Park over St. Paul Central 60-40: Five Things to Know

<p>The 8th ranked Wolfpack of Park of Cottage Grove didn’t have their top two returning scores and still earned a comfortable victory on Friday night.  Here are five things to know. </p> <p><strong>One. A Win Despite Absences</strong>.   Four star Minnesota commit [player_tooltip player_id="958715" first="Pharrel" last="Payne"] had a slight hip injury this fall and didn’t take any chances in the opener so he was in street clothes.   [player_tooltip player_id="958678" first="Evan" last="Bearth"] - the team’s second leading scorer last year - was at a football scouting event hoping to help his college future.  Despite both of these players being out, the Wolfpack defense limited Central to 40 points as the this team showed depth that I don’t think people knew they had.  We will talk about three of the main players below but I also want to mention that Brayden Frick has some quality handles, is a good passer, and is a better PG for this team than I was aware of.  </p> <p><strong>Two.  [player_tooltip player_id="1143877" first="Jamari" last="Walker"] is Ready</strong>.   This summer I thought Walker showed his potential as a solid four man defender moving on ball screens and keeping guards away from the attack.  I’ve always thought he was an agile four man that rebounds at a high rate.  On Friday night I was also impressed with the way that Jamari posted up on Central’s "size" (they don’t have much).  Walker’s footwork in the post and ability to use his body to get leverage really impressed me.  His timing in the post is also better than I knew.  And finally, while we all knew that Walker is agile I didn’t know that he was THIS explosive.  He had four dunks springing to the rim that were eye popping.  Jamari finished 7 of 11 shot attempts for 14 points plus grabbed 19 rebounds!  He will be the perfect compliment to [player_tooltip player_id="958715" first="Pharrel" last="Payne"] this year. </p> <p><strong>Three.  [player_tooltip player_id="1145928" first="OT" last="Omot"] emerges</strong>.  After seeing OT play in the summer I was expecting him to help this team and improve.  I was not expecting him to grow THIS much though.  OT is an excellent athlete which is why he visited Kansas, South Dakota, and other places football wise as a 6’4 wideout.  What type of basketball prospect is OT?  It’s too early to tell but after watching him on Friday night I don’t want to put a ceiling on him, this young man has a ton of potential.   At 6’4 Omot spent part of the game handling the ball as he is comfortable with that, OT nailed to threes, he finished above the rim for two explosive dunks, and moved the ball really well for four assists.  He scored 18 points and needed only nine shots to get there (made seven).  So when you point out that Omot can handle some, he’s a good passer, looks like a solid shooter, and is a long, explosive athlete, you have to be excited about what his future holds. </p> <p><strong>Four.  The Defender</strong>.  Brady Perryman was as important to the win as Walker and Omot, or anybody else.  Brady is the type of player a coach would love:  he impacted the game without needing the ball and he did it with constant effort battling to position for a full 36 minutes.  Perryman was assigned to the other team’s top scoring option and he held that player to 1 of 10 shooting!  The shots Perryman forced his man into were low percentage and that’s if Brady allowed the shots to come out of the player’s hands at all.  Love the Perryman lateral agility plus his fight to position was a constant.  </p> <p><strong>Five.  Central.  </strong>It’s tough to say too much as the numbers that were in the roster and the numbers that the players wore during the game look like they don’t match up to what was put into the Hub.   I also heard a coach tell his players "if you are going to switch jerseys you have to ask or tell somebody" which is likely why the names were off.  I like the active games that Eliezer Lopez-Henriquez and [player_tooltip player_id="1288843" first="Will" last="Rosenberg"] played for Central as Lopez-Henriquez (listed as Lopez-Hernandez on the Hub) was a nice boost off the bench and Rosenberg was an active player (the Hub lists 22 as Langford instead of Rosenberg though).  Coach Scott Howell does a good job and I think this team has 4-5 guys that can play a solid two way role for him so I would expect them to be City contenders once again.  </p>