Recruiting Report: Mason Madsen (2020)
Six-foot-3, 175 pound guard Mason Madsen of Rochester Mayo is a newcomer to Minnesota but a known name after a fantastic 15u season.
As a freshman at Bloomer High School in Wisconsin last year Mason scored 17.7 points per game while twin brother Gabe Madsen had 18.1 points a contest. Mason shot 43 percent from the floor and 77 percent from the foul line.
After leading their team to a 19-5 record the Madsens joined the Wisconsin Playground Warriors 15u team and finished as the second ranked squad in the nation.
“The top highlights from the 15u season: picking up my first offer, UAA finals champs in Georgia, Fab 48 champs in Vegas, in April I got named first team all UAA in Indy,” Mason told Prep Hoops.
“In the past four months I think that I’ve become a much better shooter, more patient on offense, and I think I’ve gotten to the point where I can guard the other teams best player on defense.”
The improvements have been big but Mason’s father is a head coach at the high school level – which is why they are now at Rochester Mayo as he took the head job for the Spartans – so every day Mason has a head start on others in terms of learning the game.
“My dad has just been talking about scaling back time in the gym and focusing more on getting in the weight room and making sure I’m healthy when the season starts,” Mason told Prep Hoops.
“I’m also always trying to improve the intangibles: being a good teammate, building a relationship with all of the guys that I’ve met in Rochester, and just being a leader in every aspect of the game and life.”
Mayo was 11-16 a year ago and lost two of their top scorers from a team that won seven of their last ten regular season games. Towards the end of the year the Spartans saw some juniors and sophomores emerge which helped the Spartans improve the second half of the year.
Those players, like Adam Leary (6pg as a sophomore), Stephen Douglas (11pg as a junior), and others, will join the Madsens making the Spartans an upper half Big Nine team.
“It’s been really easy to build relationships with all of the guys at Mayo,” Mason explained. “There are so many good kids here and I’m fitting in quite nicely.
“They accepted me from the start and I feel like I’m one of the leaders that lots of the guys look up to and trust. As far as our team goes, we’ve got a lot of good pieces. We’ve got a couple kids who are strictly basketball kids so that’s always good to see them working at open gym and in their own time to get better.
“We’re young though, we have a couple freshmen who can really play but we also have some experienced seniors. It’s a really good mix.”
This summer Mason earned an offer from Wisconsin-Green Bay making him one of five sophomores in Minnesota with a D1 offer so far. UWGB is one of several programs that Mason has contacting him regularly.
“We’ve visited UW-Green Bay, Wisconsin, and Marquette. We’re visiting Northern Iowa on Saturday for practice and the football game. Northern Iowa is going to be in for the second time tomorrow afternoon to watch open gym and Coach Ben Jacobson is coming tomorrow too.
“The schools that have been in to watch us workout include Wisconsin, Marquette, Northern Iowa, and Creighton. South Dakota, Milwaukee, Michigan, Minnesota, and Iowa have all told my dad that they’re coming before the season also.”
Mason has found a local trainer that has also helped his game progress since crossing the border from Wisconsin to Minnesota.
“Ever since we’ve moved to Rochester, I’ve been working with a trainer named Lydell Young,” Gabe said. “He’s really helped to kind of change my game and he stresses being “bouncy” when I dribble.
“He references guys like Jamal Crawford and Kyrie, who also have that bounce. As far as my favorite hoopers, I’d have to go with Steph and Kyrie, because they’re two guys I can kind of model my game after. Melo is up there too though, I mean I really like Melo.”
Mason is working hard because he and his family have quickly become aware that the talent in the Big Nine is at a high level right now. Across town five star prospect Matthew Hurt leads Rochester JM and about 30 minutes away Austin is coming off a state runner-up season in Class AAA.
Owatonna has a shot to be top ten in Class AAAA, Winona will be much improved, Mankato East is a top ten Class AAA team and has a good shot at state, and don’t forget Northfield.
“I think competing at the top of the Big 9 with John Marshall is a great goal forus because they’re obviously one of the best teams in the state and they feature a great talent in Matthew Hurt.
“As far as after that, I think we should be able to compete for the section championship. Potentially, all three of our playoff games could be in Rochester so that would be awesome. We’ll see though.
“We’re going to take it one game at a time and try to get better each and every day.”