Recruiting Report: Ryan Larson (2018)
Cretin-Derham Hall point guard Ryan Larson is having outstanding year as the lead handler on the state’s best team. He’s also got several college programs consistently calling.
“Our season has went as expected I believe,” Larson said. “We had a tough loss early in the season (to Edina) but since then we’ve had some great team wins. We’ve been able to compete defensively a lot better now and have been able to push in transition.”
The Raiders are a very deep team. They have Minnesota signed Daniel Oturu, D1 offered Sy Chatman, one of the better 2019s in Jaeden King, a D1 football player in Jake Prince who is one of the state’s best defenders, and talented role guys like Charlie Dennis, Amari Carter, and Caleb Davis.
Then there is of course Ryan Larson who is one of the state’s leaders in assists plus he scores 11 a game shooting 46 plus percent from the field, 70 percent at the arc, and 31 percent at the arc.
“I’ve been playing really well,” Ryan said. “I’ve been able to drive and kick to Jaeden and Jacob or throw it up to Daniel or Sy. They are a huge reason why I am averaging so many assists per game.
“I think I’m starting to really feel and realize the tempo of a game and when to push the ball and when to pull it out. Being able to use my speed more and more to penetrate the defense creates better offense than what we had last year. (I’m) starting to realize what offensive set to run as well which has been a huge improvement also.”
Another thing that Ryan has really done better is become an aggressive, hard working, dogged defender. That was something that stood out to me at the Peach Jam and again in the recent game against DeLaSalle.
Ryan is also correct in that his CDH team has really grown as a unit to become a higher IQ basketball team. Shot selection and balance have been really good which of course improves the confidence of everyone.
“Our team is feeling very confident with how we are playing as a team and being able to fight through adversity when it gets thrown our way,” Ryan explained.
“We have some big games coming up for us including Iowa City West and Eden Prairie which will be great tests for us to end the season on. But we also know we can never take a game for granted and always have to play with focus and energy.”
Larson has three scholarship offers at this time and other programs showing interest.
“I have offer from St. Cloud State, Sioux Falls and Presbyterian. I have interest from Maine, Bryant and Wofford at the time and am planning on visiting those schools after the season is over on official visits.”