Recruiting Report: Jake Kettner (2019)
Six-foot-3 shooting guard Jake Kettner of Minnesota Valley Lutheran enters his upperclassmen years with high hopes and expectations.
Kettner helped MVL to a 19-7 season as a sophomore and the 6-foot-3/6-foot-4 shooting guard is a junior-to-be that played up on the D1 Minnesota Rise 17u team this past spring and summer.
“I think the AAU season went really well for the team and for me personally,” Kettner said. “We started off rough losing a lot of close games but after we got used to playing with each other we started playing well.
“The biggest takeaway for me is there’s always someone better than me so I have to constantly be working to compete with some of those top guys.”
Prep Hoops followed Kettner and his Rise team often this off-season and we saw a load of growth from Kettner not only in skill but in maturity of the game.
“I’m working on mostly physical aspects of the game,” Jake said. “I’ve been lifting and working on my finishing ability around the rim. I struggled during the AAU season not being as strong as the others.”
MVL losses Nick Fischer, Alex Gratz, and others to graduation but Kettner likes the future pieces in this line-up.
“I think realistically we are capable of making the state tournament and even winning it,” Kettner said. “We graduate some pretty big pieces but we also bring back a lot of good players like Matt Munsen a sharpshooter for us and an athletic sophomore Jace Marotz as well as big man Matt Stein. Some new faces to the scene include Dunwa Omot and Mason Cox.”
Kettner will play college athletics, this is a young man with top 25-30 potential in the 2019 class right now.
“For football the only school I’m hearing from is Martin Luther College and for basketball I’ve heard the most from Southwest Minnesota State University, Grand View University, and the University of Sioux Falls,” Kettner said.
Who are the players that Kettner has looked up to? Jake let us know.
“A guy who when I was in grade school I really formed my game around was Allen Iverson. I watched his highlights over and over trying to perfect his crossover. But now my favorite players in the NBA are Kawhi Leonard and Ben Simmons.”