talk</strong>. Some quick thoughts:</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1574221' first='Max' last='Lorenson']</strong>: Max had a dozen points six minutes into the game and I was thinking.... 50? And then shots stopped coming his way, and then he went cold missing six of seven but then scored three times late to give EP a chance. A 21 point game with five assists. I think he is going to be a scorer that a college loves someday, just not sure what level that will be right away. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='2126108' first='Jack' last='Thelen']</strong>: Let me get the very, very obvious out the way, Jack is one of the few bigs that is actually his listed size at 6'11/7'0 pending on where you look. The biggest question with Jack and the modern game will be how he runs, how he moves laterally and how agile he is at that size. There were times that I liked how he moved off of the ball screen, I liked how he ran the floor and then I noticed..... the moves, the steps, the finishing in the paint, any results good or bad, they were going to have less to do with agility, and more about core strength. Jack is a sophomore in high school, 99 out of 100 high school kids don't have great core strength at 15/16 years old but when you are way taller than everybody else, it's a bigger issue as there is a lot more size to knock off balance when you haven't physically matured yet. And if Jack was off balance, it was a 6'7 Eagle player pushing him off balance. When this young man gets that core strength and can't be knocked off balance, I think it will open up an entire new basketball universe. I liked his effort on both ends, loved his passing, liked the touch, and I am in with him as a top prospect. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1560851' first='Hamze' last='Yusuf']</strong>: This is simple: Yusuf has the quickness, the size at lead guard and the opportunities to be a scholarship player. What he needs is consistency. What we saw last night, there needs to be more of that. He doesn't need to score 34 every night but he needs to playmake like that more consistently and if he does.... he has a real chance at future opportunity. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>D3 Central</strong>. Between [player_tooltip player_id='1586882' first='Jeremiah' last='Johnson'], [player_tooltip player_id='1428994' first='Hudson' last='Hochstedler'], and [player_tooltip player_id='2103351' first='Jordan' last='Holm'], those are great D3 prospects that I think will be very good D3 players. Versatile and tough players that are mature and have been well coached year round. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->