Prospect Update: Avery Mellman (2020)
It’s been an eventful past six months for 5-foot-11 point guard Avery Mellman.
The talented sophomore started the season playing with the Mason City sophomores, but would soon get an opportunity to play up with the varsity. He flourished at the next level, and was starting by season’s end.
“I really showed what I could do while playing sophomores and got bumped up. And then I really went hard in practice, and showed that I could be the guy out on the floor. And I got my chance in varsity games and it all went from there,” said Mellman, a top 20 prospect in Iowa’s 2020 class.
“And I was looking to get my teammates involved this season. As a sophomore, I wasn’t looking to score 20 or 30 points per game, so I was looking more to distribute and things like that.”
He says his defense is the main thing that improved this season. And he needed it while going up against some of the state’s best point guards.
“I’ve definitely been working on my defense, just trying to guard the better point guards throughout the CIML. Especially when I got moved up, that was a big thing I had to prepare myself for was playing defense against those guys, and not being scared or anything like that,” said Mellman.
Avery Mellman is ranked by Prep Hoops as a top 20 prospect in his class. To see the full ranking of Iowa’s 2020 class, click here.
Now, he’ll head into his offseason, and will play with a talented Beyond Ball 16U squad this spring and summer.
“Almost every weekend I go down and work out with the Beyond Ball guys, and I talk to them a lot, and they said they could work around my baseball schedule a lot better,” said Mellman.
And for recruitment, that’s something that should start up this summer, for baseball and basketball.
“No one’s really reached out yet, and my options are open with basketball as well as well as baseball,” said Mellman. “After this summer, I’ll probably make my decision on what I want to really focus on moving forward between baseball and basketball.”