Prep Hoops Senior Showcase: Stieber’s Work Rate
The Prep Hoops Senior Showcase in Burnsville, Minnesota brought together 65-70 players that love to compete and expect to be college basketball players. Lucas Stieber of Green Bay Southwest was one of the best.
MVP? Lucas Stieber was One of the Best
Nobody in Burnsville, Minnesota worked or played harder than Lucas Stieber of Green Bay Southwest today. The mailman working a double shift? Nah, Lucas went at it harder. The kid on the roof pulling shingles? Close, but I go with Lucas. How about the gal all alone at the day care changing the diapers of nine? Maybe. But the best part of Lucas is that not only is he willing to do the work, he does it the right way AND he will try and lead those that he doesn’t know in doing their jobs the right way too!
At one point I watched Lucas Stieber go at the basket and total four And1s in one game! Four. Sure two weren’t called but for the purpose of this article they qualify. This is one of the toughest players I’ve seen compete this summer and Lucas did it on both ends from game one to game six. If you were at this event you knew you were playing games for four hours and only guys that wanted to compete were allowed, so it was an impressive group. Lucas out-worked most, if not all of them.
Stieber is a 6-foot-3 shooting guard that has the strength to make plays at the rim but the intelligence and skill to be depended on to play both guard spots. Love his communication to teammates he didn’t even know and does it surprise anyone that Lucas is an all conference athlete in multiple sports? Definitely on the short list of Senior Showcase MVPs.
More from North Dakota
These kids from North Dakota love basketball as they continue to come down from the north to compete with the best from Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, and South Dakota in whatever event is offered. Six-foot-9 Macauley Young was a favorite to his teammates because he cleared yards of space with screens and did it willingly. When Young finished the event with a balanced baby hook with touch and then had an aggressive putback follow the entire crew leaped from their seats in support.
Cody Perkins of Mott, this 6-foot-4 forward has some juice! We hadn’t seen it as much in other events because we haven’t had this extensive of a look at him but Cody was fantastic in the open floor today. Two moves that we really liked were the hesitation attack that froze wings and then Cody attacked space to complete plays. Then there was the beautiful behind the back assist that was one of many well timed transition plays Cody made.
Six-foot- power forward Dalton Albrecht earned our attention today with his consistency once again. Face-up jumpers, back to the basket completions, and active off ball scores once again gave Albrecht totals.
Explosive Regan
The play of the day may have been Chanhassen forward Regan Tollefson getting an open floor run at a 6-foot-9 big and dunking with two hands physically over the top of his man. Regan is an physical and skilled 6-foot-5 forward but I have never, ever seen him do something like that. Not only did Regan flush with two hands but he did it physically like he ate Blake Griffin’s breakfast today.
Regan continues to show more and more. For starters he led the Storm in scoring this winter and then as the Fury season moved on Tollefson showed he can stretch the defense hitting from the arc and scoring with the dribble. From there we have seen Tollefson play some in the post when needed and now there is the nasty dunk that I can only hope that somebody got on tape.
Showcase Notes
- I’m not saying anything that you don’t already know about Isaiah Watts and James Flicek, these two played very well once again. Watts (of Bloomington Jefferson) was his usual active self disrupting defensively and physically making offensive plays despite not needing an overload of touches. Flicek continues to be one of the quickest players in the state with the basketball coming up with a new pass to amaze people every game. They are two of the top stock risers of this spring and summer season proving it once again today.
- Thomas Gieske of Sartell and Drew Gustafson of Kimball were good once again only today they did things that I previously wondered about in terms of consistency. Gieske finishing at the basket aggressively? Definitely. Had a couple dunks today too. Gustafson as a consistent three point weapon? Made multiple threes in all three games I watched him play.
- A name I added to my list of frontcourt prospects was 6-foot-5 forward Brandon Pietersen of Anoka. Brandon looks much bigger than his listed height and with Anoka already having a center the Tornadoes will likely need Brandon to face-up and playing away from the basket more. Pietersen seemed to comfortably do that today.
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Thomas Gieske
Clutch player of the day? Jameson Shrum of Farmington who came out of the timeout listening to what the coach said drilling a corner three with two seconds left. The best part of Shrum was that he raced back on defense communicating with teammates to make sure the other team didn’t get a countering good look.
The Last Word
Finally I want to say that this event was well attended by college coaches, well attended by Prep Hoops staff that love basketball and work hard at it, and attended by kids that simply want to compete. They did it for four hours and worked hard as a team. These kids had something to play for and they did it from start to finish. A great example of a guy that did that was Zac Centers of Mahtomedi. He’s really becoming a good shooter after scoring 12.6 points per game as a junior but even better is that Zac was always working to deny, angle, and fight his man defensively. Game one to the final whistle he got buckets and stopped them from going the other way.