Gopher Team Camp: Friday Notes
Day one of Gopher team camp was Friday afternoon and evening at the University and Northstar Hoops was there from start to finish. Here is our sheet of notes on some of the things that we felt stuck out on…
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Continue ReadingDay one of Gopher team camp was Friday afternoon and evening at the University and Northstar Hoops was there from start to finish. Here is our sheet of notes on some of the things that we felt stuck out on Friday.
- For the first time we got a chance to see the North Polars vs the North Polars as in Minneapolis North against North St. Paul, blue and white against red and white. As for the game, the Minneapolis kids have more experienced players back and were able to win the game by double digits.
- Odell Wilson was too strong, and too quick with quality footwork and touch for the new NSP players to deal with. Isaac Johnson scored several flashy baskets in transition as well including a behind the back pass fake into a finger roll.
- JaQuan Sanders-Smith remains one of the top spring/summer standouts and nothing changed there. Nobody from NSP could stop his attack but more importantly for us was how good JaQuan was in the halfcourt reading the defense and then attacking it’s defensive mistake as a playmaker. His first step after a separation move can be defended by few in this state.
- Goodnews Kpegeol looks an inch taller, much longer, and despite being the NSP Polars biggest guy he is their point guard often because of his skill. Hit a couple early contested treys and scored some impressive baskets against the North Polars from Minneapolis. Goodnews is now an upperclassmen so it will be interesting to see how he performs as a guy who has big expectations game in and game out.
- Another guy who looks longer and taller is Brooklyn Center’s Davonta Prince. He grabbed our attention when he isolated the biggest player in Minnesota Adam Trapp and went at him off the bounce with arm extended baskets getting an angle and then getting over the contesting length. Had a putback two-hander over the pack we won’t soon forget and handled well. An improved player and at his size and length on the wing, time to move him up in everbody’s minds.
- Brooklyn Center scored two baskets against Esko in the first half in the paint. They had zero offensive rebounds. Why? Seven-foot-2 Adam Trapp. Nobody wanted to attack him, they basically gave up trying to score when he was in the paint. Trapp had ten rebounds in the first half of his first game and 13 total with six blocks and five scores. Then in the second game we, and the Gopher staff, watched Trapp was quiet and then went on a four basket run of his own most of which had him rolling off of screens to catch and score. Trapp was a game changer and although he seems to deal with some type of injury whenever we see him, his size and touch as a lefty placing off the glass can not be dealt with. When he adds core strength and can’t be moved the sky is the limit.
- Esko won games yesterday also because they have an excellent group of guards and wings. Guys like Isaak Blue, Quinn Fischer, freshman Cam Berger, and others. Esko didn’t have any correlating jersey numbers so who was who was tough but they looked strong as a whole.
- Park Center is going to be a force to be dealt with starting next year. They have a nice group of seniors, a guy in Jarius Cook who looked like a version of a young Devin Booker against JM yesterday, and then a long list of freshman-to-be who are extremely talented. James Ware has a group that is going to be making noise very soon.
- Liked the 1-2 scoring wing punch of Nick Christenson, senior-to-be, and Courtney Brown Jr, sophomore-to-be. Brown is a top 2019 prospect and the thing about him that looked improved yesterday was the feet set shooting touch. Knocked out several treys with good form and also made all his foul shots. Also liked his comfort level pushing the ball in transition. As far as Christenson goes, the guy is an explosive touch game changer. We watched him twice take a one score game and blow it open with his touch.
- The 2020 backcourt combo of Jalen Suggs, Terry Lockett, and Kaden Johnson is something that has to be seen. On both ends of the court they have a feel for one another that is one of a kind. Their sense of what each other is going to do and where they will be is a special thing and they have four varsity years left together. And to make Minneahaha tougher, Lorenzo Smith (10.1 points a game last year) has transferred over from St. Paul Johnson and it looks like Rieshaun Satar (8.9 at Henry Sibley last year) will do the same.
- Warroad guard Tommy Vilayphone of Warroad is a player to throw on your prospect lists right now. A very strong, extremely explosive first step that Shiloh Christian and other small school programs simply couldn’t guard. That first step consistently got into space and then Tommy used his strength and his body control to extend comfortably on the move to finish. Refreshing to see a guy from a little seen school play this well.