Prospect Spotlight: Tate Hebrink (2018)
The Gach brothers gobble up a lot of the headlines when it comes to Austin High School basketball. One of the quiet productive leaders for the team is Tate Hebrink.
Hebrink, a 6-foot point guard is one of the underrated players in the 2018 class. He’s playing the AAU season with Minnesota Rise where he’s continuing to improve as an all-around player.
“It’s been going good for me personally I think I’ve been playing well,” Hebrink said. “We’re all kind of new together so we’re still trying to get used to playing with each other. We’ve had a lot of close games so far but it’s been a lot of fun.”
Rise just recently won the Midwest Cup in Ames and Hebrink was a catalyst in the effort, taking home co-MVP honors for leading the team in assists and steals while averaging just less than 10 points per game.
Hebrink does a good job balancing steady play with creativity when he has the ball in his hands and he’s not only a quality facilitator but also a very good catch-and-shoot player off the ball.
Hebrink said he’s heard from St. Johns, Concordia and Graceland University in Iowa on the recruiting front and he recently visited Graceland — Craig Doty served as a recruiting coordinator at Riverland Community College in Austin in 2011-12.
A big adjustment Hebrink’s had to make playing AAU is on the defensive end. The Packers run that 1-2-2 trap in an effort to speed up the tempo against their opponents and because of that Hebrink doesn’t spend a great deal of time as a primary on-ball defender. He’s done that this AAU season and said he enjoys the challenge.
“It’s definitely different,” Hebrink said. “We play that zone and we like to push the tempo a little more. That style is different than what we play in AAU. We’re not looking to push quite as much or going for as many steals. I like playing man though; I think that’ll help me for the next level.”