Comets Shootout: More Saturday 17U
It was a big day for basketball once again in Minnesota with the Comets Shootout pulling players, fans and coaches from all over to St. Cloud. I hopped around the Whitney Rec Center for nine hours and here are my 17U notes.
The Minneapolis FAB squad played down in Arkansas last weekend and showed well. They had just six guys in uniform yesterday going 1-1 in their pool, defeating Pequot Lakes and falling to the Wisconsin Playmakers NY2LA group. Made up of mostly Brooklyn Center and Cooper guys. Devonta Prince, unsigned Centaur wing, made his highlight reel a bit better with nasty, nasty dunks on consecutive possessions. He’s one of the best athletes in 2017 and I really hope he sticks with a juco.
The surprise of FAB was Cooper guard Jalen Miller. A legitimate knockdown deep threat for the Hawks this season, we didn’t expect him to change that approach. But TC Hoops Czar and I almost fell out of our chairs when Jalen skied through three defenders for a two-hand putback dunk. Hello!
Fury Wilde’s guys. All of them are super unselfish and can hit shots. No Charlie Jacob for them so the lead guard position was thin but I thought Joey Whitlock did a nice job distributing. Anoka’s Jake Phipps is every bit of 6-foot-9 and runs the floor better than I thought. 6-5 forward Quinn Smith of Armstrong knocked out a couple feet set treys and hit the offensive glass hard.
Seems like Elk River’s Jack Burger has found a good niche with Fury too as he’s moved around on the grassroots circuit. He was his usual active self getting in passing lanes and scoring on the move. At 6-4 he’s got length over opposing wings and can do some back to the basket work too.
The Wisconsin Playmakers Knutson squad plays in the NY2LA league and I have to imagine they’ll be competitive. They have four top-50 guys in Wisconsin, led by 6-9 lefty post Josh Dahlke. He’s got some Nathan Reuvers in him when it comes to post moves. Great anticipation for blocking shots too. Jaxon Knotek is a 6-5 wing from River Falls who scored in all levels, including a nice one-dribble pull from 17 feet. His frame will get good college looks.