Five Things to Know: CDH vs St. Cloud Tech
The Class AAAA number one ranked Raiders of Cretin-Derham Hall proved their elite status by jumping on the Tigers early and enjoying themselves the rest of the night.
One. A True Number One? Yep. The Raiders have earned the top spot by winning all their games against a difficult schedule after the loss at Edina. Their loss was further back than other Class AAAA teams and when you combine their talent with recent results they are the clear top team. Handling Tech by double figures is a solid victory. Tomorrow the Raiders can really prove their top spot by beating preseason number one Apple Valley. With Ryan Larson distributing, Daniel Oturu and Sy Chatman physically dominating up front, and Jaeden King hitting from deep (plus depth on the bench) this team is the clear number one. Tomorrow? They will be an even clearer number one or we have to go back to the drawing board.
Two. Sy Chatman is this year’s Tywhon Pickford? The amount of questions I’ve been asked about Sy Chatman so far this year makes me wonder if we aren’t going to see a mad rush on Chatman this spring as teams look for forwards. Chatman has certainly put together the numbers that schools want to see against good competition and the athletic ability is there. At about 6-foot-6 as a forward his skills are more four than three but his skills are growing and college hoops has moved to a more welcoming game for the 6-foot-6 four man. Chatman showed us three mid-range jumpers in this game one on a ball reversal, one off dribble separation, and another squaring up out of the post and fading a bit. Add in the ridiculous baseline drives for various explosive dunks and you have a player that could rival the spring rise of Pickford a year ago (although different players, but closer to one another than you think).
Three. Future Gophers. Future hooper Daniel Oturu blocks shots and scares people from coming near the rim, he does whatever it takes to grab a board, and he scores off putbacks, off ball cuts finishing attacks of guards, and scoring on post moves. Future football player Brevyn Spann-Ford plays the role of point forward getting the ball up the floor and then cutting to various spots in the offense. He finishes physically or with finesse at the rim, he can dribble attack beat any big, and of course Brevyn rebounds. The pair will run into another many times as future Gophers in different sports and they were a joy to watch go at each other.
Four. Supporting Raiders. The Raiders of course had the explosive frontcourt numbers but lets not forget that Ryan Larson is the one moving the ball to these players to get into position to finish. Larson is not taking as many shots as those around him are improved so they can finish more so Ryan is getting them in position to be successful by doing things all over the floor. Seven steals, nine rebounds, five assists plus Ryan scoring a dozen points on seven shots. Jaeden King had an off shooting night but scored ten and is always drawing attention away from others with his shooting threat. Amari Carter had an active ten and everyone on the bench loved watching Charlie Dennis score four times.
Five. Trent Meyer. Trent is going to be a college football player but in making up for the loss of Camden Jackson and James Kaczor (hand in a cast), Meyer is shouldering a lot of offensive load for the backcourt. Tonight he helped a certain blowout become a nine point game late by simply not giving up on his offense. Meyer shot 9 of 19 from the floor hitting three treys grinding his way to 26 against an athletic defense. When Kaczor returns he and Meyer are going to be a strong football backcourt combo hooping for Tech.