Ten Best: Lakeville North vs La Crosse Central
The future Wisconsin Badger talents put on a show with big scoring days and Lakeville North won the game running a disciplined and balanced halfcourt offense that had a Wisconsin feel to it in beating La Crosse Central. MVP: The…
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Continue ReadingThe future Wisconsin Badger talents put on a show with big scoring days and Lakeville North won the game running a disciplined and balanced halfcourt offense that had a Wisconsin feel to it in beating La Crosse Central.
MVP: The Badgers. One of their future players is out here scoring 47 on 16 of 27 shooting putting points on the board in every which way plus grabbing 11 boards (Kobe King). Their future big had 33 points, eight boards, and four blocks on 14 of 23 shooting (Nathan Reuvers). Lakeville North was the winner but the future winner is Wisconsin.
Offensive MVP: Kobe King. I will go with Kobe because he scored with five treys, he had several putbacks, scored acrobatically on both sides of the rim, and let’s not forget the pull-up game. Made all ten of his free throws too. His lift on the jumper was more than I expected. King has a quicker and higher vertical bounce than I recall.
Defensive MVP: Ethan Igbanugo. You could go many ways with the Panthers on this but I like Ethan because the La Crosse Central guards didn’t give that much in terms of consistent production. Igbanugo kept everything in front and turned all mistakes into a break push. Scored 18 points too including a pair of treys.
Top 6th Man: Tyler Lewko. Came off the bench to score on five of six attempts and most of that was moving within an excellent Panther halfcourt offense that kept the ball moving and found cutting players regularly. Tyler is a 6-foot-6 junior.
Top Underclassmen: Tyler Wahl. What everyone will remember is his cut to the rim down the middle of the defense for a two hand dunk but I loved his understanding of the halfcourt offense. Passed the ball exceptionally well with a game high five assists plus moved off the ball brilliantly. Just so smart within their system for his dozen points.
Best Under the Radar Performance: Jalen Lucas/Trevor Schermann. Both are senior contributors who played their roles well. I feel like Trevor will get consideration for the all defensive teams plus he made two treys and had an And1. Spent most of the game defending and moving the ball. Jalen Lucas slashed for his ten plus made his baseline jumper that he seems comfortable with.
Best Aspect of the Environment: I’m an honest guy from Minnesota with two University of Minnesota degrees so I will quickly tell you all this red in Minnesota is annoying. But I understand that people come to live in the Twin Cities from Wisconsin for jobs, and because living in Wisconsin is lame.
And I will also give you the honesty in that the Badger fans came out in numbers to support their guys and it made for a fun environment. Add Brad Davison, another future Badger, sitting in the front row and it was a fun day seeing all the fans here watching their future players.
So yes the honesty is in there, with a little shot of course. 😉
Best Story Moving Forward: Lakeville North has final four potential. Champlin Park is the top dog and nobody is close right now. But I feel there a couple teams that either have the leaders on the court, the leaders on the bench, or both that can make a run at them. North is one of those teams. They have a star big game scorer in Reuvers but also excellent lateral moving hard working defenders in Schermann and Igbanugo among others. You can add in that at the end of the year the first year guys on the floor will be well versed and I think in a one game situation John Oxton could beat anyone. This team will be there I believe. Can they win it? I’m still sticking with my initial pick from the Breakdown book put in back in August, that’s CP.
Other: Remember those Davis twice who are Central freshman. Names are Johnny and Jordan Davis. Johnny hit four foul shots while Jordan grabbed five boards. Young kids that are playing for a great Wisconsin team at an early age.