It’s only mid-August but the three top senior prospects in the state of North Dakota are off the board.
Yesterday Grand Forks Red River/ECI Prospects forward Braedan Hanson accepted a scholarship offer from Southwest Minnesota State choosing the school over five other NSIC offers including Minnesota-Crookston, University of Mary, Minot State, and a couple others.
In the past four weeks Hunter Pinke also decided to accept a football offer from North Dakota and recently Connor Hellebust committed to the University of Mary so with Hanson picking his school the top selections in the state are now off the board.
In comparison, Minnesota has 32 kids with scholarship offers and only four have picked a school. In South Dakota seven kids have received scholarship offers from the D2 level and none of them have made a decision. This fall when schools hit the road looking for talent, the best of North Dakota won’t be visited (save by their future schools).
That said, there are still players in the state that you could see land in the NSIC and there are definitely several others that will pick up scholarship offers.
The first names that come to mind are Brody Nieuwsma of Strasburg/Zeeland and Adam Geiger of Bismarck Century. Adam already has a scholarship offer to consider from the University of Mary while Brody is the best guard remaining in the state. Minot State is in contact with Brody, Jamestown will have him on campus soon and now that players are starting to make their decision a guy like Nieuwsma will be watched closer.
There are others to watch. At forward, Connor Entzi, Graham Hurlburt, and Noah Wanzek will have suitors. Center Dustin Weeks played little Grassroots basketball but he is the tallest senior in the state and he’s shown to be productive. He is committed to play football at Wyoming though (walk-on for hoops as well?).
There are non-Grassroots competitors Dalton Feeney and Braydon Lund who haven’t been seen by most in about a half year so their progress away from summer ball will be evaluated. That said, he two of them are committed to North Dakota State for football.
A guy we love as a competitor in the backcourt is Kade Hoeg and you know there is some school that would simply love to have his battle in practice. Another true sleeper we enjoyed watching was Drew Thielges of LaMoure and Red River Heat so he’s a guy to watch. Dalton Poitra is a guard we liked watching compete and Hayden Sadowsky has come a long way.
Yes the top three players are off the board but North Dakota still has prospects to consider in their senior class.
