Recruiting Report: Sam Masten
Sam Masten, a 6-3 rising senior guard out of Rock Canyon High School outside Denver, picked up his fourth scholarship offer Friday, this one from Dartmouth College.
Masten first heard from the Ivy League school about a year ago, and he was thrilled to receive an offer from the program.
“It means a lot because it’s bigger than basketball,” Masten said. “It’s an option that, if I did choose to go there, it would set me up for the rest of my life. It’s definitely really good for me and it was really cool for me and my family.”
The Dartmouth offer adds to a list for Masten that includes, Air Force, Idaho State and Northern Colorado. Masten picked up his Northern Colorado offer in early May, and Bears coach Jeff Linder has made a big impression. Linder is preparing for his second season as the head coach in Greeley, Colo., and he’s already been hard at work trying to recruit the state’s top talents.
“The plan that he has for the program, he wants to keep a lot of guys here because he’s a Colorado guy,” Masten said. “So just keeping the best players home. He’s a guy who really cares about his players and the people in his program, so that’s something that’s really big for me. He’s just been really good to me and is someone I feel comfortable around. It’s obviously a place that’s close to home. There’s a lot to like about the program, for sure.”
Masten, who has a number of other schools showing interest, will be making visits to Montana, Montana State, Utah State and Idaho State at the end of June.
“I’m really pleased with the options I do have,” Masten said. “You only get recruited once, so it’s something I’m trying to take step by step and just enjoy each moment. It is a relief, for sure, now that it’s getting down to the end and I’m down to my last few months of it.”
After his tour of those four schools, Masten will embark upon his final three live periods in July with the Colorado Hawks 17U squad. The Hawks went 2-6 with a handful of heartbreaking losses during the spring, missing out on the Adidas Gauntlet Finale. Still, there is still big competition and exposure on the horizon for the group, and Masten said he and his teammates are eager to finish the final chapter of their club careers strong.
“I think we just want to improve,” he said. “We’re playing with some of the best players and teams in the country. We obviously didn’t perform as well as we would have liked to, but we know deep down we obviously belong with those teams.”
Though the Hawks didn’t finish with the record they were aiming for, Masten was one of the Gauntlet standouts. He averaged a team-leading 15 points per game while shooting 39 percent from 3-point range. That was coming off a junior season in which he was earned a first-team all-state selection and led his team to the 5A state semifinals.
Check out some highlights from Masten’s big spring below:
Big Summer Ahead…Huge thanks to @wodemixtapes for the video‼️🏀 pic.twitter.com/oUG83P5XsY
— Sam Masten (@Bigsam_32) June 7, 2017