Battle at the Lakes: 17u Ten Teams to Watch
Who are ten of the best 17U squads to watch this weekend at Battle at the Lakes? Prep Hoops breaks it down for you today.
1 Nation. 1Nation is an Under Armour Association team that so far this year is 3-5 in league play with nice wins over C2K Elite and the Florida Vipers. Pierre Mitchell leads the team in scoring at 12.5 points per game with Brandon Wade just behind him at a dozen a night with 40 plus percent three point shooting. Avery Lewis is the team leader on the glass plus scores 3-4 times a game in UAA play.
Caron Butler Elite. Playing in the Adidas Uprising Silver division the Butler Elite team is 8-2 so far and winning games in impressive ways. They beat Team Rush by 31 in a game two weeks ago and won the tournament in Dallas. Messiah Jones played his first event with the team four weeks ago and they’ve had great success together.
D1 Minnesota. The second ranked team in Minnesota is 5-3 in Adidas player and 16-5 on the season so far. They are banged up with Matthew Hurt (hand) and Shae Mitchell (ankle) out but Duoth Gach has returned from his injury. Race Thompson leads the team with 14 points and seven boards a game in Adidas play while Calvin Wishart caught fire in Atlanta pushing his numbers to nearly 13 a game in Adidas play with 42 percent three point shooting. Wishart also leads in assists and is second in rebounding. Anders Nelson is the third leading scorer.
Greenwood Elite. Greenwood has played in some of the best events out there not sponsored by a shoe brand. The Route 66 Kickoff event, the Elevate Hoops tournaments, the Rock Spring Classic, and now the Battle at the Lakes have all hosted this program and they’ve had solid success for the majority of the spring. Point guard Tre Vallar has made a nice name for himself thus far.
Pentagon National Team. The Pentagon National squad is playing in their third event and stepping up the level of competition this week. They played in the NY2LA open division in Dallas and was solid before losing to an EYBL 16U squad. They then played in the nearly 40 team Baylor Basketball event in Indy and won five (split the 17U title with Missouri Team Carroll). Shooter Gus Reede, wing scorer Dylan LeBrun, and frontcourt D1 offered Cole Bergan lead this group. They share the #1 spot in the Dakotas as the top 17U team.
Powerhouse Minnesota. Powerhouse Minnesota is coming off a nice showing in the Terrific 24 event in Indy two weeks back where they beat Belmont Shore and finished in the elite eight of a quality event. Guard Jarius Cook was offered by Idaho last night, forward Michael Schaeffer is getting D1 interest and is a top NSIC prospect, and guards Anthony Davis and Josiah Strong have taken D1 calls. They are a top five team in Minnesota at 9-3 after three events.
Team Rose. The top level Adidas Uprising squad is 4-4 after two weekends of open period play plus last weekend they won the Adidas Zero Gravity event and played well in a pair of local events before the open period began. Much of their offense runs through Kendle Moore who is scoring 16 a game in Adidas Uprising play plus leads his team in steals and assists. Raekwon Drake is the second leading scorer, top shot blocker, and shares the top rebounding spot with Tryee Martin.
Team Rush. Team Rush is 6-3 so far this year in Adidas Silver Division play and two weeks ago they won four of five in Atlanta. Last weekend Team Rush made the Jayhawk Invitational semi-finals and were a Howard Pulley buzzer beater away from playing KC Run GMC in that final. Ronnie Bell is coming off a great weekend of play and on this team are several players that are deciding which high major offer to accept or they are on the D1 radar. Those players include Bell, Anthony Selden, Christian Bishop, Deng Bol, Jordan Lathon, Yor Anei, and others.
Wisconsin Blizzard. The Wisconsin Blizzard has several teams. This is not their top squad that is 8-1 in the NY2LA league but it’s their team with John Deiner (DePaul commit) who also has several D3 potential kids on their team. They struggled in the NY2LA open division two weeks ago in the Twin Cities but hope to play better this weekend.
Young & Reckless. This is the squad that played in the Rock Spring Classic title game before falling to the Iowa Barnstormers. Six-foot-9 Isa Maguire is one of their key talents and he just landed an offer from North Dakota. Point guard Maurice Commander was offered by Chicago State. Small forward Sam Shafer was offered by Southern Illinois last weekend. RJ McGee is the player that brings it all together.
Others: 43 Hoops and Fury Antl are top ten teams in Minnesota….Chicago Demons have a long history of playing in the Twin Cities…Full Package and Fundamental U have good histories out of their area….Team Iowa Blue has a couple of the better players in Iowa…Team RWA has some players that many are looking at as does Wisconsin Academy….Wyoming Power is one of the best in their state….